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is there a better, more stable sender than universal gcode sender?
... I don't know how to say this without sounding like I'm bashing it - i'm really not - I can't really judge it since I have never used it - from what I've heard, though, it's not a full-fledged control system so much as a simple pulse generator without much else. To me, that's limited - to others, that might be a value. I don't like things that take my view of what's going on away - makes it hard to troubleshoot. If it were me, mach3 would be the only choice.
UGS (and similar products) stream gcode to the control system, in our case the Arduino Uno/gShield boards. UGS loads the entire gcode file, does some internal processing, then streams the code to the control system at a rate determined by the buffering in the control system. Additionally, it can send manual jog commands. There is also a window for sending commands manually to the Arduino. There is also a pop-up window showing the tool paths.
Easel, the free browser-based software by Inventable, is an all-in-one CAD/CAM/Control system. I've used it successfully, but find the design function a bit clunky. It controls a grbl-based machine just fine but has no provision for loading external gcode.
Since I've heard a lot about Chilipeppr, I've been trying it but find UGS a bit more straight-forward.