Re-Retrofit of Bridgeport BOSS 5

Hello all, I am new to this forum, finding it by way of accident while searching for info on retrofitting my BOSS 5 CNC. Some background. I own a small machine shop with 3 Bridgeport CNC's, one original BOSS 6 Series II, a Centroid Retrofitted BOSS 9 R2E3, and a retrofitted BOSS 5. In 2000, I retrofitted my ailing BOSS 5 with a cheap control replacement because the overall cost was less than the replacement cost of the board that was bad. The kit came from MachineMaster, and included an Ah-Ha Design Group interface board and a small plug-in card, which, when coupled with a 486 computer replaced ALL of the control boards in the BOSS 5. Very simple installation - re-wiring the limit switches and limit override switch, adding a new Cycle Start and Hold button and a few other minor mods. It has worked slick as could be for the last 17 years, but quit suddenly after a holiday shutdown. After much investigation and conferring with former Bridgeport service technicians, I have decided that the Ah-Ha interface board (IF16, in case you were wondering) is kaput, or possibly, the small proprietary "break-out" board that actually plugged into a card slot in the CNC.. Everything else checks out. So, the hard reality is unless a miracle occurs and I find a new IF16 board that I can afford, I need to re-retrofit my machine with another system. Another hard reality is I need to do it for the lease possible cost. I have read about Mach3 (or 4) and Gecko Boards, and PMDX breakout boards, and a lot of other things, but am fairly clueless where to start. I am hoping that someone has done something that was not bank-breaking expensive and worked well. I read one blog where a Bridgeport CNC was basically totally gutted, and some of the internal electronics were hacked to adjust voltages, etc, but I am not that confident. I like the idea of using LINUX CNC to run the machine, but I really need a machine to run, if you know what I mean.
I would be very pleased if anyone could offer guidance with this project.

Yes, Linuxcnc can run your Bridgeport using it's old driver electronics. (You'll need a PC and probably an inexpensive breakout board.)
If you arn't comfortable digging into the electronics, doing the retrofit yourself or need it done fast. It might be well worth your money to pay a retrofitted to tackle it.

I'm sure there are many people here on the list willing to help walk you through it here on line if you are willing to tackle it yourself.

If you want to pay someone, tell us where are you located, you might be able to find someone near by who can help you out?

I'm a newbie to linux. I have a BP Boss5 that's giving me control problems. All axis and spindle work but I can't type in any codes. How would I go about retrofitting this machine with linux and I'm sure it would be better to operate also could I add a 4th axis to this machine. I will appreciate any and all advice. I'm in northeast ohio and if there's someone close to get a look at their setup I would go in a moment. Thankd

I'm in NE Ohio (about 20min. West of Canton). Where are you exactly?

I'm south of Ashtabula ohio

I'm about 2 hours drive from you.

Do you have any documentation for the system you had retrofitted? Especially pertaining to the board you suspect is bad? We need to get a feel for what hardware you have and how it is/was controlled, to plan the simplest/cheapest strategy for retrofitting your machine to Linuxcnc.

I believe the LSI-11 board is bad , this is a Boss 5 control, which hasn't been retrofitted yet. I have pics but can't figure out how to post them.

If you click the button "Action" (not Quick Reply) then choose "Reply". Below the text input box there will be a button "Attachments", click on that to upload a picture that you can add to your message. (there is a 1.6M size limit.)