DC Servos and EMC

[parkerbender]

Hello Everybody!

I was wondering if anyone knows anything about using DC servos with EMC? I'm looking at converting a couple of lathes that are all DC, and didn't know if it would be less expensive to drive the DC servos, or swap them for AC units. Also, the spindle motors are DC, which probably are going to stay that way... Does anyone have any magical ideas as to what the least expensive route is? Not really worried about difficulty, i'm relatively decent with electronics, if I could be pointed in the right direction, i can run for awhile...

Thanks!

-Parker

[CalG]

Select a suitable interface board from Mesa. With an FPIG "anything board" Anything is possible. ;-)

OR, select drives that accept step and direction, most do. With a simple breakout board, EMC2 will do the control.

Read thoroughly the EMC wiki, many good references there

[kudos]

Hi

what lathes are these on?
how big are the motors? amps voltage etc

the hardinge superslant i converted has brushed DC motors on there, i kept the old drives and interfaced into them, using a MESA 5I20 card, servo brake out board etc. so analog control to the drives.
http://cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=92057

the Leadwell i have also done has Brushed DC servos also. again i kept the old drives here and interfaced to them.
http://cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=73943

if your happy with the motors and way they perform or did, then i would try and keep with them if i was you, if you have the funds or wish to get the benafits from some good AC servos then id go this route maybe. id be looking it push abit more speed/rapids and faster acceleration from the machine then for the cost factor.

any more questions feel free to ask, thanks rob

[parkerbender]

They're cadillac lathes, I think the servos are 1hp's and the spindle is a 10 horse. The trick is that I'm trying to get rid of the old controller, and just make a smaller box with drives in it, so it doesn't look all cobbled together. So, mesa makes a board that should be albe to drive those dc servo drives, though?

[parkerbender]

I was wondering if anyone had any ideas about this application still, I'm getting back to it, and never really found an answer for a couple things... the spindle is the part i'm most concerned about... it's a DC motor, 36.6 amps, but it has 8 wires coming out of it, which I don't understand... then the servos are fujitsu fanuc servos, with two cannon plugs, one is power, the other is the encoder, which has 10 wires coming off of it in a 17-wire cannon plug.

Ideas? What does a guy all need past a mesa anything card?

Money is tight, but i'm more concerned about doing things right, if it costs a little bit more, i'll just have to hunt the cash down.

Thanks for any insight at all!

-Parker


p.s.
Kudos- after checking things out a bit, you did exactly what i'm looking to do on your super slant, all the way down to the fact that the lathes I have also have 6t's on them now! Do you have more information on how you decided what you needed, and how you interfaced what, is there some documentation somewhere? I don't want to be a burden, but if I could just know where to learn how to put together this system, that would be great!

Thanks again!!!

[kudos]

hi parker

the extra wires on spindle,
id exspect 2 for a temp senser
a set for a fan if its intergrated, if not this is probly powered from else where
and your motor power

the servos
same, A B Z quads, 2 over temp sensers

your drives sound like they convert the encoder some where to analog so you might need a converter board some where like others with fanuc motors/drives i have this yet to do on the fanuc machines.

read here has some info on fanuc motor talk
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux....35/focus=19538

Mesa setup, i used
1x 5I20
1x7I33TA Quad Analog out with encoders in
2x7I37TA Isolated I/O card (8 outputs, 16ins per card)

this should do i dont know how many I/Os you have there

i had already done the leadwell mill so superslant was little more of a walk in the park for us. the EMC docs are grate, the guys in IRC are grate also. if you are stuck im sure i might be able to help some where if needed

to interface you realy do need a manual for the machine, makes life very easy should have one with the machine, if not the machine builder can give you one (may cost)

[parkerbender]

I luckily do have a full set of documentation for the machines, but it is written in 1978 chinese english. I'm also wondering if the guys at mesa might be any help. Anyway, I will keep all of this in mind, and I'm sure you'll hear from me again! Now I'm off to read as much as I can!

-Parker