Post here? Refurbish engraving table

[Electech]

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

[debogus]

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


Dave

[Electech]

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.

[H500]

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.

[Electech]

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.

[ger21]

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

[H500]

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.

[Electech]

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.

[H500]

Originally Posted by Electech 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.

[Lewis Riley]

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

[Electech]

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.