I just completed (more or less) my first CNC hotwire machine that I built for cutting out cores for my Long-EZ homebuilt airplane. It has all custom designed and built electronics based on L297/298 ICs. I built my own interface board designed to work with Mach 2 which I thought used a protocol standard to most CNC machines of any type. I've been using Foamworks to do testing so far and it works fine but doesn't allow for fine tuning on such things as backlash compensation or hotwire heat control (on/off only). I wanted to try Gilles Muller's software but it seems to use a much more complicated interface. I don't really want to build another interface board for a program that I may not even like.

My questions are:

1.) Are there any other good programs available that I could try?

2.) Is there some simple way to get Gilles Muller's software to work without building the MM2001 controller?

While I'm at it,

3.) What is the best wire diameter to use? I'm using .032 stainless steel safety wire as recommended in the Long-EZ plans but it seems a bit large.

Thanks