Hi Tweakie,
thanks, I'd forgotten Aspire. I seem to recall there was a freeware solution, not Freecad or FreeUtils........or something..... that had useful letter engraving capability.

Craig

Hi Tweakie,
thanks, I'd forgotten Aspire. I seem to recall there was a freeware solution, not Freecad or FreeUtils........or something..... that had useful letter engraving capability.

Craig

The best free letter engraving software that I have used is F-Engrave. https://www.scorchworks.com/Fengrave/fengrave.html
It is perhaps more suited to V-Carving lettering than producing moulds but it may be worth taking a look.

Tweakie.

Hi,
thanks Tweakie, that was the one I was thinking about. OP can decide for himself.

Craig

pics of motors and controller

pic of controller
rs232 so a simply rs232 parallel input, i could simply work out the i/o and connect it to mach3?

the other thing////
am i NOT supposed to be using windows 11?
is it something to do with plugins?
thanks

Hi,
those steppers are made by Berger Larh, a top quality German brand. If you can reuse them do so.

The controllers appear to match....which is good news. Getting information about them so you can use them may be a challenge. The 'cross' someone has
put on one of them may mean its faulty?

If you want to run Mach3 and Mach3's parallel port then you'd need a 32 bit version of Windows 7 or XP. No 64 bit OS will work, neither will Windows 8,10 or 11.

If you want to use a 64 bit PC then you need an external motion controller like an Ethernet SmoothStepper. The parallel port is history....forget it.

Try to find the information about the drivers and then test them to see if they work. If they do all's well, if not then you'll need replacements. You need to make the tests to determine that choice.

Craig.

no, the cross is an x I put on it for x -axis
the machine was complete
 the 'really' funky things is I have bought two complete machines
this is a small mill
the other is a double wire hot wire cutter for foam cutting - cutting foam to keep you still in a thingbob machine
i think this machine has a light box draw that you pull out and use as a digitiser type thing - still junk nowadays, but hey ho


was on the ebay for ages, typically 5 miles up the road and got the first one in my little car
going to get the other on the weekend

like you say, the first thing I did was pull it apart as it was in an enclosure - check the dates on the giblets
its all really high quality stuff, but I fear its from 1997
I have already bought the new little nema 23's 8 wire
i have some 3a drivers that I know how to set up
and I have a network cable 3 axis breakout board
a mach 3 license

would have been nice to use the motors, I did check the data sheets and as soon as I saw they were ten core new it was out of my realm, or league,
then i checked the price of them on ebay....................

vrdm 564/50 lna

Hi,

its all really high quality stuff, but I fear its from 1997

Whatd'ya mean, I'm from the sixties and still f*******ing excellent!

Craig

yes, you went through the 32 bit to 64 bit software no worky on me new pc tarbarkle - them youngling don't know they are born.

so yes, 1997 = its all a bit not worth it, the otehr thing is, when looking on the ebay and there being real lots of them for sale means no one has gotten their heads around a re-porpoise
seems a shame to cut the cables from them too, BUT The shielded cable 'appears' to be worth more than the motors them selves


some of them in my control box = easy