convert ez trak 2 axis to 3 axis

[john_hoek]

I like to convert my Bridgeport ez trak dx 2 axis (1995)to a 3 axis machine,
Is it posible to build in an extra servo amplifier like in the electrical diagram and buildt a quill drive with the same servo motor(sem TM30-H4-44) as the x and y axis .
which servo amplifiers can i use is it posoble to set it up with the same software i run now version 3.04. any help is welcome.

[dreammstr6]

You could wire in the extra servo amp and motor to get the 3rd axis. the hard part is interfacing the motor to the quill. my 3 axis EZ-TRAK uses the cantilever design which is basically a gear box and a linear actuator hooked to the 3 bolt holes in the bottom of the quill. you could take the light bar off z and use an encoder for more accuracy. But better yet you can get a cnc head for this machine for $2500 then u just need motor and encoder and the servo amp. this setup would be alot more accurate. there is a design that hooks off the piece that the light bar hooks onto the quill. But i haven't found a kit for that yet. I'm not real sure but from my understanding of the system you could use just about any motor and servo amp that accepts a 0-10volt torque mode input and has a quadrature encoder output. but i haven't tried that yet. I have 2 of these beasts. One is a 2 axis the other a 3 axis. I do know the bmdc3 card is recomended for the 3 axis machines.

[john_hoek]

How about the trak software in run now ver. 3.04 do i need other software or can i reconfiguratie for 3 axis?

[dreammstr6]

from the looks of my 2 axis machine you might be able to go in to the parameters and change it to a 3 axis without redoing the software. or could just reinstall telling it that it's a 3 axis