Newbie- CNC retrofit

[maghen]

Hi!

I hope some of you are interested in helping me.
I have an old (1981) CNC mill, a Storebro Combi Mill (swedish machine) with a Bosch Alpha 3 control system.

Unfortunately something in the control system broke down this summer. While trying to find the problem, I also search for alternatives.

What would you say is the cheapest and best way to retrofit to a PC based control? I believe the servo motors are OK and will not have to be replaced.

What are my alternatives? Are there any well proven solutions?
I Have thought about geckodrive servo-drives and a PC with a cheap or free stepper motor control. Any thoughts on that?

Thanks,
Magnus

[chazmtu]

Hello,
Welcome to the forum. I would say definitely stay with the servos. In addition to being very valuable hardware it also can detect missed steps while steppers cannot. While I don't own a gecko drive I hear many great things about them. They're 114 dollars US on their site and I think you need one for each servo. As for control software I would suggest mach 3, it's supposed to have the smoothest drive control, also a few hundred US (not sure how much). You might want to look into emc2 as a control alternative also haven't used it yet myself but its open source to keep your cost down.

Chuck

[billystein]

Hi Magnus,
I have been looking at retrofits for a while. luckily my old bandit hardinge still runs pretty good. I really like the centroid controls and in the case of the hardinge, they have a kit for it including a 5 hp ac spindle upgrade. the price was about 13k last time i looked. I think you can get a cheaper system but i think the centroid deserves a look. at least you can compare the other systems to something.

let us know what you end up doing and how much you spend.

good luck

billy

[maghen]

Thanks!

Yes I will stay with the servo motors.
Geckodrives are the only servo motor drivers I have seen that "understand stepper motor language" (step and direction) and that is what all (?) cheap or free CNC softwares put out.

Are there in fact any free or cheap CNC softwares that can be used directly with conventional servo drives? Mach perhaps?

[Karl_T]

Look at EMC

http://www.linuxcnc.org/component/op...aid,6/lang,en/

[Al_The_Man]

Originally Posted by maghen Geckodrives are the only servo motor drivers I have seen that "understand stepper motor language" (step and direction) and that is what all (?) cheap or free CNC softwares put out. Are there in fact any free or cheap CNC softwares that can be used directly with conventional servo drives? Mach perhaps?

To use conventional ±10vdc analogue drives with mach or? you need a step/dir convertor to analogue converter.
Although Mach does not close the servo loop, there is a servo product being touted here called the 'Brain' that works with Mach that has analogue control in the works, I believe.
Al.

[maghen]

EMC surely looks just like what I need!
I don't find the web page very informative for a newbie like me though. Is there anywhere I can find a little more information. Like what system requirements are needed? Will I need a IO-card or does it use the printer port? What will have to be adjusted for different applications? etc.

[svenakela]

Unfortunately EMC is not a beginners choice I believe, but with some knowledge of CNC and some curiosity it's a really fun thing to setup. In any case EMC is extremely powerful and I would say go for it.

And BTW, we are discussing a European EMC meeting, why don't we retrofit your machine?..

[maghen]

Originally Posted by svenakela Unfortunately EMC is not a beginners choice I believe, but with some knowledge of CNC and some curiosity it's a really fun thing to setup. In any case EMC is extremely powerful and I would say go for it. And BTW, we are discussing a European EMC meeting, why don't we retrofit your machine?..

Well, I'll start to read about it and see where I go from there.
If you really are interested in retrofitting my machine, I'm sure we could reach an agreement
My location up north in Sweden may not be very practical for all europeans though.

[svenakela]

Originally Posted by maghen Well, I'll start to read about it and see where I go from there. If you really are interested in retrofitting my machine, I'm sure we could reach an agreement My location up north in Sweden may not be very practical for all europeans though.

Ah well, let them experience some Nordic winter darkness.

[integerspin]

I am in a similar situation, well sort of.
I have a matsuura.
There are other drives, the ones I am looking at are.
* geckodrive 320[?]. 80volt max though.
* larken viper, there are pics of a Hurco thats been refitted with larken drives on the forum.
*Rutex. Seen pics of a few machines refitted with them and they fit my requirments.
*Granite, these are from Finland and they are about to start flogging a new drive and I am waiting for specs on the new one.
* If your adventuous with a soldering iron there is also the UHU drive.

Stuff the name and servo drive into google and the websites will be listed.

The cnc brain looks quite promising, see the long thread on here for more information.

[maghen]

My retrofit-haze is slowly clearing up. Three Larken Viper 200 are ordered. I will try Mach3 to start with and see how it works. As it seems my old encoders will be up to the task!
What am I missing here? anything?