Mach 4

[Darren Wright]

Anyone upgraded to Mach4? I was catching up on This Old Tony and he did a video on Surface mapping, which it seems Mach 4 does. I guess it can be compared to auto bed leveling in 3d printing, where you probe the bed prior to printing and the machine offsets the print head by how much deviation was recorded in the probe. So no modification is needed to a 2d engraving to engrave it on a contoured surface.

 

[Leo Voisine]

I was trying to find a good new control software for my machine in the last couple of months. I was considering Mach4 but I know there are other choices out there.

What I landed on is Centroid Acorn. I bought the Probe that I see on the thumbnail for the video which does the surface mapping plus more.
I had some rather dialog on the Vectric forum about it.

Changing BOB and Mach3

I am thinking about changing Mach 3 - and - my Breakout board. What control software do you use? Why do you like it? Why do you hate it?

forum.vectric.com

Then I went into the map surfacing on Vectric as well to understand what the probing is all about.

Creating a modeling surface from point cloud data

I am thinking of upgrading to Centroid CNC12. I am sure there are other probing routines out there as Centroid is not the only software that can probe a surface

forum.vectric.com

Centroid is 100% American made and all the parts are made by Centroid, so I feel comfortable believing that all the components are compatible with each other and will work well with the control software. There is SOOOOOOOO much to be said about this package that I just cannot do it justice here. Gary Campbell on Vectric has built and sold CNC machines with GREAT reviews. He is a Centroid recommended consultant. Gary has nothing but good words for Centroid and he used Centroid on his machines.

Soooo - I bought the whole Centroid package probing, pendant, control software, BOB, tool touch probe- the whole shebang.

With "THE VAULT" sign on the workbench and another job following that, the Centroid upgrade is in the box and in my cabinet. I have it, and the look and feel is top notch. I am thinking late March or early April for the upgrade.