Advice / help? - HobbyCNC upgrade for SpectraLight 0200

[Sporqster]

See my first discussion
Argh! Was I ripped off? Please Help Me!

Which led me to the conclusion that the board in my Spectralight 0200 is gonna have to go. Take a look at this pic:



This is what I've got under the hood of the spectalight control box. The power supply is outputting 42.8VDC. The fan appears to be running off the 110VAC. I have 3 steppers on the spectralight- each has 8 pins, but only 4 of them used. I know just about nothing about steppers - is this normal?

Short question- will a HobbyCNC board universalize this box that wants a Light Machines proprietary PC card, and proprietary software? Anything else besides a HobbyCNC board that I'm going to need to get this thing up and running? I've got an old laptop I want to use, so I'd like to get some really low overhead software. I've only got P3 w/ 64MB RAM. Maybe something that runs in DOS or Linux...

Your help is much appreciated!

[abasir]

The 8-wires steppers are wired as bipolar. Yes, it's normal.
You can re-use the power supply for HobbyCNC (max 44VDC).
Software wise, you can use TurboCNC (runs with DOS).

Please note that HobbyCNC is Unipolar driver, you may want to consider a bipolar driver for better performance.