Thinking of upgrading to MACH - What should I expect

[Hack]

Well I have been using TurboCNC (Pentium 200 running DOS) for a while now and it has been doing very well at cutting simple shapes especially for straight line cuts, but now that I am doing some more complex machining / routing, i feel it may be becoming a limiting factor in my machines performance (My machine is based on Plans from DATA CUT)

When running curves as many may know, TurboCNC has limitations as to how fast it can run things, but how about 3D work. I am noticing that when I am running 3D programs that the machine jerks at any speeds above 30 - 35 IPM or so. This is with only 2 of the axis running simultaneously (Usually X and Z or Y and Z) Very seldom do i run a 3 at a time and when I do I have to slow it down even more.

So my question is, is this a limitation of TurboCNC and will it go away or improve with an upgrade to MACH or is it just a case of to slow of a computer to run these programs, or is it not a software / computer problem.

Thank you
Dan

[phomann]

Hi Dan,

I haven't used TurboCNC for a number of years now. IT did have pauses in it was you stated. I understand this to be with a lack of look ahead functionality.

MAch does have look ahead and is very smooth. You can download Mach and fun it with out a licence file. It will limit you to about 100 lines though. That should be enough for you to evaluate its performance.

One thing to note is that it needs XP and a machine speed around 1GHz

Cheers,

Peter.

[ger21]

Originally Posted by phomann MAch does have look ahead and is very smooth. You can download Mach and fun it with out a licence file. It will limit you to about 100 lines though.

The demo will let you run 1000 lines of g-code.

[phomann]

Originally Posted by ger21 The demo will let you run 1000 lines of g-code.

Thanks for the correction. It was a typo.

Cheers,

Peter.