Stepper Control for a Sherline Mini (real mini)

[bill south]

I recently scored a D&M machining center on fleabay and of course it's inoperational. It based on a Sherline 1500 with 3 stepper motors. Man is this thing cute setting beside by Lathemaster mill conversion!
Looks like a serial connection for the brain but it's an old machine. I want to gut the thing and set it up for parallel mach3 control using the existing steppers which I know nothing about. The axis fuses are rated at 7 amps and I haven't measured the ps voltage but it's doable.
Since all of my experience is with G320's and servos, how do I go about determining what motor controllers I need for this thing. The motors are 4 wire (bipolar - heck I guess and cute little things) but there is no other information available but D&M4 stickers all over the dang thing. I'm thinking xylotex 3 axis board with parallel input board and charge pump. Mach3 and plug and go!
Any advice, ideas or just general ideas????
Thanks guys and gals!
Bill

[metalman10]

i was just curious what ive done with your dm4. i just got one( more for the x,y,z, components and enclosure) then anything else. but all the eletronics are there for what good its going to do you. i found that a company named LAB VOLT.com brought dm4, if you go to their site and look up the 5400 model you will see one. the enclosure is a little different but hey its a start. larry s

[boatman]

I'm interested too! I bought one from E-Bay a few months ago and just started looking into drivers for it. The Xylotex board looks like a good low cost driver, but the D&M power supply puts out around 54 VDC and would have to be stepped down to 24 to 30 VDC for the Xylotex board to work. I would like to keep the same power supply since it's one less thing to buy. But if I have to I will replace it. I would like to upgrade the stepper motors too, but don't have a clue on which one to buy.

Unfortunatly the Xylotex board doesn't have a control for the spindle or any thing to allow you to have a jog dial.

I even thought about getting a cheap break out board and using the old drivers, steppers, power supply, etc. But I don't think I would be happy with the performance of the machine in the end.

Dale P.