What's Needed to Upgrade New-In-Box 1997 PR

[gerryv]

I think this calls for some Gene Crane wisdom but I'm sure there are also others who have upgraded a PR.

I live near a fellow who has a 1997 PR that is still in the original shipping boxes - it's never been setup or powered up. It also has an FPZ regen blower and VFD that he'd initially said was 2 hp but clarified as being 5 hp. It's also a biggie with a 14' x 6' cutting capacity :eek:

Has anyone upgraded one of these to the point where it can run Aspire and if yes, what would need to be done? Any idea of cost?

I suppose the other question is whether or not it would be worth the investment considering the possible limitations of the steppers of the day, the less rigid nature of the machine and the possible limitations of the vacuum.

[jerry_stanek]

I have an older PR that I have up graded with the 4g board. you could run aspire on it the way it is without upgrading but not as fast. the shopbot files that I make now are the same format as the old shopbot files.

[gerryv]

Thanks Jerry, did the 4g upgrade provide improvements in cutting resolution, chatter, speed, other?

[CNYDWW]

If i'm correct, isn't that a direct drive system? Is it even a rack and pinion? I know that at one point there was a cable drive setup. If it needs gearing on the motors i'd look at these. http://www.kelinginc.net/CNCGEARBOX.html . I've bought a few products from him including a Gecko G540.

Regards
Randy

[gerryv]

I should have mentioned that the owner wants to stay away from anything to do with DOS or having to learn machine code. Can't say I blame him :D

[gerryv]

Randy, Nice find on those gearboxes, thanks!

It's a rack and pinion setup from talking to him. I'm going to go and look at it as soon as I can get a few rush reno projects out of the way.

[jerry_stanek]

It is dos but you still make your files with Partswizard or one of the vectric products IE cut 2d vcarve pro or Aspire. Yes the 4g gave me faster speeds and more resolution. He could run it like it is and learn it then upgrade

[gerryv]

Hi Jerry, I appreciate the insight. I know that he made the decision years ago that DOS was just too much grief to learn from scratch and would be more now so I guess I'll need to find out if it's possible to run that controller under Windows either with or without the 4g board upgrade (assuming the 4g is still available).

[srwtlc]

Gerald, there's no need to learn/know any DOS commands/language. You just run the program and it opens in a 'DOS' window and can be set to full screen by modifying the shortcuts properties. It's been a long time, but it ran perfectly under Win 98SE. All you need to know are the ShopBot two key keystrokes.

[gerryv]

Sounds reasonable Scott, being a Mac guy it's all kind of Greek to me. Do you mean that the Win98SE could be loaded somehow to run under the installed DOS and SB3 (maybe) could then run under/in Win98SE???

[srwtlc]

Gerald,

All that is needed is a computer running Windows 98se and the proper SB control software. I'm assuming that would be version 2.3 for PR's on SB's control software site. No need to install DOS of any sort, Win 98 handles it.

[gerryv]

Now that sounds like music to my ears. I wasn't about to offer him advise on something I know nothing about. Thanks much Scott :)

[jerry_stanek]

I ran mine under windows 98

[srwtlc]

At least he could get it running and get some experience with it and then move on from there.

One thing I foresee possibly being a problem is that if your using PartWorks/VCP/Aspire to make your toolpaths, is that there could (most likely) be some unsupported commands in the files. This could easily be remedied by modifying the post processor to keep it 'code simple'.

[CNYDWW]

Randy, Nice find on those gearboxes, thanks!

It's a rack and pinion setup from talking to him. I'm going to go and look at it as soon as I can get a few rush reno projects out of the way.

Not a problem.