Hermes Vanguard 1219 to run on PC ?

Ive got a Hermes Vanguard 1219 with the old controller box, with font cartridges, and hooked up to a 486 pc to load the data to controller, Im trying to figure out how to by pass the old controller, and run the whole thing from a XP or Linux computer.
Ive checked into upgrading it from a couple sources 1500 and up .. looking to do it my self for a whole lot less .. any one here done this ? also looking for open source engraving software that will run on linux or XP

Thanx in Advance
Sean aka North River Geek aka Fish

I'll be watching to see what you find out about this. I have the same situation with an H Square engraving table. Bad controller. There has to be a way to do this I'm sure. 2000.00 is what they want for mine. Good luck. LL

I have a Hermes 1219 bed (no electronics) that I am refurbing to run on a PC. I have other cnc machines so the adaptation is pretty easy. Although I'm doing it myself, I have found a company on the web (q1engravers.com) that sell parts and upgrades for the 1219. You can email me at [email protected] if you want to exchange info about the adaptation. I should have it engravinf by the end of the week. I am using mach3 (artsoftcontrols.com) to run my plasma, engraver, mill, lathe and router.
Randy Ray

I've been engraving control panels for over a month with the New Hermes 1219 running on Mach3. It works very well. I have been buying parts (cutters, vacuum nose, etc.) from q1engravers. Fred (of Q1) has been a wealth of information on the 1219 and engraving in general.
Randy

THis is using some parker drives off of ebay. I would think maybe a 3 axis Xylotex or similar drive would work just fine..
my steppers where only 1.5a. I also only ran 1/2 windings.
http://www.electronicsam.com/images/engraver/

I never actually used the ep module as I didn't have any software to run it. I sold the engraver on ebay.

using emc2 http://www.linuxcnc.org/
[ame="http://youtube.com/watch?v=dKz81fY1OjY"]YouTube - emc2 running hermes engraver 3 axis[/ame]
[ame="http://youtube.com/watch?v=Og6V-nS2dig"]YouTube - EMC2 running Hermes engraver making PCB[/ame]
[ame="http://youtube.com/watch?v=a_OUNLruaVQ"]YouTube - EMC2 running hermes 450ipm 50in/s/s doublefreq[/ame]
[ame="http://youtube.com/watch?v=Hdhn_j6PrCw"]YouTube - emc2 dry run of the 3d_chips test program (linuxcnc penguin)[/ame]