Light Machine 1000 retrofit

[jskene]

You can download the last released version of the software (still very old and outdated, but at least it's Windows based) from this site:

http://www.lightmachines.com/softwar...ks/accept.html

There is a small fuse soldered into the PC mounted controller board that could be blown, and which may be the reason that your mill doesn't work.

I haven't been able to find a schematic for the controller board, but the fuse is near the upper edge of the board, close to the back, and looks like a 1/4watt resistor, only without any colored bands on it. The first thing I would do is check this with a meter and see if it's good.

[Norsksea]

I attend a community college and we have one of these TMC 1000. You will have to forgive me, do not have very much cnc exprince yet. My college has one of these machines that is not working. They were going to retire it, but it would make end of year projects if we had this machine up and running. All of the hardware is there, but does not work and is very out dated (DOS). I agreed to do a research paper on this machine to see if I could find some one who was updated the software and to see if some one would share there information.
Thanks.

I was given the option for the old control panel and ISA card for the DOS system. I turned them down to save $200. I was new to CNC when retrofitting my TMC 1000 and learned a lot on CNC Zone. I didn't want to learn an obsolete DOS CNC control system. I choose to use Mach 3 and Windows XP on an IBM T30 Thinkpad laptop to run the CNC. I use an IBM T42P for Alibre Design Expert 3D CAD to design the parts and VisualMILL 6.0 CAM Software for the tool paths.
Learning to use the newest Cad /Cam software and Making my own control panel was a no brainer to DOS or Win95 junk.
This log has schematic's for the TMC 1000 and control panel for you to learn from.
Frank

[315john952]

I have been going through and reviewing your progress and it looks like the college I attend will go ahead and do this based on my findings on your project. I will haave two departments working toghter (CAD and Electricail). I meet ever Tuesday and Thursdays for progress reports. One of questions that came up that I could not find the answer to was, what was used from the orginal system and what is new.Could you please advise. I have been looking on ebay for mach 3 software. I found the same laptop (IBM T30) cheap. We will keep posting to this site along with pictures of our progress. Thanks for all the information.

I was given the option for the old control panel and ISA card for the DOS system. I turned them down to save $200. I was new to CNC when retrofitting my TMC 1000 and learned a lot on CNC Zone. I didn't want to learn an obsolete DOS CNC control system. I choose to use Mach 3 and Windows XP on an IBM T30 Thinkpad laptop to run the CNC. I use an IBM T42P for Alibre Design Expert 3D CAD to design the parts and VisualMILL 6.0 CAM Software for the tool paths.
Learning to use the newest Cad /Cam software and Making my own control panel was a no brainer to DOS or Win95 junk.
This log has schematic's for the TMC 1000 and control panel for you to learn from.
Frank

[Norsksea]

I didn't have the original control panel I made a new power supply/control panel myself. I used gecko drives, Campbell breakout board and power supply parts form Mouser and Parts Express. The Mach 3 software runs the mill. These sites have the information you need and my schematics on pg.6 will help too.
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showth...t=12622&page=6

Mach 3 software is here
http://machsupport.com/

Campbell breakout board for the Parallel port
http://campbelldesigns.net/breakout-board.php

Gecko stepper motor drives are here
http://www.geckodrive.com/

I bought my TOROIDAL TRANSFORMER here for the power supply
http://www.parts-express.com/wizards...ormer&x=31&y=6

I bought terminals for the 9 pin and 15 pin connectors on the TMC1000 here
15 pin block Mouser Part #571-2052052
http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/...b5%252bA%3d%3d
9 pin block Mouser Part #571-2052033
http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/...RtZ5Yv5g%3d%3d
Pins for these block for 18 gauge wire Mouser Part #571-665693
http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/...SoWhAJCPs7s%3d

Frank

[Vigilant]

The ProLight ISA interface card had address-selection jumpers on address lines A9, A8, A7, A6, A5, A4. It is not a Plug and Play board, so Windows will not detect it and reserve a block of addresses for it. If you get a conflict, the DOS software will fire up but an attempt to jog the machine will pop up an interface card error. To fix this, you have to set the jumpers to an address which does not conflict with any of Windows assignments, and you also have to modify the line of text in the DAT file in the Prolight directory which contains the board's starting address.

Search through the Control Panel/System list of devices, see what resources were assigned by Windows. The ISA bus specs set aside a range of addresses for add-in cards, you should be able to find some address space somewhere between 0100 and 03FF where your card would not conflict with any of Windows assignments.

An installed jumper sets that address line to 0, an uninstalled jumper makes the address equal to 1. My card had been set to 111010, so the starting address of the block of addresses used by the card was 3A0 hex, which is (3x256)+(10*16) = 928 decimal.

On this PC, I didn't see anything in my Windows assignments between the low 200's and 300, so I set jumpers on my card to address 240 hex, which is 512 + 64 = 576 decimal. I edited the DAT file, I found the line with "928" in it, changed it to 576. The errors went away, the machine runs fine. Copy your old DAT file, save it for backup before you do any edit. (duh)

The ProLight cards, like all ISA cards, respond to address/data cycles on the ISA bus. The software has ISA read and write instructions, those read and write cycles are detected by circuitry on the card, that circuitry performs some magic and sends out magic signals to the Intelitek black control box. There are PLD chips (programmable logic devices) on the board, these will have security fuses inside them which get burned after programming, they can't be sniffed to detect their internal functions. So you just can't look at the board and draw a schematic from what you see. It would be a Big Job to reverse-engineer the ISA board, requiring an ISA bus logic analyzer, an infinite amount of time, and a program which performed one of every possible machine command.

Hope that helps someone.

Now to my problem...

I am trying to help my stepson's high school robotics class. They have 3 Prolight machines, 3 control boxes, but only 2 of the ISA interface cards and they only had one running PC. I donated a PC to the class, and now I have two of the machines up and running. The third control box has been hacked apart by a previous "tech", but I think I can repair it. However, there is no point if I can not find another interface card. If I can find one I will donate another PC, repair the control box, and get their third machine running. So if anyone out there has done a conversion like Norsksea did, and you have an old ProLight ISA interface card left over that you will not need, let me know. Thanks.

[Fastest1]

Vigilant I was reading thru this old thread and found you still trying to ressurrect an old machine. Why dont you do this, buy a Gecko G540 install it, run Mach and give it to the children and let them experience modern technology. Forget Intellitek/Spectralight/Prolight give them a real lesson in modernization. Couldnt the zone sponsor a donation to a school project as such. There are probably people with left over drivers, bobs and parts. In the end you will spend less and get much better performance. Or are you still running a 6066 and think it is fine? Not only that I will put my money where my mouth is! I will be the first to contribute to your child's schools program. I would make a 25 dollar contribution to the cause. Maybe we could beg some of the vendors here. In my area I dont think there are any industrial trades being taught. Everybody wants to be Chief and no one wants to be the Indian. Btw I live in Houston where you would think it would be obvious of what paid well. The school systems want a bunch of office workers and or foreign people to do all of the building and or assembly!

[Vigilant]

Fastest1, thank you for that kind offer. But I think if you can, it would be better to find your local school robotics project and offer them any help you can contribute. I recommend getting involved personally, your knowledge and expertise will be of more benefit than a money contribution.

Like every other school with a robotics program, this high school robotics competition is partially under school auspices and partly an extracurriculum activity involving kids and parents, a teacher, and maybe one or two mentors from local industry. The kids get to use some school facilities and equipment/supplies, some supplies are donated by parents and corporate sponsors.

They have been building this robot since school started, I guess about 6 months now. My stepson is in the class, but asked for no help from me. So I was not involved, I was not a participant, mentor, or sponsor. Then last month their milling machine died, and he informed his instructor that I knew about CNC stuff, so I got volunteered to come and fix their machine. I am a vendor as you describe above, I manufacture components used in CNC machine retrofits.

Their robot was just about finished. I felt that for me to jump in as a full participant after almost all the work had been accomplished would have been inappropriate. So I kept to the side, performed a useful task and stayed out of their way.

But "the school" owns the machines and at this point seems to have no funds available to maintain them, to repair them, or to retrofit/upgrade them. I contributed work and supplies to get two machines running and if I can find parts I will get their third machine running again. They have a machinist who mentors the group, we discussed retrofits and he would prefer not to have totally different software on one machine from the other machine. So, for now at least, I am trying to fix it using original components.

[Fastest1]

I do help at my childs elementary school at times. I even bought a kit for the science teacher for Christmas called Snap Circuits Junior. It is a cool little electrical puzzle project board that is totally rearangeable to make lights , switches, motion detectors and many other simple projects. I do have some Light Machines stuff that will never get reused by me if it would help but no ISA card. That is how I learned to build my Hobby Cnc controller, because I had no ISA card.

[jjackson]

Wonderful thread - lots of information!

I know of a school that has two old Light Machines 1000 that have not been turned on in likely 8 years.

I would like to put in an unsolicited offer for one of the machines. What is the value of one of these machines? What have other people been paying for them at auctions and when buying from schools?

I have mach software and have rebuilt 3 other CNC machines, and would likely convert to a G540 or Rockcliff driver and use Mach3.

Thanks,

John Jackson

[Fastest1]

Nice looking machines. What are they worth to you? I am seeing all kinds of great equipment going for very low amounts. It is a great time to buy if you have cash.

Wonderful thread - lots of information!

I know of a school that has two old Light Machines 1000 that have not been turned on in likely 8 years.

I would like to put in an unsolicited offer for one of the machines. What is the value of one of these machines? What have other people been paying for them at auctions and when buying from schools?

I have mach software and have rebuilt 3 other CNC machines, and would likely convert to a G540 or Rockcliff driver and use Mach3.

Thanks,

John Jackson

[airamp]

Hi,

I have a prolight 2000 (servo machine).

These are Stepper motor machines. You need to get the black boxes (controlers) AND the Computers that ran them.

In the computers is a ISA interface card (could be PSA).

You need them to run the machines. From Prolight they are over $600.00 each..

I cannot tell you what to buy them for. I did pay over $1800 for the 2000 with 20 tool holders, 2 computers that ran the machine and manuals and software. It was in excellent shape and runs perfectly.

With everything you would be stealing them at 1K each. If you are missing stuff it goes down from there ??

but you need the cards....

BTW: New list for the prolight 1000 mill is about 37K when last checked a few months ago..

Good luck,
AirAmp

[RotarySMP]

If these are stepper machines, it would seem foolish to me to pay for old drivers and interface cards. Just replace everything upstream on the motors with a modern solution from Gecko and Mach.

[igor]

Did you end up getting the machines?
I have a Benchman XT and love it. So far Intelitek has been very helpful in getting the machine running.

Wonderful thread - lots of information!

I know of a school that has two old Light Machines 1000 that have not been turned on in likely 8 years.

I would like to put in an unsolicited offer for one of the machines. What is the value of one of these machines? What have other people been paying for them at auctions and when buying from schools?

I have mach software and have rebuilt 3 other CNC machines, and would likely convert to a G540 or Rockcliff driver and use Mach3.

Thanks,

John Jackson

[veteq]

I have a Benchman XT and love it.

We would love some pictures man, what a machine>..!!!

[airamp]

Hi John Jackson,

Only consider changing the machine if you cannot get the ISA board, You have the black control boxes and the mills. Some one might have the board if you cannot get it from the school.

Computer and software is easy and these machines run great as they are.

I have the prolight 2000 which is the same machine as the benchman xt and I also love this machine...


good luck
AirAmp

[jjackson]

Sorry for the delayed response. The school board where these machines are is on a different schedule and there was no one left to make an offer to - they were all on holidays. They will be back in a few weeks, will see what happens then.

Thanks,

John Jackson

[igor]

keep us posted....thanks

[Seanster]

I guess I am late to the party but I used to install / train / repair these babies in the early 90's back when it was a Light Machines TMC-1000 & beginning of the prolight marketing. There was a quick-change version with basically an extra 4" (or so) block of steel so it could sit up higher for the extra clearance required.

They were a great machine. I did lots of stuff from milling aluminum parts to fine engraving on plastics. Every now and them someone would fry a stepper motor driver in the control box and I'd have to replace it. (Keep the motor connectors secured) Other than that they were quite reliable.

I have the old, old dos software and maybe a manual for it. No hardware or parts. Probably no schematics, never really used 'em. The dos software was actually quite good in those days. It would handle a decent selection of G-codes and allowed chaining so you were not limited to the size of a program file. Has some I/O for interfacing to robots to load/unload or whatever.

I had written software to convert hp plotter files to g-code. You could use corel draw or autocad to "print" to a plotter and then convert it to run on the mill for engraving.

The dos software that controls the mill had a good 2 1/2 D virtual mode where you could watch your g-code run on-screen and see the results.

There was a separate CAM software package from light machines that was quite easy to use for the education market. Autosketch was normally used with that back then. Any CAD/CAM could be used really you'd just have the control software run the g-code.

-Sean

[Vigilant]

I wonder if this thread would have more participation if the title had said "Light Machine" instead of "Light Madhine".

[backyard_cnc]

"I guess I am late to the party but I used to install / train / repair these babies in the early 90's back when it was a Light Machines TMC-1000 & beginning of the prolight marketing. There was a quick-change version with basically an extra 4" (or so) block of steel so it could sit up higher for the extra clearance required."

Thanks for the comment about the column riser block Sean, I have been considering doing that myself as I frequently am short on Z height using a vice on the table. This is a great little mill and I love it but if it has a shortcoming it is the Z axis design since the clearance is limited and also with a short tool and something direct on the table the spindle doesn't come quite close enough. The spindle really should be able to get another 1" or so closer. Of course a 4" spacer block will back this problem even worse but I get around it by using collet holders with about a 6"long 3/4" diameter shank held in the R8 spindle collet!

Any other things about this mill that you recall that might be useful? Where are you located in Canada? I am in Winnipeg

Gerald