RYE QUANTUM - Omicron 3000 Controller SWAPOUT OPTIONS

[BEACHBLANKET]

Yes I looked at LinuxCNC after Routerdriver mentioned it...daunting!

I bought the machine for £500 and went 50/50 with my brother in law, my initial idea being that it provided an excellent mechanical base to start from even if everything electrical needed replacing.

We are looking to start a new business and this machine will form some small part of that business, mainly 2d cutting sheet ply, along with hobby stuff (small 3d stuff, photo carving, sculpture etc. hence the interest in the Vectric Software)

I'm a bit of a recycle reuse nut so the idea of being able to upgrade as little as possible is the most appealing. However given that it's taken me nearly 100 hours to figure out the existing controller/head/software/post processor setup I need to be realistic with time in order to get this up and running efficiently.

I think budget wise, at this point in time we could probably put in another £600 or so what would that get us?

I can't find anything on the encoders in the schematic drawings I have so I'll check wires tomorrow when I'm back with machine.

[JAZZCNC]

Ok well you have bought it right and it would be a shame to spoil it by cutting corners because you'll never build anything like it for £500, it wouldn't even buy the steel.!

Now regards your intention to use it for a business then I can tell you now that you'll use this machine far more than you ever think you will and in ways you probably haven't imagined yet.!
I see this happen all the time with machines I build, people start off with an intention to do this and that on a limited basis and very quickly they are going off at tangents cutting things they never dreamt about then next thing the machine is flat out busy and they want another or bigger machine.
So what I'm saying is invest now and get it running properly because it will cost more later when it's holding you back or breaking down which is the worst thing you need when orders are stacking up.!

£600 will just about get you an Analog controller which would get you going with the existing drives etc.

For a complete refit if you buy Servo Drives and motors from China then you'll just about do it for £2k for a full refit with controller etc.

But even then if you had £3k in the machine fully fitted you have a very cheap machine and it's the route I would take if using for business, even a small business.