IMA quadroform C80/480

 

• I have access to a CNC machine for wood processing IMA quadroform C80/480, which is from 1997. The machine works from its control panel and executes commands. The software installed on it runs on Windows 98.My question is:
  • Is it possible to run this machine using LinuxCNC? Is there any point in converting such an old machine to operate with LinuxCNC? Has anyone modified such a machine or a similar one for this purpose?
• And a second question, kind of related:
  • What would be the best free CAD/CAM software for generating G-code for this machine, given its current system, which reads G-code files in the *.src format?

There are users with converted biesse machines on this forum. If you have the time and motivation to convert it then it is certainly worth it. To give a better assessment of what would be required to get it running with linuxcnc we would need to know more about the motor drives (axes and spindle) if you are lucky then you can reuse drives and motors.
The more information you can provide the better we can help.

Hi there!
I'm also running an IMA quadroform c80/280! We are still using the NUM1060 controller, but we are still adding new features. We have already created an open source Estlcam 12 post processor to create IMAWOP FMC files.
git.makerspace-darmstadt.de/ima-baz/ima-bima-cad-converter
We have integrated our machine into the network to read the src files via NetBeui, we have understood and edited some of the internal macros and we have documented many steps from beginner tutorials to advanced calibration of the machine.
If you're interested in further exchanges, just write me an e-mail: mail@paulhermann.de .
I am very interested in meeting other owners of the same machine to discuss some specific problems and share some documentation!
Regards
Paul