Need Help!- Hurco KM-3 Retrofit

[dbart]

I have a Hurco KM-3 mill with Ultimax 3 controller, Servomate SM1090-1110C servo driver and Electro Craft Corp servo motors. The Ultimax controller is no longer functional but I believe my servo motors and drivers still work. I am interested in retrofitting an EMC2 control onto this machine and would be interested in any words of wisdom from anyone that has done a similar project. I would like to still use the Servomate and ECC servo motors unless someone can give me a good reason to buy new. I have several years experience with PLC's and industrial logic controls but this is my first venture into CNC and servos. I have been lurking here in CNC zone and in the Linux EMC forum for a few months and I need to make the jump and get started on this project. Thanks for any ideas, advice, information, etc. that you can give me.
David

[PCW_MESA]

Originally Posted by dbart I have a Hurco KM-3 mill with Ultimax 3 controller, Servomate SM1090-1110C servo driver and Electro Craft Corp servo motors. The Ultimax controller is no longer functional but I believe my servo motors and drivers still work. I am interested in retrofitting an EMC2 control onto this machine and would be interested in any words of wisdom from anyone that has done a similar project. I would like to still use the Servomate and ECC servo motors unless someone can give me a good reason to buy new. I have several years experience with PLC's and industrial logic controls but this is my first venture into CNC and servos. I have been lurking here in CNC zone and in the Linux EMC forum for a few months and I need to make the jump and get started on this project. Thanks for any ideas, advice, information, etc. that you can give me. David

Those look like standard analog input servo amplifiers so if the drives and motors are good it should be a straightforward retrofit.

Do you know if the motors have encoders or resolvers? (encoders would make the retrofit easier & cheaper)

There are at least three vendors that I know of that can supply EMC2 compatible hardware to do this retrofit:

Mesa Electronics (I'm from Mesa)
Pico Systems
Vital systems (motenc lite)

With our hardware, the usual set of cards required is this
1 5I20 FPGA card
1 7I33TA 4 channel analog servo interface
1 7I37TA 16 input 8 output isolated I/O interface

The 7I33TA provides 4 channels of +-10V analog control signals for the motor drives and 4 encoder input channels.

The 7I37TA will provide 16 5-24V inputs and 8 1 Amp 24VDC outputs for limit switches, probe inputs, coolant control etc.

If 16 inputs and 8 outputs is not enough , a second 7I37TA can be added to give a total of 32 inputs and 16 outputs.

[dbart]

PCW_MESA
Thanks for the input. I will go to your website and look at your cards. I am sure that I will have plenty of questions for you as I get further into this project. By the way, I have encoders on my motors so that is good news that will save me some $$$.
Thanks,
David

[DonnieET]

dbart

I converted a SM1 a couple of years ago. I would highly recommend the mesa products that PCW_MESA listed. The SM1 used the Electro Craft motors but used a hurco made drive that I was able to use. Most of the Hurcos used encoder feed back some even had tack feed back to the drives.

A very doable project

Donnie

[skullworks]

The KM3 is one of the easiest CNC's to retro to EMC2.

My Uncle has a dead KM3 and I looked into the refit requirements. When he refused to sell it off to me (guess he needed it as a place to store vises), I went searching for another dead machine.

I ended up scoring a working KM3P that had the MAX32 upgrade with nearly every bell & whistle software option Hurco offered. I have 15+ years exp using Ultimax Conversational and can hand write some mean G-code so for now I'm keeping the machine as OEM.

The limit switch board is opto-isolated already so it is handy as is.

You can remove alot of wiring from the magnetics side cabinet by swapping in a VFD for the FWD & CCWR contactor units. If the machine came with a coolant pump it has a 3ph contactor also. This could be replaced with a very small VFD if you need to run from 1ph power. I would retain the spindle air brake as it is much easier to change U200 shanked tools when the spindle is solidly locked.

The 2.2KW spindle motor runs 1800rpm and has fan cooling for the body fins, keep those clean and it will run without overheating at near max load all day long. I do not know how well it would be for running outside the 50/60Hz range. Keep in mind the age of that motor and it was made in Spain. Durable when used as intended, but pushing it high or low with a VFD might overstress the windings insulation.

The power supply for the servos is usually powered via 110VAC 1ph, same for the OEM power supply for the Dual-bus card rack. These are in the right side cabinet.

[=aike=]

Originally Posted by PCW_MESA With our hardware, the usual set of cards required is this 1 5I20 FPGA card 1 7I33TA 4 channel analog servo interface 1 7I37TA 16 input 8 output isolated I/O interface The 7I33TA provides 4 channels of +-10V analog control signals for the motor drives and 4 encoder input channels. The 7I37TA will provide 16 5-24V inputs and 8 1 Amp 24VDC outputs for limit switches, probe inputs, coolant control etc. If 16 inputs and 8 outputs is not enough , a second 7I37TA can be added to give a total of 32 inputs and 16 outputs.

Hi!
I used retrofit for the Russian 1325F30 lathe.
You can get HAL, ini files and electronic scheme. Go and see (. "-". | MicroCNC | www.microcnc.ru). The problem - all text in Russian
And use SVST2_4_7I47.BIT for Mesa!

[dbart]

aike, thanks for the schematics and files. I will try and get the schematics translated but I have a pretty good idea of how you went about your retrofit. If anymore of you have some schematics drawn up on how you did your conversion, even if it is not on a Hurco, I would be interested in having a look.
Skullworks, thanks for the input. I have 230 3ph available in our shop so I don't think I will retrofit with a VFD at this time. If I can get the NC control retrofitted and working I will consider that a major win. I will probably start pulling out old components this week and start tracing wires. I will take some pictures before I start so I have some before and hopefully later some after pictures.
Thanks for all your feedback.
David