old technology help needed

[lotuseleven]

I am running a 150" x 60" xy laser-cutting table built in 1996 and my controller/driver has died, no longer supported. I was using an Arrick MD-2c controller using a vintage Windows95 computer. The Q-basic program outputs 4 phase outputs per motor, in a half-step pattern. All the modern controller/drivers seem to use two outputs per motor, step and direction and generate the step pulse sequence from those outputs. I have another MD-2 available, but it can not drive the 3v, 4a NEMA34 motors. I would upgrade to Mach 3 or 4, but all of my pattern files are generated in CorelDraw (version 8), .plt files. my attempts to convert these to G-code have been less than satisfactory, as the gcode did not transfer the optimized tool-paths.

Questions
Is there another motor driver that can use the 4 digital outputs I am currently generating to operate the motors?

if not... is there a way to take the low-power output from my spare MD-2 (15v,2a) and amplify the current output to run the table? I was thinking a solid-state relay board used as switches for a larger power supply, but I haven't been able to find a schematic for something like this.

If not and not... is there a CAM program that will use my .plt files as they are? I have spent a lot of time optimizing them, and hate to think about having to generate all new patterns.

Appreciate any and all help or suggestions.

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[Dennis Bohlke]

I have a program that directly works with HPGL files.

SuperCamXp Graphical Machine Control Program via USB

How many motors do you have on the machine?

The program works through the USB port to a signal generator board I call the USB ArmPod.

Dennis
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