Our local school was auctioning off some equipment and I secured a Techno CNC Patriot 1410 for $100. Score! The problem is nobody knows where the control card (PCI Servo Interface?) is. The best guess is "it got thrown away with some old computers."
Off to the internet I go! I've been in and around 3D printing for several years so I'm comfortable with a little DIY like this. So far I think I've narrowed down what I need to do to get functional to:
1. PC Interface Software: I'm leaning towards LinuxCNC for broad compatibility and I have several Pi4 devices collecting dust.
2. A hardware interface to replace the missing PCI card
As you can tell I'm early on this journey. I know that LinuxCNC can drive the machine (possibly after getting a new control card/motion controller) but I think I need the CNC equivalent of a Slicer in 3D printing, right? Something to render my models into corresponding GCode?
As far as the missing PCI card, a new one is $1,000 from TechnoCNC. That seems crazy. I've seen some discussion of the Mach 4 which looks like what I need (software and hardware.) Or should I be looking at the Centroid Acorn stuff? Ultimately if I can't get anything else going I'll gut it and use the enclosure for a heat controlled 3D printer. That just seems such a waste...
TL;DR; I bought a used CNC router missing a critical piece. Advice appreciated!