[americanbehn]

I am a middle school Tech Ed teacher, I have a Spectralight CNC mill and lathe that are on their last legs. I even used the machines when I was a student, now that I am a teacher at the same school it is time for some updating!
Currently the mill has stopped running. The spindle motor won't power on and the software is running on an old IBM computer. I am looking to upgrade on a tight budget. A new pc card will run me $1000 and there is no guarantee the machine will even work.
Any suggestions?
I see alot of posts on new stepper motors but not much on spindles.

[juzwuz]

Hi! I'm not 100%, but I thought the spectralight machines were essentially rebadged Sherline machines? www.sherline.com sells replacement parts for their machines. I think you can buy a new spindle and controller there. Stepper motors are fairly cheap from ebay (keling 280 oz-in motors are decent) and they also sell stepper motor drivers. Hobbycnc and xylotex drivers are also popular. I wouldn't pay $1000 for a new pc card.

[americanbehn]

Well, I am considering going with the Spectra CNC upgrade with the Linux software, though I am unsure how well the Linux software will work for Middle school students. Any suggestions?

[juzwuz]

I'm not familiar with the Spectra cnc upgrade. I'm guessing the Linux software would be EMC2 (www.linuxcnc.org) which you can download along with Ubuntu Linux. I've got an old PC with Linux and EMC2 which is running a Taig mill. It works great! Ubuntu Linux should be fine for your students. If they can use Windows they should be able to use Linux.

I guess I should have asked if you wanted a plug and play solution or are you wanting to upgrade the machine yourself or as a class project.

[americanbehn]

I am prepared to upgrade myself. Seems like a pretty common activity according to the people who post here, hopefully it should be somewhat rewarding... like a working machine!

[aminear]

I would shy away from a Unix/Linux system, you would be better off going with a windows based software.

Few students would know anything about Unix/Linux. Your cad and cam software that you will use is probably windows based also.

For a DIY take a look at Mach3. I upgraded a couple of machines for the High School here and used Mach3. Total cost less than $300 for both machines.

[Halfnutz]

I second the Mach3/Windows route. A Hobby CNC or Zylotec controller or 3 Geckoe's and a power supply for under $300.00, 3 stepper motors for under $150.00 and a copy of Mach3 for $150.00 would get you a complete up to date system you would enjoy using and have great support for. Just my two cent's, I don't know beans about EMC though...

[Metal Head]

If your SpectraLight is truly a vintage from IBM computer days (late 80's?), then it has an interface card for IBM microchannel buss which IBM has long since abandoned. The cnc machine has gone through some major changes since those days. It will be tough to ressurrect the machine to what is currently sold by Intelitek.

If your machine has an ISA style controller card, then it may be worth upgrading to a new PCI card (new computers don't use ISA any more) and the new Windows control software. If it still works and the computer will run Windows, there probably isn't much reason to change the computer and interface card. If your computer is on the way out however, the new interface card should cost around $700 and the interface card with new Windows control software comes in a bundle that should cost roughly the $1,000 that you already know about.

The mechanics of the machine are Sherline but the control box, interface card, motors and software are all Intelitek. When it works, the package is awesome. You can also get curriculum for it. The Windows control software runs EIA-274 or Fanuc compatible code. It's also easy to output code from most major CAM packages to your machine.

Intelitek will sell you replacements for every part of the machine but, they will be pricey. If you don't mind investing the time, you can save some money if you can source the steppers or spindle motor yourself. To be honest, I have never seen a spindle motor go bad on a SpectraLight machine. The most common pieces that break are the plastic plugs on the stepper motors and the driver transistors in the black interface box when the plugs break on the stepper motors.

Have you checked the obvious things to get the spindle motor running? The most common mistakes are:

1. Check the fuse in the black interface box that says "spindle motor"
2. Check that the black power cord going from the spindle motor is plugged into the outlet on the interface box that is labeled "spindle motor" and not into one of the other outlets.
3. Check that the heavy gray cord from the black interface box is plugged into the interface card in the computer and not into the printer port on the computer.
4. On the older cnc machines, you can usually test the spindle motor by plugging the black cord from the spindle motor directly into a 110 volt wall outlet and it should immediately turn on and run.
5. Depending on the age of the cnc machine, it may have a "computer" mode on the spindle speed knob on the front of the machine. Try moving the spindle speed from the "computer" setting to something else and see if the motor turns on. This newer version of the machine will also have a default spindle speed setting in the control software that should be set to something over 500 rpm.


Good luck...

[juzwuz]

People find that the Mac operating system is easy to use and at the core of the Mac operating system is a UNIX system. I find that the Ubuntu Linux is pretty easy to use. It's all graphical/icon based just like Windows/Mac operating systems. I looked at Mach3 but I decided to use Linux/EMC2 on an old 1GHz PC to control my Taig mill. I do use the Vectric software suite on my Windows PC to generate gcode and then copy the code over onto a USB flash drive, take it to the garage and load it up on my Linux machine.

If you're handy with electronics, you can get new stepper motors 280oz-in for around $35, centent drives for $50ish or keling drives, power supply, controller pc, wires, connectors, etc. for maybe $300.

[americanbehn]

Well I replaced the motor of the mill with a motor from an unused lathe and the machine works fine now.
During that time I purchased the upgraded PCI card, only to be dissapointed. The new card was too much for my old mill and their was a lag between the computer and the cnc machine that caused the machine to cut incorrectly. The solution from intelitek was to upgrade the cnc machine, only $3500 after spending $1000 on the PCI card.
I am going to use the 80s vintage spectralight machine for what I can and maybe upgrade the mill or lathe at a later date. Thanks for all the help.

[kbogoski]

I also have a Spectralight 0200 and am in need of the software to run it from a Mac computer. I am unable to run it on a Windows machine as my school district has abandoned Windows 7 due to cyber security issues.

Does anyone have a link or know where to download the application?

- - - Updated - - -

I also have a Spectralight 0200 and am in need of the software to run it from a Mac computer. I am unable to run it on a Windows machine as my school district has abandoned Windows 7 due to cyber security issues.

Does anyone have a link or know where to download the application?

[awerby]

The Spectralight 0200 is basically a Sherline mill repackaged with an enclosure and a proprietary controller from Intellitek (see: https://www.intelitekdownloads.com/M...WIN_Manual.pdf ) and sold in the education market. It's been discontinued for quite a while, so it's unlikely to have software that will let it work on modern operating systems, let alone MacOS 14. I'd suggest you replace the old controller with a stand-alone Sherline controller https://www.sherline.com/product/940...r/#description and set up the Mac to dual-boot into Linux, then use LinuxCNC to run it. Sherline has a version they can provide with all the right pin-outs. https://www.sherline.com/cnc-instructions/

[joeavaerage]

Hi,
the basic question is do you go with Linux, and remember that the particular distro of Linux HAS TO BE REALTIME, thus ordinary Linux distros are not useful OR go with Windows.

Many LinuxCNC users swear by LinuxCNC and tend to trash anything else. That they have such strong opinions in favor of LinuxCNC is a good thing.....but if that precludes some rational discussion
about alternatives, well that seems less than helpful.

There are quite a number of CNC software solutions that run on Windows PCs, including Mach3 as has already been posted. All development of Mach3 ceased nine years ago, so not withstanding that
it still works and has a loyal fanbase, it is in my opinion obsolete. I have been using Mach4 for nine years and it is light years ahead of Mach3. If you are updating a machine to Mach then I'd have to recommend
Mach4.

Another well-known and mature Windows based CNC software solution is UCCNC, made by CNCDrive in Hungary. When paired with one of the motion control boards, a UC300 for example, they are very
good. They are a head on competitor to Mach4. I myself believe Mach4 has the edge but please be aware I'm biased.

Clearly your project is budget sensitve so it makes sense to lay out fair and square what these two might cost.

Mach4Hobby License=$200USD
Ethernet SmoothStepper =$225USD
MB3 breakout board (by CNCRoom) =$200
El-cheapo recyled PC =$200
TOTAL $1025USD.

Note that I made a couple of assumptions here, namely the use of an ESS and an MB3 boards, and while they are good they are not the cheapest. If you were penny pinching you could
do better, but I have recommended this combination because I know 100% they work. Second issue is that if you buy a Mach4Hobby license you can in fact have up to five machines licensed,
whereas UCCNC is licensed strictly one license per machine, but the UCCNC license is cheaper at $60USD.

UCCNC License =$60USD
UC300 motion board 152Euro
UB1 breakout board (by CNCRoom) $200
El-cheapo recycled PC=$200USD
TOTAL $660USD

As you can see UCCNC is slighty cheaper, but comparable to Mach4.

Another solution that may interest you is Centroid Acorn. It is a commercial solution that includes both a 4 axis motion control board/breakout board combination and an entry level Window based CNC software
solution. It costs $363USD, but you will probably find that you wish to avail yourself of some of the many options including a pendant, which significantly adds to the cost. None-the-less many
Centroid users are very happy with their choice. It may lack the flexibility of Mach4 or even UCCNC but is good for most conventional machines.

There is some suggestion that your students might be overmastered by Linux, and well, I disagree. My guess is your students would take to it better that you or I might!
The real concern is not the students but you. If you are more familiar with Windows and after all you have to install and maintain it then by all means get a Windows solution.
If however you are comfortable with Linux then Linux CNC is hard to beat.

LinuxCNC License and realtime Linux distro FREE
Mesa motion control board (one of many to choose from) $250USD
El-cheapo recycled PC=$200USD.

There are other choices, like Eding, Masso, PlanetCNC, various GRBL Gcode senders, and it would be wise to do a little research on them as well. That I have not called them out specifically
does not mean that I consider them inferior, but rather the four I have listed (Mach4, UCCNC, Acorn and LinuxCNC) are probably the best known and widely used.

Craig

[routalot]

How about using a virtual machine inside the Mac OS?That way you could keep using the version of Windows that was intended for the machine.Not being a Mac user,I have no idea of what options for running a virtual machine,maybe the first thing a quick search brought up would do the job:https://www.techspot.com/downloads/2...usion-mac.html .Otherwise the suggestions above deserve careful consideration.

[metalmayhem]

linuxcnc would likely be the easiest choice in my opinion . I'm going to take a guess that the machine has a breakout board built in and plugs direct to a pc db25 . If thats the case then all you'd need is a mesa 6i25 card which appears to be back in production . If I remember correctly the linuxcnc setup wizard has a sherline configuration . If your spectra has the same pinout then it should be plug and play . Otherwise I'd be willing to bet that someone on the linuxcnc forum will have a config file to give you . Navigating the os that linuxcnc is built into is pretty straight forward , if you can mouse your way through windows then this is no different

[joeavaerage]

Hi,
Mac OS has never had a CNC software solution. Macs maybe good for lots of things but CNC is not one of them.

Second issue is 'who bloody cares?'. When you are running a machine, the OS is all but invisible anyway.

It was explained to me once that once a PC (any PC) is being used to control a machine, it is no longer a PC, a general purpose computing platform,
but a machine controller that just happens to use Windows (or Mac OS or Linux) as an operating system.

When all said and done CNC is a realtime control situation, and absolutely has to be. You have a machine whipping around with a spindle spinning and it MUST be
controlled 100% of the time. Windows is not a realtime OS and so uses a motion buffer, but within that 'wrinkle' even Widows with a buffered motion controller achieves
realtime control. What will absolutely stuff that up is if the PC, for whatever reason stops controlling the machine but starts doing something else, f*******king software updates
are a classic!!!

For this reason, a machine controller, be it Linux or Windows or Mac should be unencumbered by any other software, it should not be hooked to the internet or even a network.

My Mach4 machine is controlled by a little dual core Atom single board PC with 3G (usable) RAM and no graphics card. It is a very low power PC but works fine and has done for ten years.
I installed a 32bit Windows 7 Embedded OS, broadly comparable to the then current Windows 7 retail variant. Being an Embedded install it has, at my choice, no anti-virus nor any firewall.
Note, it's not that they are installed but turned off, they are not there full stop. As my machine control PC is never on the internet I don't need that junk

I have Mach4Hobby installed, a small conversational Gcode programmer, and two (Delta and Allen Bradley) servo tuning packages....that's it. Nothing else. This PC is to control my machine and nothing else,
and so I need no other software than that. I've been operating that way for ten years. The OS has never had an update, not that there are Windows 7 updates any more anyway, but why update if what you
have already works?

To OP, forget the OS, you'll not be dealing with it. To run a machine, you need a computing platform that sticks to the task at hand, and believe it or not the OS is literally taking resources away from
the one and only time critical task....running the machine. The only time you see the OS is when you are transferring Gcode files, or archiving Gcode files, and for that purpose any OS is perfectly
adequate.

I rather suspect that running a virtual Windows machine within a Mac is inviting greater latency which will in turn stuff up your machine. Don't bother. CNC software is not a hugely
popwer hungry application, to whit my little dual core Atom. One of the kids or grandkids cast off PCs will be any amount enough. Even if you bought one, you only need a second hand
desktop or laptop, and a pretty modest one at that. You can afford to have a single PC to control your machine and have it do nothing else. The computer part of CNC is the easy bit.

Craig

[joeavaerage]

Hi kbogoski,

I also have a Spectralight 0200 and am in need of the software to run it from a Mac computer. I am unable to run it on a Windows machine as my school district has abandoned Windows 7 due to cyber security issues.

From my previous post does it matter? If the PC in question is never hooked to the internet or even to a network then how can it be a security risk?. Second point, and most germane is that once a PC is connected to and controlling a machine
it is not a PC anymore but a machine controller. A machine controller requires a different mindset. It has to do one job, and one job only, and must do it perfectly every time without even the slightest interruption.

If the school board starts complaining, just tell them that you need a machine controller, not a PC, and that Macs are not suitable.

Craig