mach 3, a shark and a guy walk into a bar...

[cjablonski]

And wonder if they will all play nicely together. Have n been seeing a lot online lately with regards to mach 3 and 4. Does/would this work for a shark pro plus hd? If it does do you use it? Are their any advantages? ...hope the subject line caught someone's attention

[rungemach]

I use Mach 3 and really like it. The early sharks came with Mach3 before the new proprietary controller.

Unfortunately, I believe you are looking at changing out your controller for a non NWA unit to use Mach 3.

Mach 4 is new, and still a bit "too new" for me. I'm very happy with Mach3.
I run it on all my machines here and so the interface is the same across everything.

[cjablonski]

Thx run. Are there any advantages to mach 3 vs the proprietary software?

[rungemach]

advantages? IMHO quite a few.
limit switches and homing switches
multi axis X,Y,Z touch plate macros
built in 4th 5th 6th axis suport
completely adjustable motor tuning, acceleration and speed parameters
ability to run more powerful motor drivers and higher voltage power supply
variable spindle speed control
different screen sets and ability to customize
screen shows the job placed in an actual table sized outline.
ability to resume a job from any line of g-code.

and thats just what I could think of in only a minute..

[4DThinker]

Yes, Mach 3 can support many features, but the Sharks don't come with limit/home switches, 4th(extra $$) 5th and 6th axis, etc.... so unless you are going to soup up your Shark then its controller will run the Sharks fine. The biggest advantage IMO of the other controller options is that they typically have a 3D dynamic preview of the toolpaths. The Shark controller is better than it used to be with a plan view of the toolpaths, but still lacking in that area.

4D