I have a Stepcraft 600, I purchased it several years ago, and it has worked fine for me.
My question is will Octoprint work with it, and will be be beneficial.
Thanks,
Ed
I don't have one of these printers so I can't answer for sure, but if you can send it gcode and use open source slicers like Cura or slic3r then the answer is probably yes, it will work. The recommended configuration is an investment of around $60 for a Raspberry Pi, power supply, SD card. The more technical you are, the more options there are (both cheaper and more expensive).
If you are forced to use a proprietary slicer that came with the printer, the odds of it being a simple upgrade go down (all the way to zero).
As to the benefits, only you can decide that. The major one for me is that it frees my main computer to do anything I want once I've started a job via OctoPrint but I can monitor the print with a browser on any number of devices (my main computer, my phone, a tablet, etc.).
What language does the stepcraft use?
It appears it's a CNC machine
In the FAQ, it shows
You do not need any additional software. The 3D Printer attachment comes with Repetier Host slicing software to create the GCode for the the 3D print files. That file is then run in UCCNC which comes with the STEPCRAFT CNC machine.
So slicing with Repetier language in your slicer should be able to print just fine
Further: It appears to use a UC100 USB-to-25-pin step/dir controller.
Whether Octoprint can talk to that is the important question.
It needs plug-ins for Mach3 and works with UCCNC so presumably has its own
command protocol on the USB.
Googling "Octoprint UC100" doesn't turn up much.
Though I am basing this on current product docs, and the OP mentions an old
product.