First post on this forum, let me know if this is the wrong place to post this, please.

I bought a Newing-Hall engraving table on ebay. I am attaching pictures.

I want to upgrade the controls and want to ask people more experienced than I am on what they would do.

I am an industrial electrician/technician working on german printing presses, I have a working knowledge of electronics but mostly do repairs.

This table works as is but runs on a dos based program limited to text, and arrow heads. That can be changed but have to have a different eprom for each type of symbols or fonts.

I want to be able to use say corel draw or mach2, basically some type of windows based software that can do graphics. I use corel draw with my Roland SX-12 vinyl cutter. I am looking for a new controller and possibly motors if these wont do the job.

The table on this is about 15" x 13".
The stepper motors are slo-syn step motors:
M063-FD06 200 steps/rev
Hold 150 oz.
3.36 volts, 2.9A
x and y are motor driven
z is the down motion powered by an air cylinder

Newing Hall will upgrade this table to there new system for about $8000.00 needless to say that is out of the question. I paid $600 for this and hope to spend less than that to upgrade it myself.

thanks

Steve

I am looking at the cnchobby 3 axis system for this engraving.
See any problems using it for these motors, they are 6 wire steppers?

Sounds good to me. What about the Z ?
But then again I'm new. :rolleyes:


Dave

The Z axis will be controlled with an on board relay that G code can control. At least that is what I have been told.

I found another board that I am going to use other than the hobbycnc.

More details as I learn them.

Looks like fun! It should be no problem getting everything to work. The z-axis direction signal can be used to control the solenoid relay.

Make sure you get a board that can do microstepping and does NOT need current limiting resistors.

What do you guys think of this deal:

Two 5-amp bipolar drives recommend for the existing motors
-- One advanced breakout board, with all required interface cables
-- Mach2

cost about $500

Is bi polar that much better than uni polar?
I found this on Ebay and have talked to the seller willing to help with support and seems very knowledgeable.

What kind of drives are they, exactly? You can get 2 Geckos, a Campbell breakout board, and Mach2 for about the same price brand new ($508). I've got a feeling the Geckos are better drives than the ones on Ebay

Gecko 201 = $114*2 = $228 http://www.geckodrive.com
Breakoutboard board =$130 http://www.campbelldesigns.com
Mach2 = $150 http://www.artofcnc.ca

228+130+150 = $508

1. If your motors have 4 wires, then you have no choice but bipolar.

2. If it has 6 wires, you could go either way, but bipolar would give you no advantage over unipolar.

3. If it has 8 wires, bipolar would likely give you 40% more low speed torque if you wire your motors coils in parallel.

For a small, low friction engraving machine like that, torque is really not an issue. I would select the drive that can handle the highest voltage in order to get the most speed.

The motors I have are 6 wire.

The guy selling the bi polar drives says I will get more torque from these motors, 30% more. The breakout board he is selling has 8 relays rated at 1 amp. I need at least one relay to fire my solenoid.
I have to add that this is the only guy who answered my email questions to him. I have not received as much as an automated reply from any others I sent emails inquiring about there products.

I looked at the links that ger21 posted so I am considering that now. The more I look the more questions I have! But I think everything is coming together, now just need to decide what to buy.

The motors I have are 6 wire.
The guy selling the bi polar drives says I will get more torque from these motors, 30% more.


With a 6 wire motor, you could get up to 40% more LOW SPEED torque if you ignore the centertap and use the other wires as bipolar. BUT, the inductance will be 4 times higher and your motor will start skipping steps at a much lower RPM. This penalty won't be acceptable.

Hi All. Say that looks good Electech. Will you be selling the other motors that came with the engraver? Why are you changing motors ? What base does the new and old motors have? I am just getting started too, and I guess I ask alot of question too. Thanks Lew

Actually I am keeping the original motors for now. They may be a little small but will work. I am keeping them because the lead screw is actually part of the motor. There is no break in the shaft, the lead screw is also the motor shaft.
I could cut it but then would have to space everything out to put in a coupling. The motors work now with the original software (dos based). So I will save some money and time by not replacing the motors until everything is running and I can see if I need to replace them.

These motors are nema 23 slo-syn's. I will post more info and maybe pictures as I go along.

I am new to the CNC part of stuff but have done a lot of work in electronics, electricity etc. I have been an eletrician/technician for 20+ years.

I've been reading over your thread. I have the 210 Geckodrives and would definately say "buy Gecko". If you buy the 201s, you get a chopper-type drive with x10 microstepping. The somewhat more expensive 210 offers full-step, half-step, x5, and x10 microstepping. Because Mach II uses Windows, the PC's parallel port is somewhat speed limited in terms of clocking drives. If this ended up being a limiting factor, a x5 microstep would give you more speed than a x10.
Both drives are bipolar drives and featue 7A/phase capability and supply voltages from 24 VDC up to 80 VDC. It is recommended you go no higher with the supply voltage than 20 times the rated voltage of your motor-you'd be at around 60 volts with your slo-syns. The drives modulate (or chop-hence "chopper" drives) this voltage on and off to get the necessary average voltage to push current through the windings when the motor is at upper RPMs. The result is superior high speed performance. You set the maximum winding current via a small, 1/4 resistor.
Finally, all else aside, I've heard nothing but good things about Maris (the father of the Geckodrives) and his support/policies. That alone can be worth it's weight in gold.
Good luck!

I have to agree with the reputation point.

I am going to check out the Gecko drives before I do anything else.

Steve

Visit our web site www.solustan.com or www.linkmotion.com. We build upgrade kits for most engraving machines on the market. In most cases, you remove the old controller. Replace it with a couple of step motor drivers and a couple of solid state relays to control the Z axis. You will need about 20 to 25 lbs. of air pressure to actuate the solenoid controlled Z axis.

These are some of the best engraving machines on the market. We have upgraded over 150 of Newing Hall machines and over a 1,000 different engraving machines.

LinkMotion is a 32 bit driver. Works with XP or NT. You design your job in Corel Draw version 9 and up or Illustrator or AutoCAD or DolphinCAD or Rhino, etc. and simply print your job to our driver. We control the machine through a parallel port.

If your machine is equipped with cylindrical attachment, LinkMotion is built with the capability to handle cylindrical engraving.

Prices are;
1. LinkMotion driver is $999.
2. Set of engraving fonts are $499.
3. Complete upgrade kit with breakout board, microstepping drivers, power supply, solid state relay in a housing, LinkMotion, and fonts is $2,999.

Shipping charges additional.
We accept most major credit cards.
The above quote is good for 30 days.

Dhiren Shah
Solustan, Inc.
781-449-7666
www.solustan.com





First post on this forum, let me know if this is the wrong place to post this, please.

I bought a Newing-Hall engraving table on ebay. I am attaching pictures.

I want to upgrade the controls and want to ask people more experienced than I am on what they would do.

I am an industrial electrician/technician working on german printing presses, I have a working knowledge of electronics but mostly do repairs

This table works as is but runs on a dos based program limited to text, and arrow heads. That can be changed but have to have a different eprom for each type of symbols or fonts.

I want to be able to use say corel draw or mach2, basically some type of windows based software that can do graphics. I use corel draw with my Roland SX-12 vinyl cutter. I am looking for a new controller and possibly motors if these wont do the job.

The table on this is about 15" x 13".
The stepper motors are slo-syn step motors:
M063-FD06 200 steps/rev
Hold 150 oz.
3.36 volts, 2.9A
x and y are motor driven
z is the down motion powered by an air cylinder

Newing Hall will upgrade this table to there new system for about $8000.00 needless to say that is out of the question. I paid $600 for this and hope to spend less than that to upgrade it myself.

thanks

Steve

Electech,
I have owned many of these machines and they are workhorses! The motors and the lead screws are actualy two seperate parts. the lead screw is glued to the stepper motor shaft and the glue joint "breaks" to prevent damage to the machine in case of a head strike. Be glad to help with any questions I can answere. I have one of these for sale as well with rotary attatchment, stand, vacuum table and fonts. $1000 for anyone interested. jbunner2@comcast.net