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Light Machine Corporation
- Thread starter Cwn82977
- Start date
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2015
- Messages
- 154
Wow do you buy yourself a peck of fun!
I used to repair equipment of that era when it was new. The basic machinery is close to industry standards of the time. The linkage from the steppers to the cutting platforms is unique to the model. (Sometimes to the serial#) The interfaces are 'improved' versions of the semi-standards that existed.
The software was pretty funky when it did work. The whole package was designed by computer people trying to prove machines could do a better job than a properly trained human. *FAIL*
Your best chance at making that stuff useful will be:
- Get the power supplies running
- Figure out what each stepper and servos does
- Buy new USB drivers for the steppers and servos
- Build your own control programs from the apps that come with (and others have written) the USB drivers
If you are lucky, there will be others on eBay that you'll be able to scrounge parts from.
I used to repair equipment of that era when it was new. The basic machinery is close to industry standards of the time. The linkage from the steppers to the cutting platforms is unique to the model. (Sometimes to the serial#) The interfaces are 'improved' versions of the semi-standards that existed.
The software was pretty funky when it did work. The whole package was designed by computer people trying to prove machines could do a better job than a properly trained human. *FAIL*
Your best chance at making that stuff useful will be:
- Get the power supplies running
- Figure out what each stepper and servos does
- Buy new USB drivers for the steppers and servos
- Build your own control programs from the apps that come with (and others have written) the USB drivers
If you are lucky, there will be others on eBay that you'll be able to scrounge parts from.
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2014
- Messages
- 11,144
I did a quick search, looks like the interface card is about $600. WOW!!! Looks like your best bet is to buy a parallel interface board and connect it to the drives. Something like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/CNC-6-Axis-...b317504&pid=100005&rk=1&rkt=6&sd=181188134696
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2014
- Messages
- 11,144
That should work, you just need to figure out where to connect the terminals in the black box. The driver in the black box will have a step and direction input somewhere. It may require some reverse engineering unless you can find a schematic somewhere.
Another option might be to replace everything with something like this http://www.ebay.com/itm/Free-ship-W...525?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4adcc3eca5
Another option might be to replace everything with something like this http://www.ebay.com/itm/Free-ship-W...525?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4adcc3eca5
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2014
- Messages
- 11,144
Mach3 has no drawing functionality, it only runs the machine.
Three pieces of software are required: First you draw the part in a Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) program, then you process the CAD file in a Computer Aided Machining (CAM) program, this produces the G-Code that the Computer Numeric Control (CNC) program, like Mach3, can run.
Most CAM programs have some CAD functionality. There are also a number of free or really cheap CAD programs available.
CamBam is one of the less expensive ($149) CAM programs, and it plays nice with Mach3. It also has some limited CAD functionality, OK for really simple drawings, but but a pretty clunky interface for any serious work.
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Three pieces of software are required: First you draw the part in a Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) program, then you process the CAD file in a Computer Aided Machining (CAM) program, this produces the G-Code that the Computer Numeric Control (CNC) program, like Mach3, can run.
Most CAM programs have some CAD functionality. There are also a number of free or really cheap CAD programs available.
CamBam is one of the less expensive ($149) CAM programs, and it plays nice with Mach3. It also has some limited CAD functionality, OK for really simple drawings, but but a pretty clunky interface for any serious work.
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