AB 9 system, worth keeping?

[tubeguy]

Hello all: I have a bed mill with a AB 9 control system, Being that its a OE system though old its reliable until it goes down then parts are expensive as AB no longer makes them. I have the # of a tech there that helps out on other thing besides hardware so thats great.

Well like a million other guys I would like to possibly convert it to a newer PC based system. I have heard / read that parallel port (and cat 5 ) drive of 3 x machines is slow and tedious and prone to errors, but with so many converting it seems the bugs should be out, is this true?

If you had to convert a 3x and had to do it again what would you buy VS what you have now? Dollars VS headaches reliability support bugginess.

Ive looked at mach, centroid ajax camsoft and Kflop'something are any of these systems worth a darn? When probing/digitizing? expensive but does it work?

Should I keep the old AB9 G code only workhorse and just bite the bullet when I have to buy boards?

Your opinions and expiernces greatly appreciated!

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[tubeguy]

Boy am I patheric, I have to reply to my own post! But in addition to the above I noticed that AB9 counsels are selling for 3800 on ebay and various boards are 800 to 2000 ea! Do folks actually pay these prices! If, a big "if" they do I would be nuts to not sell my complete system and buy something newer, yes?