[BalloonEngineer]

Maybe I don't push it very hard but in the last 18 months I have found no limitations in Mach4 Hobby. Works great for me.

David

Ditto. Mach 4 hobby is not crippled, I’ve been using it for two years. Much better than Mach3 (but much smaller installed base).

Which of those industrial features do you actually use? They are mostly there so OEMs can customize it. You can write all the custom macros you want, you have access to far more inputs and outputs than most CNCs have. It is plenty for home CNCs.

 

[BalloonEngineer]

I have an MPG for jogging, so have never used a game controller, but I understand quite a few use the shuttle pro.
I have used a cheap usb cam for locating corners with a macro to move spindle the offset amount and zero the work coordinates. The standard install has a pretty complete probing module, I only use the Z-axis zeroing. There are user developed macros for doing a complete manual toolchange and resetting z based on a touch macro.

Unlike Mach3, screen elements are user configurable and macros can easily be edited, attached to screen buttons (which have configurable appearances and states. You can edit all the supplied macros, create any M macros you want, and the api is documented and fairly complete.

All of this has been available for at least the last two years. The major difference is that it really is designed to use some type of external motion controller (like the ESS), although for an extra $25 you can have it drive using the parallel port.

 

[BalloonEngineer]

Although I have been happy and productive with Mach4, if I were building today, I would also consider UCCCNC or Centroid. There are lots of options now. It pays to look at what’s out there. I know that @4DThinker and other Probotix users also highly recommend LinuxCNC (free!).

 

[BalloonEngineer]

Here is a Chinese 6040 type machine, sold and supported by a US distributor. Not as cheap, but supported.
https://www.automationtechnologiesinc.com/products-page/cnc-router/3-axis-6040/