Bandit Revival ?

[HPbyGD]

Hi Guys

I have an old Bandit controller that is left over from when I upgraded my mill. I have seen where some of the parts form the Bandit controller have been reused for an other project. The steppers , power supply, the axis drivers, a breakout board and either Mach 3 or EMC . I would like to find someone that can help sort all this out. I have a working 3 axis CNC so I could make some parts in return for the help I get. I am not a electrician but understand the basics. I am 50 miles north of Charlotte NC if you were in the area that it a little easier but not a necessity. In case you are wondering what the project is, it is a saw for cutting 4 pool cue shafts at one time. I have most of the mechanical parts just looking for some help with the electronics

Thanks Gary

[HuFlungDung]

Hallelujah brotha, can I get an "Amen" for the Bandit. He has come to see the error of his ways and now wants to become a Bandit fo' the Lord. Amen! Hallelujah! There will come a day when the good Lord will raise us all from the dead, and the Bandit will be as one of us. Hallelujah. But in this life, no man can raise the dead and so we let the Bandit rest. Amen!

[Karl_T]

I'll you and "Amen". I cut my teeth on a Bandit. It had a whooping 160 K program memory.

Are you sure about stepper? All the ones I used had DC servos.

Karl

[CalG]

I have the programming manual in "electronic"format if needed.

I have most of the mechanical parts just looking for some help with the electronics

Thanks Gary [/QUOTE]

[KIMFAB]

I have a full set of manuals for the bandit if you want to pursue this.
I obtained a Shizouka mill with a bandit controller and was under the delusion that it was still workable.
Here is the story. http://www.kimfab.com/shiz/shiz.htm

My unit also used servos but I think there was some stepper units out there.
Give Len Albright a call (406) 587-7776 He is the originator of the Bandit and can steer you straight.
I upgraded my Shiz to a Shadow control using my old motors and amps. Total cost was about $3500

[HPbyGD]

Hi Guys

I know that the Bandit is not the best by today's standards. This project is about trying to get my old brain to learn more about CNC electronics. The reason that I have these parts is because I upgraded my Shozoka mill to a Shadow controller. I was told that the motors are steppers but I don't know for sure. I was just hoping that I could get this running with a some help and a few new parts. I don't want to spend $3500.00 on this project.

Gary

[HuFlungDung]

Servo motor cables have two main conductors, I would think that stepper motors probably have more than that. Both the bandits that I changed over had servo motors. Actually the motors physically look about the same as the ones I got for the Shadow retrofit, except I think the old motors had resolvers on them, whereas the newer ones had encoders.

I could be all wet, but if you have one of the cards called resolver logic, then most likely it was servo motors because a resolver probably would not make sense within a stepper system.

Probably another thing to look for would be the analog amplifiers for the motor drives.

It might make more sense to contact one of the repair outfits to try to sell your bandit cards to them. You might get $500 to $1000 for particular rare cards if they are working.

If you actually try to revive the Bandit electronics, this is likely not cost effective should you require someone to fix one of them at some point......it gets pricey in a hurry.

I think you could reuse the servo motors, there is nothing really wrong with them. You'd probably want to upgrade the resolver to an encoder (under the end cap of the motor) to get modern.

I would also advise that you get some modern PWM amplifiers rather than try to discover what the heck is going on with the original amplifiers and the attendant rather large power supply required. With a new amp, you get the instructions on how to hook it up, and that is a big plus

Consider that Mach as a controller is almost as cheap as a used PC, so it is difficult to compete with the economics of that.