UC300ETH - Mach3 combo

[rey8801]

Hello guys,

New to the forum, not to CNC. Nice to meet you . I have converted a small manual mill. I ma currently running USS (USB smooth stepper) + Mach3. I am thinking to replace the USB controller with an Ethernet one and my final contenders are ESS and UC300ETH. I know quite a lot about ESS, since I use the USB version and it's a common choice in the Mach3's world. Nevertheless I am quite impressed with UC300ETH. 400KHz pulse frequency is more than I would never need and the high number of I/O makes it great for my application, plus I also like the idea that in future I can always switch to UCCNC. What keeps me from leaving Mach3 is all the screensets and macros I have made. It would be quite an effort to translates everything to UCCNC, but I keep the possibility open.
I have searched online but did not find a clear answer to my question. I would like to know what features are fully supported and "100% functional" in the Mach3 plug in. Specifically on top of the standard x,y and z movements I am interested in:
- Stable during operation. I do not want a controller that crashes every now and then for no reason.
- Probing functions = I have tons of macros for those and would like to keep using them
- Backlash compensation supported by the UC300ETH controller. If yes, what does the UC300ETH better than the default backlash comp in Mach3?
- Rigid tapping. I see from the product description that it's supported but doesn't explain how. Do I need an index signal only (1 pulse/rev) or can also read encoders? Do I need to use he swap axis trick and momentarily use the spindle as A,B or C axis?. A brief explanation would be more than welcome.

Thanks a lot for the help!

Ciao,
Alessio

[cncdrive]

Thanks for joining.

We have over 60000 sold motion controllers and 30000 sold UCCNC license keys, so yes, it is pretty solid solution, otherwise the forum would be full with complaints, because there are lots of users.

Yes, probing functions are supported by the UC300ETH.

Yes, backlash compensation is supported by the UC300ETH, it does stopless backlash compensation with morphing the backlash and normal movements together, so the compensation is usually not even noticable when it happens.
The Mach3 default backlash compensation works much worse, it always hicks up the normal motion commands.

Rigid tapping is supported using incremental encoder feedback, you need an incremental encoder with A, B and Index channels and the Index must happen once per spindle turn, because the tap start is always syncronised to the Index pulse position and so multi-pass taps can be done only if the index is in 1:1 ratio to the spindle.

[rey8801]

Thanks a lot for the reply! Indeed when you do not see much of open topic online it usually means customers are happy.
Yes indeed stock Mach3 backlash compensation is not good.

Well I will get one UC300ETH then! Thanks a lot for the help.

Separate question regarding the encoder. I have a 7500 rpm spindle and all the encoders I can find online within a reasonable price are 6000rpm max mechanical speed. Do you happen to know a model that work at 7.5K rpm and suitable for this application? What pulse/rev should we aim for? 500pulse/rev is good?
Thanks a lot.
Alessio

[cncdrive]

You have to have less than 50 kHz frequency which means 50 000 counts or less per seconds.
You have to select the encoder resolution taking this into account.

You could use this: http://www.shop.cncdrive.com/index.php?productID=135
this encoder has selectable resolution, you can select it using the built in micro DIP switches.

[rey8801]

AH ok great. So let's say 7500rpm /60 = 125 rev per sec. So a 300pulse/rev will be 37500Hz, well within the limit.

Thank you for the link. That model is super nice and capable of sustain high speed, but I would need something that I can attach with pulley, since i have a power draw bar on top of the spindle. Otherwise I would need an encoder each time I issue a M6 tool change