USB or Ethernet motion controller?

X-Carve
1

UGS has been fine but I use Mach3 on my Sherline mill and lathe and would like to switch over on my Xcarve where I can then also use my Vista pendant. The Leadshine MX3660 looks ideal and I plan to repurpose the power supply that came with my Xcarve. My question is whether to stick with the USB motion controller we can buy here at Inventables or whether I should look at an Ethernet motion controller such as the Smoothstepper? Has anyone done this setup?

2

Since you already have Mach 3 you should look at the Gecko drives. It costs a little more but it is such an amazing improvement over my generic breakout board (like the smooth stepper), plus it is a self-contained unit (meaning you would not need stepper drivers) and can go up to 48 volts. My machine is so much faster and smoother now.

They provide a Mach 3 profile so you can use the same instance of Mach 3 and just load this profile for your x-carve.

Here is a link: Shop by Category | eBay

3

Thanks! I’ll check out the Gecko.