Novakon M200 w/steppers looking to upgrade to Path Pilot

Looking for some help upgrading my older Mach3 Novakon M200 w/steppers to Path Pilot. I have the USB restore thumb drive from Tormach and I ordered the $10.00 software from Tormach but have received nothing.
My existing computer is original from Novakon with 4 gecko drives.  my CPU says Intel (R) Pentium (R) Dual CPU E2200 @ 2.20 GHZ 2.19 GHZ 1.99GB of Ram.
I'm willing to pay someone for their time. Send me your email and I will send you all the photos of what I have.   
Tell me what to buy and how to configure it.    I'm not LinuxCNC smart at all.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 314-369-3913 St. Louis area
 

Hi David,

There's 2 approaches you can take to this

1. Go custom and buy all the various board to make it work and customize PP as needed to make it work

2. Buy a Control Board from Tormach. (yes they will sell them now, but they will not support your machine). this reduces the amount of customizing PP you might have to do.

#1 needs the most work both in hardware side and customization of hal and ini files but may cost less.

#2 will need less customization of hal and ini files. exception being the spindle. if you can use a SK Commander VFD then it gets allot simpler but a Mill Control board alone will set you back ~650 USB.

#1 means you'll have more control over your machine but you'll also need to keep up and understand PP shortcomings (probably applies to #2 also)

PP does not implement everything that LinuxCNC can do that's PP's downside.

#2 is likely easier to do. you can pull one of the manuals for the Tormach Mills and follow the electrical setup. that's its PLUS side

#1 & 2 you going to want to Get a MESA Card for the PC

That's not all inclusive for either option and just meant as a little starter point

The one thing I would say no mater what is invest some time in learning LinuxCNC. Having knowledge of it will help you understand PP

You don't need the source unless you intent to build PP from source code and they only include PP not linuxCNC or dependancies in that.
Most who need this want to build some of the other component files that PP does not include.

If you run into this. I or others have them built for the kernel that PP runs on so we can supply if needed.

I have a little experience with LinuxCNC as I bought my first mill 15+ years ago and it was running Mach3. It was not reliable and I had Jon Elson convert it to Linux with a special built location board to track where the machine's current position was. I was reliable but not very user friendly. Jon has been working on my 1986 Hardinge lathe and trying to follow BigJohn's conversion which has "Not PICO boards". I have some air leaks to deal with and Jon is working on why we can't LinuxCNC control the spindle with with My GT 7R 5G-Z VFD.

I confess I'm not a computer programmer and Jon can try and explain Ladder file concepts all day but I don't get it. I'm a user......

Jon did not show me any interest in upgrading Mach3 to Path Pilot. I have watched the videos on Path Pilot and I believe the interface will be my saving grace. My other option is to use an Centroid Acorn board and use my laptop that controls my mini-Lathe which runs an acorn board.

You mentioned buying a controller from Tormach. Is that the 2K product shown on tormach.com/pathpilot-controller-50848.html ??

That controller would do the exact same thing as your computer once you load Pathpilot on it, but it does also have a Mesa card already.

Can you post the photos here? Did you ever have an electrical schematic of your machine?

Attached is the wiring and computer set up.   The mill is M-200 and the computer is CD-100
   

I realize this is an old thread, but did you ever get your NM200 up and running with PathPilot? Reason I ask is I have the same mill and am running PathPilot.