Hi,

After a back and forth with grant funding which fell through, I started back on the path of building/upgrading my current CNC however I have decided to try and upgrade an old CNC Router.

I've got the chance to pick up the above for almost relatively nothing; the guy needs the space more than he needs the money, so I'm going to take it. All of the mechanicals work well, but the catch is there is no control computer. The control box with everything in is there, but no computer (the machine was used by an aerospace company cutting top secret parts so it had to be binned) and from what I have read on here, that's going to cause an issue with the control systems as it's proprietary.

I know little about the machine other than the information above, so I'll write what I have below. If anyone has any info, pages, anything I can read though, please let me know as I would love to look through it.

This is all written on a Movac Modular Robotic Systems sticker.
Model - Pacer 2512K4 (K4 is written on a label, but there is also a label with B80 written on it)
Drive - M
Travel/Rev - 20
Accessories - 3 5 4 7 8
Stroke - 2500 (Guess this is the length of the Gantry run)
Length - 2990
Code - 4355 / 6

Spindle Steel Plate -
AXYZ Triphase AC Motor
No - D68358 1207
Type - TMPE3 12/2
KW - 2.2
COS - 0.79
Volt - 230
Hz - 300
IS. CL. - F
There is also a handwritten white paper stick with - 20738 3HP ELLE SPINDLE


On the machine, there is also a stick with the following -
Model - 2512 K4
Serial No - 2K4101


Ive been told the spindle is single phase, which matches up with the plate, but the machine is 3 phase?

I don't have 3 phase in my shop, the machine I'm currently using is 8x4, Nema23s 3NM and I use Mach3.


My thinking, and please correct me if I am wrong, is I have a few options...

- Pick up a rotary phase converter and run the machine however, with no control computer, I assume this is going to be an issue as I don't have their software?
- Repurpose the current motors with new drives and run it as single phase? I'm not sure if I can do this with the current motors but their engineer seemed to think this would work. I have read that this may be achievable with Linux, although I used this on my current machine and ended up going back to Mach3 as it was just easier.
- Pull all the electronics and install new motors, drives etc and run it on something like a UCCNC or a breakout board and Mach3

Mach3 works fine, but its a bit of a pain so happy to upgrade to UCCNC if that's what is going to be the best option. Ideally, I want everything to be as simple as possible so I can get someone else to run the machine for me while I get to other jobs.

I don't have an issue with pulling the electronics if needed, but ideally would like to keep as much as possible to save on cost.

Please let me know if you have any questions, Ill drop pictures in a reply!