GrandDaddy's Axe

[sevendale]

You've heard of GranDaddy's axe? Been in the family a hundred years; Dad replaced the handle twice and I replaced the head just once and it never fails to work.
So I have an old Shopbot CNC router, one of the first, running dos based cam on a windows 98 cpu. I fear for that old cpu going croak any day.
At my day job we run four routers and a waterjet and they're all g-code based which the Shopbot is not.
I want to re-build this old axe starting with the operating system.
The inverter is stout, the stepper motors run fine, the Porter Cable router has new bearings.
The table is rickety but that's a different project.
I have CADD and CAM covered and I have a spare XP pentium cpu currently seeking employment.

What I'm stumped by is: Do I need a new control box between the cpu and the stepper motors and if so is there a plug&play kit?

I'll be right back with the specs of the parts to clarify...........
I'm back. Did you miss me?
Astron LS-25 inverter
Vexta Oriental 2A 1.8degree motor for Z axis, 1.5A .5 degree (a pair) for X axis and another for Y axis.
In the box are Yageo 719 5W controls and a parallel port to the cpu.

Any suggestions will be sincerely appreciated.

[awerby]

Yes, a new controller would probably be called for; there's been a lot of progress in driver development over the last 20 years or so. What size are your motors? How much inductance do they have? Those things determine the amount of power they need, which determines the choice of drivers, since you need drivers that will tolerate that much power. If your machine uses NEMA 23 steppers with moderate inductance, then the G-540 from Geckodrives would likely be a good choice: it has 4 drivers built in and an integral breakout board that will handle your inputs and outputs. If it has larger steppers that need more than 50v DC supplied, then you'd be better off with individual drivers and a 3rd-party breakout board. What does the current power supply put out? You may be able to reuse it if it matches the motors well.

[sevendale]

Andrew, thank you for the response; I haven't navigated the forum for a while and didn't realize I had an answer.
The Astron LS-25 inverter puts out 28v and it has been running all four of these (Vexta Oriental 2A 1.8degree motor for Z axis, 1.5A .5 degree (a pair) for X axis and another for Y axis.)
since Carter left the white house so I'll stick with that set-up.
Here's where my limited electronics knowledge bogs down: that G-540 lists a max amp of 3.5, my set adds up to 6.5 if all four are running which they usually are so....... too small?

[109jb]

The 3.5 A rating of the G540 is per stepper. It has 4 individual stepper drives inside it and each one can handle a stepper up to 3.5A

[dixdance]

I'm pretty new to this stuff, but I replaced the old drivers and controllers on my 20 yr old Techno machine with a Gecko G540 and Mach3. The Gecko is a huge improvement, I love it... not so sure about Mach3. But this is my first cnc experience, so I have nothing to compare it to. I'll be interested to see what is recommended to you.

[sevendale]

OK, armed with the sure knowledge that the Gecko G540 can easily handle the motors I already have and that it might work with Mach3, I'm advancing to step two:
study Mach3.
At my day job I use WinCNC on four cnc routers and proprietary cam on a water jet and a cloth cutter but all of that came in the box.
Now I'm figuring out how to put it in the box. I appreciate the feedback and will post more as I learn it.