Tormach PCNC Series 3 Upgrade to Centroid's Acorn

I really want to have rigid tapping and conversational programming on my Tormach. I investigated upgrading to Mach4 or PathPilot. As I need to install an encoder for rigid tapping I was concerned about what would be involved to add an encoder to either of those options. Since I already got an Acorn running on my portable 5c collet lathe I figured I'd upgrade my Tormach to Acorn. Since this upgrade is rather involved, I am breaking it down into 3 phases.

The first phase is to have basic CNC functionality, the second phase is to add the encoder, the third phase is to restore the operation of the spindle controls on the panel. The first phase only needs a little more work until it is finished. (i.e. Some macro scripting, spindle speed calibration, and testing.) I've also been documenting the changes and have them in an attached document. (I'll update the document as time goes on.) Of interest may be what pins are needed to adapt the Tormach/Leadshine stepper motor drivers to work with Acorn as the connection does not appear to be standard. (I later found information on the stepper motor driver connections in a newer version of the operator manual than what was sent with my machine.)

I've attached the before and after pictures of the machine's electronics cabinet as well as the latest version of the conversion documentation.

Rigid tapping looks like it will work but I haven't tested it yet in metal as I have the machine tied up with other work at the moment.

Thanks for this information. I want to do exactly the same conversion on a PCNC 1100 but also add servos to xyz.Do you have any videos?

Do you have any new information on you encoder application?

- - - Updated - - -

Do you have any new information on you encoder application?

Does acorn have more or better features than PathPilot?
I think it would take a lot of tuning up to rigid tap on a Tormach.

Dave