Mach3 Linuxcnc equivalence

Before I re-invent the wheel and write one myself, is there a document that provides equivalences between the GUI menu entries and menu options of Mach3 and linuxcnc. As a complete newbie who has just bought a small desktop cnc machine that came with a nobbled version of Mach3 for initial testing of the cnc machine (successfully), I now want to move to linuxcnc without a) breaking the cnc machine with ill-considered inputs to linuxcnc; b) knowing how to translate between the different language dialects of Mach3 and linuxcnc.

Take a look here...
linuxcnc.org/index.php/english/forum/9-i...m-mach-3-to-linuxcnc

Rick G

Thanks Rick for that link - and I will use it to convert my current Mach3 setup to linuxcnc and thereby provide me with some indication of the equivalence between Mach3 and linuxcnc and the probability fo creating a linuxcnc setup that will not wreck the machine.
The python program is very useful if you have a long history of Mach3 use and wish to convert all your previous work to linuxcnc - but I am right at the start of my journey with no experience of either Mach3 or linuxcnc - just the knowledge that my cnc machine does what it should with the Mach3 setup as provided with the install documentation that came with the cnc machine. But that is as far as it goes - enabling me to test the machine. There are various forum entries that are providing Mach3 GUI front-ends to linuxcnc and I need to look at them possibly for the equivalnce thing. But again, this route makes sense to experienced Mach3 users, whereas having little knowledge of either Mach3 or linuxcnc at this time, going directly to linuxcnc is the correct course for me.

Hi Andy,

Yes - when I looked at the link provided by Rick, I saw that it was not quite the latest version which threw me a bit. Greta to know that the latest version will take a Mach3 config and convert it. Will go and try that now.

If you install the 2.7 version of LinuxCNC then the Stepconf configuration wizard can now open a Mach3 config directly and build a LinuxCNC config:

Good point for 2.7 users, and a reason for others to upgrade.

Rick G

Well I took the Mach3 xml file and imported it into linuxcnc. There were certain things that didn't seem to get converted:
1) No parallel Port 1 address configured - I set it to 0x378 as per the Mach3 config.
2) No Estop pin configuration - set that to Pin 10 as per Mach3 config.
3) For the Axes config. the Mach3 "Steps per" and "Acceleration" values were correctly transferred - the velocity values were however set to 1mm per sec. The Mach3 values for my machine were (mm/min) 2000 (X and Y) and 800 (Z). Conversion made these figures 33.33 mm/sec and 13.333 mm/sec. I set them to 30 mm/sec and 10mm/sec respectively- not sure how the machine would cope with recurring decimals.
Would be interested to know why the parameters above were not successfully converted?

And then with some trepidation - I pressed the Test Axis buttons - somewhat expecting the machine to throw the spindle to all corners of the room - but was pleasantly surprised to find that the machine appeared to cycle through the tests OK.

Would appreciate any comments - there were many other default options that came up that I know nothing about (Sherline was one). If anybody wants to compare my Mach3 xml file and the subsequent linuxcnc file to check that I have done things right - then please let me know.

One other thing. The Mach3 setup appears to not need a latency test - so why does linuxcnc?- they both use the same PC and the same parallel port comms

www.linuxcnc.org/docs/html/install/Latency_Test.html

Hi Rick,

Sorry - I don't see how that link to the linuxcnc latency test etc. answers my question regarding Mach3's non-requirement for latency testing?

Actually, Mach 3 does do a latency test. It is part of the driver test as seen on page 20 of the install manual. It is just not called a "Latency Test".

www.machsupport.com/wp-content/uploads/2...l_Install_Config.pdf