Need quick advice on these actuators

[heathmanc]

I bought 3 of these looking for a somewhat bolt together cnc router that will have a 2.2kw chinese spindle with a k2cnc z axis.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...t_11754wt_1021

They appear to be pretty hefty, over 80lbs a piece. My question is, do I really need the second rack and pinion to drive the gantry or should I just use them both? I plan on turning the rails so the motors face down and the carriage faces outward and will bolt the uprights to it. Any concerns or better ideas?

I am also wondering about the servos/amplifiers. The description says they take step/dir, but the manual is vague. Any ideas?

Charles

[heathmanc]

Looks like I'll probably be stripping the servos and drives anyhow, can't locate the software online to tune them. good news is that the Sanyo P5 servos say the have standard nema mounts.

[Jason3]

Those are nice units! The servos may already be tuned for the actuators, although they won't have been tuned specifically for your application, they might work just fine. You have at least $2k worth of servos and drives there, would be a shame to strip them for the sake of some software, especially since the drives are capable of taking a step/dir input. In the worst case, if you can't get the software, you could still keep the servos and use a drive such as Granite Devices VSD-E.

I would definitely use one each side of the gantry, personally.

[heathmanc]

The problem is, I don't think I can put them in step/dir mode without the software. The granite devices look nice, but this appears to be a 200 volt servo. As for driving the gantry, i'm going to strip one servo off, use for the z, and run an axle between the sides. I'm thinking of an overhead gantry for this but haven't decided for sure yet. Shipping for the 3 units was 360 pounds.

[jalessi]

Heathmanc,

If you decide to get rid of the servos & drives please drop me a line.

Jeff...

[heathmanc]

Well, Sanyo-Denki was nice enough to email me the software so I'm in luck there. Now I just have to figure out what cable the computer uses to interface the drives, I haven't received them yet but would like to be prepared. Anybody know if this is just a standard db-9 cable on both ends?

Charles