DYNAMILL RETROFIT

[LYN BYRD]

Have a few questions about the Mach3 Ajax kit.

1) Does the DC310 also take the place of the "traditional" breakout boards that handle the IO and safety charge pump?
2) Does the DC310 have a +10v to -10v for the spindle drive? (Servo Dynamics PWM amplifier model 3030)
3) The toolchanger for this machine uses a stepper motor for indexing the carousel. Do they offer a drive for that? (I am using servo's on x, y, &z)
4) How is the PLC programmed?

[ajaxscott]

Originally Posted by LYN BYRD Have a few questions about the Mach3 Ajax kit. 1) Does the DC310 also take the place of the "traditional" breakout boards that handle the IO and safety charge pump? 2) Does the DC310 have a +10v to -10v for the spindle drive? (Servo Dynamics PWM amplifier model 3030) 3) The toolchanger for this machine uses a stepper motor for indexing the carousel. Do they offer a drive for that? (I am using servo's on x, y, &z) 4) How is the PLC programmed?

Hi Lyn,

Sorry for the delay in replying.

1)1) Does the DC310 also take the place of the "traditional" breakout boards that handle the IO and safety charge pump?

A: Yes. All communication is done via the Ethernet connection to the motion controller board.

2) Does the DC310 have a +10v to -10v for the spindle drive? (Servo Dynamics PWM amplifier model 3030)

A: The DC3IO provides a 12 bit, 0-10VDC with directional bits for spindle control. I don't know if that can be used to drive the Servo Dynamics drive that you have but I'm looking into it.

3) The toolchanger for this machine uses a stepper motor for indexing the carousel. Do they offer a drive for that? (I am using servo's on x, y, &z)

A: No, currently we do not have a native way to drive a stepper motor. I have have several ideas on how that can be accomplished that I will need to get back to you on.

4) How is the PLC programmed?

A: The PLC is programmed in Mach Brains.

Regards

Scott

[LYN BYRD]

Thanks for your reply. Your system seems to cover all the bases. I think that I can just use a stepper drive for the toolchanger. Let me know what you think. What in normal delivery time?
Thanks
Lyn

[cncsnw]

In addition to a stepper drive (amplifier) you would need a PLC with high-speed solid-state outputs to drive the amplifier through the desired motion profiles.

I recently helped another dealer do a tool changer like this. We opted for a DL05 PLC from Automation Direct. The Centroid PLC uses a few of its relay outputs to send the desired tool position, plus a "go" signal, to the DL05. The DL05 figures out the shortest-path distance to the desired position, runs the motor there, and reports "complete" back to the Centroid PLC. The DL05 is also responsible for homing the carousel to a "tool 1" switch on the first call after power-up.

I had initially tried counting out steps using relay outputs on the Centroid PLC, but the response was neither fast enough nor clean enough. The DL05 has built-in features for stepper control that make it much better suited to the task.

[LYN BYRD]

With Mach3 I can just treat the tool carousel as another axis and drive it from the parallel port can't I?