Series 1 cnc stepper

[ABT]

Hi,

Can someone help me with the specs of the steppermotors of a series1 BOSS 4 mill?

I'am going to retrofit the mill, but I want to use the original Sigma steppers.
I need the torque and the amphere's of the motors

Pictures of the motors are attached.

[keebler303]

On my BOSS 5 the motors pull around 8 amps each. The voltage is something around 60 volts. I think fuses 12 13 14 are the three drives. Measure the voltage across the open fuse connections to get voltage. Measure current between the fuse connections to get current. Factory spec is 8.2 amps I believe, voltage is easy enough to measure. Torque doesn't really matter as far as the drive and controller is concerned. If you want to measure torque, bench mount an arm onto the shaft of the motor. Energize the motor so it has holding torque. Add a known weight at a known distance on the arm. Keep adding weight until it loses its position. The the distance times the weight when it falls is the holding torque of the motor.

Matt

[creep_pea]

ABT

Why not use the original drivers if they still work that is, they can be driven with a PC, HillBilly does a BOB for them.

[Mike Nash]

I don't know the specs on this motor. I looked online with no success on Sunday. Another guy local to me is having issues with his Boss 5 and these steppers. He has a Superior on the X (the alternate motor which is a replacement) and it runs smoothly on a Gecko 201. But the Y and Z are the Sigmas and are very rough at very slow speeds with the same drives. I swapped the cables and the Sigmas are rough on the X drive also. It seems to cog, really hard. I had some luck with the Z by wiring bipolar half winding. The Y was a little better but still so bad it would break the small end mills he needs to use. If you get over 3 IPM (15 RPM) they're smooth as silk. But in cutting profiles you can't do this. I tried lower current and it was better, but stalled at higher speeds. I tried adjusting the midband resonance pot with and without the Nema 42 jumper. It would help a little, but only at certain speeds. I even carried one of them home and hooked it to a HobbyCNC unipolar drive. Still rough.

He's ordered a Nema 42 from www.kelinginc.com to try. Unfortunately, he was told on the phone that the shaft is 3/4" (probably 19mm?) where the spec sheet said it was 16mm which is close enough to 5/8", like the originals. The taper lock bushing can be changed or bored easily enough though. We'll know this week if it's going to work.

BTW, his Gecko's were set for 6 amps by the vendor of his box. I don't know if the vendor knew the rating or not. The keling motor's spec sheet rates it at 6 amps and massive torque. I could stall the Sigma easily by grabbing the ~3" pulley while off the machine.

[contractdesign]

I do not have the specs here with me now, they are at work, but I did a Boss 5 conversion with Geckos and Marris at Gecko told me exactly what power supply voltage to use. I would feel free to call him for advice, he is extremely knowledgable I'll let you know on Monday if your still interested.

[cabledude]

Contractdesign-
If you could post your PS voltage, it would be much appreciated. I'm gutting my BOSS 5 and BOSS 6 machines, and have my BOB and Gecko's on the way. Since I'm probably not going to use the existing three phase drive transformers (60+ VAC and I will eventually convert to single phase with VFD's), I'm ready to build my power supply. I'd love to know what voltage works best with these original steppers (I have both types; Sigma & Superior). Neither machine has ever lost a step, but I'm tired of replacing transistors, and want a true 4th axis. Now the logic boards are giving me fits.

Second question: The BOSS 6 was an upgrade in precision - they geared it down 2:1 to allow for .0005/step (.001 on the BOSS 5 @ 1:1) but ran the steppers almost twice as fast. The problem is, the rapid is a little slower, but the accel/decel is way slower than the 5. Obviously, the BOSS 6 gearing should allow for heavier feeds, but I've never had a problem with that on the BOSS 5 either. Any feedback on what rapid speed people are getting with the original steppers? Any experience out there with the radically different stepper speeds and/or gearing?

Any help would be most welcome. Thanks. This is a great forum.

Rob

[jshumer1]

This should help:

[Mike Nash]

Just a quick update.

I haven't seen it yet, but the Keling motor was installed and runs smoothly on the Gecko. The taper lock bushing was changed to 3/4" and bolts with nuts were used to secure the motor since it is not tapped like the originals. He was also able to cut a bunch of parts with an 1/8" endmill where as before he was breaking them every other piece due to the rough table movement.

[contractdesign]

cabledude; I used a TTI power supply model 22858. The operating voltage is 48V @ 12A. This was reccommended by Gecko (Marris). I bought this new for just under $200. My machine had both the Sigma and Superior motors. My max speed on the drives (G0) is only 60 ipm. I could and have run them faster but at this speed they sound good and do not loose pulse counts. Also for reference, I used a PMDX122 breakout board.

[cabledude]

I appreciate the great info and quick responses. I'm going to build my own PS, but now I'm getting somewhere thanks to all of you! I just hope I can crank up the rapid to something over 60. That means the BOSS 6 will rapid at...30IPM?? Guess I better latch onto some old BOSS 5 1:1 pulleys before I tackle that machine!

Thanks again to all.

Rob

[ABT]

Originally Posted by contractdesign cabledude; I used a TTI power supply model 22858. The operating voltage is 48V @ 12A. This was reccommended by Gecko (Marris). I bought this new for just under $200. My machine had both the Sigma and Superior motors. My max speed on the drives (G0) is only 60 ipm. I could and have run them faster but at this speed they sound good and do not loose pulse counts. Also for reference, I used a PMDX122 breakout board.

Hi,

I have a problem, I use these drivers and the sigma steppers.

I've connected the Pin 1 to 4 on the stepper to the A and B of the driver.(4 wires)


It will only move very slowly, at most about 20ipm.

Do you know what the problem is ?

[cabledude]

ABT-
The specs on your drives show 80 - 230 VAC input but an unspecified DC output to the motors. The 203V Gecko drives I am using (like most I am familiar with) use a DC input and do not deal with rectifying. Do you know what DC voltage is going to your steppers? Is it proportional to the AC input voltage or just clipped at a certain voltage? The original BOSS4 (3,4,5 and 6) had 56 VDC to the steppers. Your 80 VAC minimum is what I am concerned with, but I don't know your drives.

As a trial, I have recently hooked up my X axis (sigma) motor on my BOSS 5 to the Gecko 203V, a CandCNC BOB and MACH3 software. Before I ripped the guts out of the machine, I wanted to try it to see how it worked. I picked off the original 56V from the BOSS 5 power supply. I have only 2 windings presently connected, and it works great. I have yet to try it with the windings wired in parallel. I was able to get back up to the original (+/-) 100 IPM rapid. The motor sounded the same as with the original electronics. I ran a short program (infinite loop) with a bunch of different feed rates and rapids for an hour or so. The motor never missed a step, and the Gecko drive was showing the yellow LED (peak efficiency) in rapid. I just hope it works as well with the windings in parallel. I'll keep you posted as I go.

Rob