cnc milling machine

[bigred5765]

If you were wanting to go for maximum performance, ideally you'd replace the stepper motors and drives, however what you have should work reasonably well.
The first step is identifying everything in the control cabinet, and coming up with a plan of what to do.
Google is your friend here, as searching for anything that looks like a part No. or model, will usually help identify things. For example searching for GS-D500 as per the stepper driver, reveals it's a SGS-Thompson GS-D500 driver module, and a datasheet can be found at http://www.premier-electric.com/file...f/GS-D500A.pdf

I'd say you'll need some form of breakout board, along with either a PC with suitable parallel port, or external motion controller. Personally I'd go for an external motion controller, as they generally make for far easier setup, better reliability, and it'll be more future proof.

The biggest issue will be if the original control used 24V logic, as most cheaper breakout boards/controllers all use 5V logic. Are there any markings on the linear power supply (circuit board in the bottom right corner)?
24V logic is the usual industrial control voltage, and makes things more reliable and less affected by noise/interference, however it does make things a bit more expensive.
And after having a quick scan of the stepper driver manual, it could possibly run on 12V, as the drives use 12V for their logic.

Also, where do the cables that plug (silver/shielded plugs) into the top of the stepper drives go to?
There may already be some form of breakout board/controller that they connect to, that might possibly be useable.

not sure were the silver wires go at the mo ill take a look tomorrow see if I can trace them to and from point of origin ?
im thinking new drivers and external motion controller or something similar to links above might be my best route simple wiring and following instructions in great at,make voltage droppers boards and circuit boards hmm not so good lol