To answer some of your Q.... the control is in and working fine... yes the ATC works.... in regards the $8000 retrofit option.... I have bought the machine... new controller and servos for less than that, so wasnt an option...
Yes the $8000US would be a quicker option... but it only took me a week to do... and now I know my machine inside out... and at the end on the day it wasnt really that hard to do... when you strip the old control system back there is nothing to it...
And why PC based... is easy... the program can be made to suit any machine... I have an ET-1 controlller on my plasma machine that has been running for mmm 7-8 years... no problems...
yes there was a few bugs to iron out... but thats no big deal.... at the end of the day I have a controller that is state of the art... can be upgraded though firmware... and is easy to use....
I will give you an example.... was watching a video the other day about someone loading a program into a well known machine control... it was press this .. press that... press reset 2 times..etc...etc
I can load a program with 3 presses on the touch screen......
So that is why PC based...
hope that answers some of the Q,s.....