Why I'm Dumping the SMC5-5-N-N CNC Controller from my machine

[@vapoureyes]

You are a good honest guy and a great tutor and it’s a great pleasure watching your videos .

[@davidfarmer]

They canceled my order, and I ended up going to the masso 5 axis touch. its very very nice. and its got a great forum.

[@buildmotion1426]

I recently bought the MASSO 4 axis for my X2 CNC build. So far it has worked out pretty well.

[@stacyjeffress9807]

Kudos!! Total respect for this decision

[@alaindion2403]

Bonjour Roger et merci pour vos informations. Je suis de la province de Québec au Canada, j'essaie de faire l'achat du SMC5 depuis plusieurs mois. J'en ai trouvé plusieurs a 450-550$, mais aucun vendeur n'a envoyé ce contrôleur a ce prix, AUCUN vendeur ne m'a fait parvenir le SMC5 chez moi. Alors maintenant je me dis que JAMAIS je n'achèterai à 1000$ ou 2000$ et sachant maintenant la vérité... JAMAIS je n'achèterai le SMC5. Merci pour vos informations, vous êtes une bonne personne et j'apprécie vos vidéos. Merci Roger and have a good day !

[@stevemoriggi2076]

this is why you are so valuable to us! what a shame, I was considering this controller for my next machine, but you are right. it's the principal! thanks Roger!

[@immewhou1755]

I think it is very honorable of you to stand up for the underdog so to say and honest to goodness stand on you values even tho it hurts your bottom line and you could put out a advisory and inform yet still use it n cant hold it agianst u you aint saling it nor control or benefit from the sales of it the only thing thats got any leverage on you is your integrity selfless service and just self governed values or morals i wouldve been a faithfull viewer regardless and honestly i was just searching for this because of your review but caught shell shock myself nvr once thought any negative things about you or even related the price to u but you highly impressed me 🤯🥳💯💯💯

[@rowepjr]

Thanks for info. I was looking for a replacement controller for my 4 axis CNCEST CNC and saw the high prices and did not know whether to laugh or cry. I decided to rebuild my existing controller with the help of a KZbin video. I have ordered new control board, power supplies, VFD, limit switches and wiring. Total cost $300 AUD. Hopefully everything will arrive soon. Freight is slow at the moment.

[@immewhou1755]

Me to cncest usb mach 3 controller atm aint havin no good luck with it i have had it ovr a year n done lots of adjustments and changes i think its the Software tho that cncest provides 😒

[@rowepjr]

@@immewhou1755 I did not have a computer that Mach 3 or 4 would work on. I have been using free version of DrufelCNC which works well but only has 5000 line limit. Tried to purchase licence but need to use crypto currency to purchase. I did not want to do this. I will be using UCCNC.

[@immewhou1755]

@Peter Rowe oh ok so I dont guess uccnc will work with mach 3 board will it ya my laptop wouldnt run mach so i bought deesktop win. 10 not ideal but was doing fine went to sleep n qoke up to windows 11 no bueno was busy n didnt think nothin of it at the moment couple weeks went by n i got back to tinkering n discovered that mach is not happy with win 11...and wouldnt let me roll back updates...now im graspin for straws ...

[@rowepjr]

@@immewhou1755 UCCNC only works with their controllers and AXBB-E.

[@listerdave1240]

@5:38 I did exactly that a couple of weeks ago. Thought I was buying the 5-5 for $160 and got the 4-4 instead.

[@gavinwehlburg8084]

Well done Roger and good on you for standing on principle. It would be useful for the Manufacturers to come to the Party and set the market price. Dishonesty should not pay or be supported. Kind regards Gavin

[@cncdesignsplaques2385]

I was wondering have you ever thought about using the Digital Dream DDCS V3.1 or DDCS Expert controller as a replacement to the smc controller. They seen to be available at a reasonale price at the moment.

[@MARS-GREENH0USE]

I got it. Making a vid soon about the mill building.

[@DJDillyGent]

Thank you very much. Guess its back to the drawing board for a controller

[@doylemaleche9937]

Thank you Roger! I was just about to buy one. I will stick with Mach3 again.

[@rayams]

Appreciate your efforts to expose these scammers.... 👆 Thanks

[@ronaldmiller8699]

thanks roger.i have already purchased one of these units but like you over a year ago cost me on ebay £185,no hand controller.

[@skyrim4713]

Thanks for exposing them.

[@f15sim]

Since you're going to use Windows for Mach3 anyway, why not use ioSender and a grblHAL2000 interface board?

[@topteamvof]

I got this controller also for test Same story like Roger I got a lot of mach 3 licenses and stay with mach3. If you got a serieus machinery , it does not work wel .

[@772777777777777]

Does this support slaved x y axis... or does loose a axis for each slaved axis

[@geekverve]

Really appreciate this PSA for the community about these price gougers. I'm learning a lot from your videos, and this one is not different. That said, why did you entirely dump the SMC5? Sure, there are people ripping people off, but you also demonstrated that they are also available at reasonable prices. Seems a bit like cutting your nose off to spite your face, if you really do prefer the SMC5.

[@wallstreet497]

With drop shipping system some of the sellers don't have physical stock of what you see on the screen . Your order is processed through their shop which redirect them to the real sellers. Sometimes the sellers are not chinese but the shipment is done by chinese.

[@xiaoshizi131]

Hi Roger, Thx for this update. Is the Foinncc M350 a better alternative for the SMC5-5-N-N then? as for the tool offsets etc. It's in the M350. For the Mach3 hope you get a board with enough input's to get the limit switches and homing not on one pin so you have to run them seperatly instead of diagonal till one clicks and continou to zero the machine on the other axis. Looking forward for the Mach3 solution. Is it possible to cover the 5 axis machine to, please ? Also for the Mach3, will it be USB or the obsoleted RS232 port on new computers you'll be using or the ethernet? Maybe linuxcnc, afterall, will be your pleasure to go to with some mesa cards ;-) Always a pleasure to see your new vids

[@woodgrainnz]

Awesome thanks for your info 👍

[@spidey4fun]

Im still using Mach3 with 2 x G540 geckos - 8 axis control.. Not an issue in the world.

[@jimhuitt9854]

Will mach 3 work with arduino controlled machines

[@blindness2sight119]

Hi, love your videos. Quick question, have you come across pokeys57cnc controller? If so, what is your opinion? Cheers.

[@rogerwebb9600]

Looks good

[@christopheseyler3512]

Did you already take a look to uccnc and their controllers ? For my opinion, far better than mache in the same range of price

[@mossy2775]

way to go Roger!!!!!

[@samrix5793]

Ok so there's nothing wrong with the controller?

[@rogerwebb9600]

NO! it's good

[@TinkeringJohn]

I was wondering what you were going to say about this controller when I saw the thumbnail. So, there's nothing wrong with the controller itself, it's the price people are asking for it. I was thinking that since you already bought it, you should still use it, but I understand if you don't want it in your videos and viewers go buy one at a grossly inflated price. I guess I was lucky when I bought mine from Banggood in Nov '20 when they had a sale on them. I paid $280 U.S. plus $15 for shipping & insurance. Thanks for warning the public and sorry for your recent misfortunes. Hope your wife recovers quickly Roger.

[@timdaviszaper]

Have you tried planetcnc mk3/4, or acorns Cnc controller? I’ve bought 5 or 6 of the mk boards for Cnc routers.

[@JohnHoranzy]

Planet CNC make an awesome product. I have their 9 axis board that will go on a Clausing Lath. The controller will allow the cutter to synchronize with the chuck to cut threads.

[@UPR91]

@@JohnHoranzy I've soon finish my CNC. After a month of research I'm narrowing to Acorn 6. Look 90's but very stable, good support Eding CNC looks like as stable and accurate as Acorn but less support And I just find Planet CNC today. I would like your opinion on Planet CNC. Are you able to do rigid taping ?, and someday I would need upgrade my fixed gantry to 5th axis, so I need a controller that can handle RTPC or TCPC. thx

[@JohnHoranzy]

@@UPR91 I bought that system about 10 years ago. At that time there was only Mach 3 and Linux CNC for the hobbyist. Planet CNC at that time was a great value and did not lock down their software variations. You need to check with them for the rigid tapping function and if you have the correct spindle sensor. Today I would give Centroid Acorn a serious look and price comparison. Also look for a vendor that sells all the peripherals and not just shoveling boards from China. Have fun!

[@cyberhikerdd]

Took me five minutes to find the SMC5 for ~US$350. From what I can find the B2B price has gone up- its no longer $200. It's common knowledge that there's always someone on Alibaba, AliExpress and eBay looking to make a buck by reselling for more than the real B2C price. You would be doing a better service for your viewers by reaching out to ShaoGe CNC and asking them for an official list of resellers and doing a video about that. While not the 'best' offline controller it's perfectly adequate for its purpose (and in most cases the SMC4 is good enough given most are running three-axis machines).

[@davidfarmer]

I ordered one for $500, waited a month watching the tracking number, then the order was canceled. so if you order one at the lower price you may never actually get it.

[@ndoghouse6853]

How do you tell the difference from a real unit from a fake one? BTW: I wouldnt stop buying Volkswagens because the guy down the road is selling a volkswagen at a Mercedes price. I dont get your reasoning there?

[@SimjetAU]

Get yourself a Masso controller...problem solved :)... not that expensive really and its aussie designed and supported..really happy with mine

[@SRH58]

Ah, now i see this video... too bad for them.... thanks..!

[@jenibond]

I am using Smooth stepper and Mb2 breakout board ( i thought it was bit expensive at first ) but its was so easy to get working I paid about £380 (670Aus) + PC was it cheep Meh not sure ? but it does work really well ? should Splash out to move to mach 4 ?

[@kurtbilinski1723]

As others said, so there's nothing wrong with the controller itself, it's the resellers. This video is very helpful, but leaving the videos up saying that it's great only continues to encourage buyers. If your goal is to have people stop buying it, the videos praising it should be taken down, yet it's still a good product. Personally, I'd keep using it, leave your videos saying good things about it, but edit them to add this warning about seller price gouging.

[@mlrable]

Thank you so very much

[@rogerwebb9600]

You are so welcome

[@bobd.]

Will you be taking down all your past videos featuring the SMC5-5 ? If not won't the rip-off sellers still profit from your past promotion of these controllers. I know that hurts you with lost views but if you are so set against them taking advantage of everyone what else can you do? Making this video advising everyone is great. Maybe add a link in the description of all your SMC5 related videos advising everyone to watch this video too before they buy.

[@joeygonzo]

ACORN is better imo

[@dtanco]

I would rather work from my laptop, it's faster for jogging and I can also make edits to the drawing and reload the file without messing around with usb drives and such, just my preference.

[@vladiocy2884]

Masso!!!!

[@gonvindecoupe8685]

😁😁😁😁

[@gangleweed]

$2,000.....gulp, as if we would pay that much...........I use Mach 3 with Win XP on my Skyfire CNC mill...........no problem

[@richmond4471]

The cheap SMC4 works better overall than the 5. They both have zero support, and have serious inherent issues that could easily be corrected by a firmware upgrade. That is; if the manufacturer cared enough to issue an upgrade...

[@rogerwebb9600]

The SMC5 is good it is the sellers asking too much USA$450 is ok for the SMC5

[@richmond4471]

@@rogerwebb9600 Apparently you and I have differing ideas regarding the definition of "good"... The 5 has a clumsy unnecessarily aggravating interface, is very particular about the code it can properly read (likely to make a mess of your workpiece if you don't check it first), and if set up for inches, it cuts faceted circles (not round ones). As I say, the cheaper 4, is better overall. Regarding the price; I paid $327 for mine, delivered. And that was including the MPG pendant. There are still plenty of outlets selling these for under $300, although some shops have stopped selling the 5s because of too many returns. They are still selling the 4, however, which can be bought for a little over $100. I haven't tried one personally yet, but I think probably the best controller in this class, is the DDSMC. It is very popular, and I never see anyone complaining about the Digital Dream products.

[@fredmartinez933]

Roger.. You are a good honest guy and I trust you..thank you for your advice..Roger I send you an Email to your gmail address just to let you know.