I took the plunge and ordered a C-Beam bundle with steppers. Now I am looking at the different boards and am getting more confused each time I search. My main concerns are ease of use and quick setup and getting up an running. I am looking at the xPRO V3, the Smoothie Board and the TinyG. I really want something that has been built and running before so I am leaning toward an XPRO because of the video by Mark Crew. And the idea I can use a computer power supply cause I have a couple hanging around and it will save me 50/100 bucks. Then there is a software issue. I work in Autocad and was looking at Fusion but need an interface between the board and Fusion. Smoothie Board seems a bit more featured but it also seems to have a steep learning curve and uses a serial port to transfer code, at least that's my take on what I read so far. Then we have TinyG which I have skimmed but not looked closely at. So what are the advantages disadvantages of these? And what software can be used with each package. I am most likely gonna get the electronics in a week or so.
Personally I lean towards the smoothieboard. The learning curve is no worse than any other controller, in fact all you do is edit a text file for the parameters and put the SD card back in the board and reboot. That is all it takes. Feel free to ask me any questions, and there is always the Smoothie forum on G+ where you can get answers quickly to questions, the smoothie developers are very active in the community.
