Hi Everyone, this newbie needs some help on the controls side of a CNC machine.
I stumbled across a 48x48x5" precix CNC router, which I couldn't pass up, and since I have experience with design and a little CNC programming from work, I thought I could handle it.
It looks nearly identical to this, except mine does NOT have the monitor and software on-board (just eliminate the monitor & attachment hardware sticking out). I only have handheld jog/start/stop control box.
It was probably built around 1997, takes only HPGL files as input and has bipolar stepper motors (3/6A @ 2.88/1.44 V). Everything works on it and I've fed it some basic HPGL files over the serial port to make sure the controller works.
I plan to use it for full 3d work, and after researching that HPGL is really only 2.5 axis, I think I just should just convert it to G-code instead of estimating the 3rd axis with some translator to get back to HPGL.
So here's my problem: I don't know what controller boards I need to buy to make this work with G-code, and hopefully keep the same stepper motors. I'd like to keep a budget under 1k for the retrofit.
Here's a shot of the entire inside of the controller box:
Back Panel of the controller with cables disconnected. (only use the x,y,z on the bottom row)
Better views of some of the boards:
and I managed to find the drawing of the stepper from the mfg (EAD).