Laser engraver/cutter from old 3D printer.

[tonyfoale]

Note that now I have moved to this CSMIO IP/M board with Ethernet connection, I first tried it with Mach3/Windows, because they say with this board, more of the real time stuff is actually executed by the board, with a bigger code buffer, but alas again, when the disturbance occur, I actually loose the Ethernet connection ...
So I decided to get rid of Windows/Mach3, and I'm now happy to be on Linux/SimCNC. (and I gained the laser support)
Well, I will have soon to pay for a new license for SimCNC , I am still on the 3 month free trial license. It's about 250€ I think...

I had a look at CSMIO and as soon as I saw it I remembered that I had been there some years ago. I think that the CSMIO IP/A board would be compatible with my hardware if I removed the Galil card. Like the Centroid offerings I am surprised that threading needs an add-on. I skimmed through the software manual and I must say that it looks to be much more capable and well thought out than the usual DIY level systems.

The Galil card has advanced features for trajectory planning etc. built in but Mach3 disables those and uses its own inferior features. That is understandable because it was designed to feed dumb cards, but it is annoying non-the-less.

As good as the CSMIO system seems to be I will be staying with Mach3 and the Galil card. Most of my milling is done manually with Mach3 and Galil providing a glorified DRO. My CNC machining occupies a small proportion of my total milling time. I do not like Mach3 but I can continue to live with it.