Light Machines controls and PC Interface card fs / value?

That's a tough one. A friend of mine bought one of those at a local school auction and it didn't include the PC interface card or software. He called Light Machines and they wanted something like $1200 for it!!

I did a bit of searching on the Web and found that nearly everyone that had one of them either removed the CNC motors and used it manually or converted the electronics to more modern and common drivers.

He ended up finding a complete system online for $500 and then he sold both systems to a friend of his and I have no idea where they are now.

For the most part, assuming you have the same version he had, which is a pretty old one, it's worth a fair bit if you happen to find someone that needs it. If not, it's not likely you'll get much at all for it. :-(

His system was pretty old and had the name SpectraLight on it. It was based on a Sherline mill. If you search eBay for SpectraLight you'll find that there is a mill and a lathe listed and they're bid up pretty high. I also see a MUCH newer system listed.

Best Regards, Keith Marshall snipped-for-privacy@progressivelogic.com

"I'm not grown up enough to be so old!"

The systems I have also require a hardware security block or "dongle" attached to the parallel port for the software to run. If you have it or can get it, it needs to stay with the system also.

Very expensive but pretty limited capability and low demand for the older stuff. If mine gives trouble I can't fix, I will surely change to another system.

Don Young

Thanks for all the comments- still doing strategy, but I'm recommending (because cost is paramount) that we do the simplest upgrade - put a Xylotex board in the box, s**tcan the rest of the stuff for now, later tie in the limit switches, spindle control etc. Original uses L297/298 chips, which I suppose one could interface at a logic level to a parallel port, but why bother.

So, I'm guess> Helping the local high school upgrade, they need to recover