reverse engineering a BIG stepper drive?

[DennisCNC]

Hi all,

Need some tips on were to start in trying to figure out what inputs/outputs do what on this Bridgeport BTC II stepper drive. I didn't take the control cabinet that the drives were in because it was the size of two refrigerators. The only reason I even got this idea cuz they are very clean and don't smell like cooked u-chips. The power input and motor out put is simple the logic cable is another story. The size is about 24x15 inch and ~25lb.
I talked with a person that has been with Bridgeport for a long time and he said that in 2000 when Hardinge took over they toosed all the papers on the ~1990 and older machines.

[pminmo]

Are you sure its for steppers?

[DennisCNC]

Yeah, there steppers. They are bipolar ~2,500 oz/in range Sigma motors.

[cp8071]

Looks like you have fairly obvious Power and Motor connections. You need to find out what voltage it's expecting. Since I see a green wire there I'll guess that it wants AC. I'd also guess that the two small wires on the power connector is a status signal back saying something like "I'm powered up and happy", or "I'm blowed up, everyone shutdown also"

Tell us/Show us more about the logic connector, then trace those wires down and take a picture of whatever they feed into. If they feed into some IC's they you probably need Step/Direction signals. If they feed into different parts of descrete components then those will be phase signals and you'll need a clock generator infront of the drives.

CP