Very impressive to see all the equipment you guys have but I gradually I understand the use of a UC100 and ESS and have not decided yet which way to go.

I still don’t understand this. If I use lets say ESS with a Gecko G540 which has built in drivers and BOB would I still need another BOB?

BTW John my “titchy” drive motor it is indeed titchy but when I used it in the past I was surprised with its performance. In addition it was as quite as a water cooled spindle and that alone tops it all. It all depends I guess what we expect from a spindle: I remember I sold that CNC to a local artisan and he was very happy with the machine but when I met him a couple of years later he told me that he replaced the motor with a heavy router because he was working a lot with oak and that motor was struggling. I asked what he did with the old motor and he said it just sits in my shop. Finally I bought it from him for $120 (I paid for that, the Taig spindle + the 90VDC motor $500) and now I will use it in my new CNC.

Hi,

If I use lets say ESS with a Gecko G540 which has built in drivers and BOB would I still need another BOB?

No, unless you want to. A UC100 has 17 IOs, arranged identically to a single parallel port. That means you've only got five
inputs, if you want more ....to bad...its not going to happen with a UC100, and there is no expansion option.

An ESS has three parallel port outputs. One you would use with a G540, but if you wanted you could put a BoB or even two BoBs
into ports 2 and 3 for extra IO, if you want it. So the ESS has the same 17 IOs via a G%$) BUT can be expanded with one or two
C10 BoBs at $23.00 each.

Craig

So in the end if you want fast pulsing and loads of I/O then the ESS is great.  All I'm saying is that the UC100 was a fast and easy upgrade and outperforms the PP, and supports all the I/O that I use on my lathe and mill.  I have used it with both Win XP on my old PC and now on Win 10, no issues with installing the plugin.

Your mileage may vary.

On the spindle question, my mill uses a Baldor motor similar to the Taig with a KBE speed control; lathe has a 3/4 hp 3-phase with VFD.  No evidence of any interference from either with the USB connection - on the lathe there's about 1.5m cable, on the mill a metre.

Thanks for the help,

At this stage I don’t know if I will have a 3 or 4 axes on my new CNC, most likely it will be 4 so 5 only inputs looks kind of tight (limit/home switches for each axis + estop + spindle control + something new….). Better go for ESS which will provide extra IO’s for any future expansion.

Since I’m new to CNC controllers (the ones without printer cable) I think that ESS means Ethernet SmoothStepper. Is the SmoothStepper a brand name or you can have Ethernet controller / connection with other names? To put it in another way if I get a quote which says “Controller with Ethernet Connection” is this the same as ESS?

Lots of questions guys and it may sound silly but if I don’t know I must make sure I understand what I’m going to buy.

Hi,
ESS= Ethernet SmoothStepper manufactured by Warp9TD.

https://warp9td.com/

They used to make a USB connected device, the USS, but is now out of manufacture. It was smaller and less powerful and would not run plasma tables due to noise,
so you don't really want one anyway.

Craig

I run a 4th, rotary, axis with the uc100 on my mill. Limit switches aren't an issue on that.

Was thinking to upgrade/buy new Mach license from Mach3 I now have to Mach4

Do you know how much and if Mach4 is much different from Mach3?

You don't NEED to buy a new licence, the one you have will work just fine if you download the last version of M3 062.034 as I said early on in this thread.  On the other hand M4 is supported which is a bonus and probably better for the future.

I think Mach4 is available in various licenses vs Mach3 which has all in one pack (mill, lathe, plasma and perhaps more). How much we are talking about to run my CNC (mill)?

I also remember I had a heck of a time to learn Mach3 and a member on this forum (Hood), provided the best help I could ever had. Is there a steep curve to learn Mack4?

I understand I don’t have to buy Mach4 but I like to have and learn newest technologies and if the cost is reasonable I may go for it. Remember Mach3 in earlies 2000 cost me a hefty US$ 160.00.

Well the prices are on the NFS website.