[daniellyall]

a smooth sounds is good (but you can play music with a stepper) if it sounds smooth it may well be running with a nice ramp up and ramp down, running a machine comparing m3 and m4 through the parallel port you get the same affected as using a UC100 it`s just newer and runs everything better same with m3 to uccnc software, thing just run better so it sounds better.
I don't want to know why I just want something that run`s nice a smooth 100% of the time also if it starts sounding ruff something could be wrong

[Bad Wolf]

I haven't been back to Mach 3 since early in this discussion. It was fairly evident from early conversation that it was plain inferior to UCCNC. It is old technology and really isn't the benchmark to be evaluating best of breed against in the product class, if anything the only real rival UCCNC has is Mach 4 and seeing that it has no CV planner, it will be sometime before it makes any kind of headway on UCCNC. Hence my decision to stay with UCCNC.

[ger21]

if anything the only real rival UCCNC has is Mach 4

Mach4 does have a CV mode, just no control over it at the current time. But Mach4 has many other issues.

UCCNC has several other competitors:

Planet CNC
EdingCNC
LinuxCNC

[Bad Wolf]

OK sorry I should have put it more in my CNC dummy speak... Mach 4 isn't as smooth. Gerry are any of the options you listed serious contenders?

[ger21]

Yes, all of them are. They're arguably more polished than UCCNC, which is still early in it's development.

[Bad Wolf]

Thanks I may look into them at a later date, currently I am still sorting out mechanical issues with my CNC, so until I have it right there is little point to seek better software.

[battwell]

honest appraisal
i own 7 routers.- all work horses- from small to huge ex industrial machines. all capable of very high speed machining
most have been retrofitted with mach3 and galil motion controller. and have worked ok
ive only been using uccnc since october- but using it every day cutting parts for my business.
im using uc300 with mistubishi servos.
all i can say is wow! they have done an amazing job on the trajectory planner! (read as accel/deceleration planner if you wish)
not once have i had to switch to g61 exact stop mode. which for cabinet work with mach3 is a must if you want perfect results of parts that fit (machining at high speed)
yes there are old code things it cant do- which is a bit of a bind- as i like to program some parts parametrically - g41 42 are not available
hardly a big thing these days as most of my drawings are done in vcarve pro etc.
i actually cut at up to 20 metres/minute when doing cabinet work which uccnc handles superbly using the stock cv settings - slowing down for corners etc really nicely and accelerating away as id like it to.
for carving work (vcarving) i only cut at max 2m/minute to get desired work finish . 3d carving 6metres/minute.
im amazed how much more detail is in all my work. (and for cabinet work- everything fits together perfectly first time)
only a couple of issues ive had- probably caused by me, but machine was put straight to work as soon as it was running
1 a few usb dropouts
2 cant for the life of me get soft limits to work running a program- but work perfectly jogging to maximum extents on my machine
i have noted this to balaz
not really worried about soft limits as i have bomb proof hard limits set up (double stage via servos and if all else fails servo estop)
waiting for them to release the 5 port version of ethernet controller and il refit another 3 of my machines. (shame they wont run old analogue servos as buying new derives/motors for the others is way out of my budget!)
i have scripted a really nice tool height probe and just ready to add my 9hp hsd atc spindle and rotary carousel stolen off a biesse. hopefully get time to do this over next couple of weeks
happy cutting to everyone in 2016 . benny

[vmax549]

I think A new Step/Dir to analog interface board would be a great Idea and would be a good seller. I would not build it into the UC300 but as an outside option to retrofit older machines with analog drives. There have been several addon boards over the years so we know the idea is doable. Seeing how CNCdrives builds servo drives I am SURE they understand the process involved.

(;-) TP

[Frankmali17]

Hi,
I just wanted to find out if you are happy with th h uccnc and if you hit had arc to work well
I have a linear tool fork setup.
I would also want to add a laser head for engraving as tool #25... That could engrave a logo and then my router would cut out.

[maxperf]

honest appraisal
i own 7 routers.- all work horses...

I really liked reading your response! I have a big Thermwood Router with a ES915, ATC, 4th Axis, etc. After long research/reading I'm moving to UCCNC. Mach4, and so many years of Mach3, have been such a struggle. The biggest trouble has been both M4 and M3 trajectory (CV) planner... there's been no way around the slow and jerky moves on short moves. Poor cut quality, high bit wear, and high stress on my machine have been the norm on all my high-detail jobs. Couldn't even tweak around the issue by shortening the accel/deccel in motor tuning... which is dangerous for mechanical drive parts (ball screws, rails, etc.). Put it this way... by the time a NEMA42, 80v, 7.8 amp, 4000 oz/in step motor starts to lose steps big trouble is soon to follow.
So far my testing of UCCNC has shown over 9x speed improvement on wavey polylines with node spacing of 0.001" !! UCCNC is so much smoother and, as you noted, also increases detail/accuracy. I hope to be posting my UCCNC experiences and related short videos soon.

Thanks so much for your informative post!!

[victorofga]

I really liked reading your response! I have a big Thermwood Router with a ES915, ATC, 4th Axis, etc. After long research/reading I'm moving to UCCNC. Mach4, and so many years of Mach3, have been such a struggle. The biggest trouble has been both M4 and M3 trajectory (CV) planner... there's been no way around the slow and jerky moves on short moves. Poor cut quality, high bit wear, and high stress on my machine have been the norm on all my high-detail jobs. Couldn't even tweak around the issue by shortening the accel/deccel in motor tuning... which is dangerous for mechanical drive parts (ball screws, rails, etc.). Put it this way... by the time a NEMA42, 80v, 7.8 amp, 4000 oz/in step motor starts to lose steps big trouble is soon to follow.
So far my testing of UCCNC has shown over 9x speed improvement on wavey polylines with node spacing of 0.001" !! UCCNC is so much smoother and, as you noted, also increases detail/accuracy. I hope to be posting my UCCNC experiences and related short videos soon.

Thanks so much for your informative post!!

if you want to deal with extreme small segments then DSP is the answer..
UCCNC has.. and I think for mach3 also exist kind of hardware with DSP..

the point is processing the much data timely..
so for those machines you might looking for some industrial control.. but on the end you going to get trouble always if you working with large straight cuts and same time with 1/8 sized letters example..
either way your machine going to jerk or on large parts it going to be slow..

a plotter with servo can cut very small stuff very fast because the cutter head almost don't have a mass, your router has so heavy gantry and Z carriage that impossible to accelerating without machine falling apart..

[OlfCNC]

if you want to deal with extreme small segments then DSP is the answer..
UCCNC has.. and I think for mach3 also exist kind of hardware with DSP..

the point is processing the much data timely..
so for those machines you might looking for some industrial control.. but on the end you going to get trouble always if you working with large straight cuts and same time with 1/8 sized letters example..
either way your machine going to jerk or on large parts it going to be slow..

a plotter with servo can cut very small stuff very fast because the cutter head almost don't have a mass, your router has so heavy gantry and Z carriage that impossible to accelerating without machine falling apart..

Sorry but I have to say that this is complete BS.
A Gigabit ethernet connection can throughput upto 1Gbits per seconds which is 128 MegaBytes of data per seconds.
A 100MBits connection can still throughput 12.5 Mbytes data per seconds.
This amounts of data is far more than what is required to control any commercial CNC machines.
There is absolutely no need to process data directly on the hardware which is what the chinese mean by "DSP", whatever it stands for in their language?!.
A "DSP" system which has no computer, but calculates data on a microcontroller will also not be able to calculate and process more data than what a PC can calculate and throughput via an ethernet connection, and so what you saying makes no sense at all.

[ger21]

There's already one available. The Step2Linear
Viper Servo motor products

[battwell]

thanks ger. hadnt seen that one before!
know anybody thats tried it?

[tkms002]

I have read mention of the UCCNC not supporting the 4th axis. Is that different than slaving the A to the X motors so you can have 2 motors drive the X axis?
Sorry if this is a dumb question but I am trying to learn all I can before taking the plunge into building a router.
Thanks

[vmax549]

Having to rely on a competitor's product to make yours work is never a good idea (;-). Kinda like relying on motion control board manfs to support your CNC software.

(;-) TP

[karloterrazas]

I have read all the thread looking for info about UCCNC, i´m a Mach 3 user with a ESS and mach 2010 screenset and im very happy with my currently setup, but i belive a bored with mach 3 and i want to upgrade to UCCNC. Are the issues dicussed here already resolved? shall I upgrade?

[ger21]

Which issues are you referring to? There have been a lot of changes to UCCNC over the last two years.

[karloterrazas]

Which issues are you referring to? There have been a lot of changes to UCCNC over the last two years.

Could you please tell me your most updated review about UCCNC ? I dont use the 4 axis so i dont care about that, all I do is 2.5 axis milling and some 3D carvings. Your Screen is great,I will not doubt to buy it again for the UCCNC... but i need to spend $250 bucks (card, software and screenset)

Do you still offer a vectric postprocessor for UCCNC? i did not see it in your website. I also use Fusion 360, by the way, i got the help of autodesk support to adapt the default fusion 360 post processor to work with your mach 2010 screen set.

[battwell]

Could you please tell me your most updated review about UCCNC ? I dont use the 4 axis so i dont care about that, all I do is 2.5 axis milling and some 3D carvings. Your Screen is great,I will not doubt to buy it again for the UCCNC... but i need to spend $250 bucks (card, software and screenset)

Do you still offer a vectric postprocessor for UCCNC? i did not see it in your website. I also use Fusion 360, by the way, i got the help of autodesk support to adapt the default fusion 360 post processor to work with your mach 2010 screen set.

it all works great. new features being added all the time- and some very clever people testing/ making macros and screens etc. (they know who they are)
i have it running now for over 18 months - every day
choose one of the eth controllers .
i use vectric with mine most of the time.
the best thing about it- the support. - things get fixed very quickly. - and you even get a proper explanation of what was found to be wrong!
(mainly on new feature test releases)- you dont have to run these but a few of us do to help development.
brendon