Parker 514c SSD - What did I buy?

[born2bewilder]

Hello folks. Here's the situation, hopefully someone can give me good advice:

So a little while back, I bought a Parker 514c DC motor drive from a surplus shop. I wasn't precisely sure how I would be using it, but thought it might be appropriate to drive a spindle for a mill I've been working on.

In short, the documentation was not as useful as I thought (presumably you should know if you want the thing before buying it ), and I still have questions about the suitability of this drive to my needs.

Here is the aforementioned documentation: http://www.ssddrives.com/usa/doc/HA463296.pdf

Some questions I had about this drive:

The drive is listed as suitable for 'shunt wound' or permanent magnet DC motors. Are any motors that are shunt wound likely to be listed as shunt wound? In other words I wouldn't mistake them for some other type?

Drive feedback is listed as 'armature voltage' or tachogenerator. I assume that 'armature voltage' only applies to shunt wound motors? I gather they use an extra winding? My knowledge of DC motors is a bit weak, I could be wrong about that.

In the other case, using this drive with a permanent magnet DC motor, it would necessarily need to be equipped with a tachogenerator then, correct?

Ebay results for 'shunt wound' motors in the HP range were all well out of my price range (most US$500 and up). I was wondering if any of the commonly available DC treadmill motors could be used with this drive? Would a tachogenerator be needed with that type of motor? (I don't think treadmills have them, but are speed controlled?)

This drive is described as being a 'four quadrant' capable regenerative drive. As I understand it, this means the drive will accelerate of decelerate the drive in either CW or CCW directions. One application I was considering for my mill work was rigid tapping, so reversibility would be a plus. Would this drive in combination with any motor be appropriate?

This would be my first mill build, and my last question is how one would interface to an analog drive to allow the CNC software to control the speed? ...if anyone could clear that up as well.

...or, If I knew that this was totally the wrong drive for my needs, I could send it on it's way and try something else.

-b2b

[born2bewilder]

Well, I've had my eye out for a suitable matching motor for this drive unit for the past few months. I haven't seen any that fit my needs well, at least not at a price point I would consider. So, I'm putting it up for sale on ebay. I'm not sure of policy on links and such, so I won't put any. You can search for it. SSD Drives / Parker 514c/16

Auction is BIN, it is for the 16 Amp output model, for up to 4.5kW / 6HP capability, for DC shunt wound motors or DC permanent-magnet motors with a tachogenerator.

For someone with access to an appropriate motor, I could see this being the basis of a nice variable-speed, bidirectional spindle or something like that. Just need to design a circuit for the -10v<>+10v analog I/O.

Feel free to make a fair offer if you are interested.

-b2b

[Al_The_Man]

That looks like a nice drive, I am surprised you could not find a motor for it? Any of the larger DC P.M. servo motors would work, the servo motors often come with a tach which gives nice control,especially with 4 quadrant drive.
You do not need a wound field motor, wound field can come in shunt or series, but a P.M. is always shunt type, and it will work with current F.B. as well as tach.
If you are looking at the T.M. type, look for the upper end ones such as Baldor or Leeson etc, not the cheap uni-directional ones.
Al.

[born2bewilder]

It isn't that I couldn't find a motor. Most that I found were either, say, 90v, 1/2 HP cont. motors, or they were close to $500. I've spent less than that for all the AC servos/encoders that I've found so far for my planned machine. The real issue is that my budget is over the rainbow somewhere from speculatively buying things like this, which has stalled my build somewhat. If I could resell this for a few bucks profit, I might be able to find a nice ball screw for my Z, which I would dearly like to have.

However interesting it would be to scratch build a spindle, it's not part of my immediate goals.