Newbie- What components for Servo system

[Monitorboy]

All,
I have been wanting to build a CNC machine/router for about 10 years now. I have been collecting materials and tring to get things going,( I have a tight budget). Anyway, I came accross 3 GE Fanuc Servo motors (IC800SLM075N2Ke25B - 750 watt), and 3 controllers (IC800SSI104D2A), and all the cables to go between them. I was going to use these on my machine, but can not find much information on building a "Servo" CNC system. There is alot about Stepper systems. I want to build a machine with about 5 foot by 5 foot work area and about a 12 inch z travel.
My question is what kind of electronics do I need to hook this up? Is it worth it, or should I switch to the stepper type system?
I am new to the electronic side fo this, and would appreaciate any help you can give me.

[springlakecnc]

Hi,

I don't know anything about what you have. When you say 750 watt, my guess would be they are brushless servos, right? (i could be wrong) which i believe would be a good size for a knee mill or small bed mill. well, anyway, just a suggestion: Try asking Ajax (i think its www.ajaxcnc.com) if their retrofit controller will run those. They sell retrofit packages, and MAYBE, they know what you have, and would be willing to help you get them going. Make sure your up front with them, telling them you know nothing about what you have, and you need help, and don't want to buy, unless your sure everything is gonna run right.

Steppers are cheap, but your comparing a go-kart against a Corvette, steppers against brushless.

Good Luck,
Buck

[Al_The_Man]

Fanuc are pretty proprietary when it comes to their systems, I don't recognize those numbers, but the fact that you have the motor and matching drives probably indicate they might be general servo's rather than off a CNC system, so if you can obtain the documentation, you can find out if they can be controlled by step.dir or if you can add a step/dir convertor.
You mention 5'x5', so if this is a router system, they should be plenty big enough as you would most likely gear down, depending on what type of drive system, rack&pinion etc?
Fanuc charge for everything, so there is no web site for free manual downloads etc.
The other thing to check is whether the drives only accept 3 phase, as they are fairly large motors.
Al.

[Monitorboy]

Al and Buck,

Thanks for the reply.
Attached are some pictures of the controler, motor, and name plates on each.
They are "Brushless Digital Servo motors". The motors and controlers came off some automated equipment that we took out of production, and I robbed them off befor it went to the scrap yard. They did not come off a CNC machine. They already have a 10/1 gear reducer attached to them. They will accept single phase 230 volt, but according to the litature, they lose some tourque and speed.

The controler has alot of features for inputs and outputs such as home and limit switches and jog handles, and internal programming and controls for them.

I can not figure out if they can be controled by step and direction. I have the user manual, but when I try to upload it, even zipped, it is too big. Is there another way to get the manual out there for someone to take a look at?

[jalessi]

Upload the document to Rapidshare.com and then post the link.


Jeff...

[Monitorboy]

Thank You Jeff.

Here is the link to the file. I would apprecate anyone looking at this that has the time to see what electronics I need to make this work on a homemade CNC router.

http://rapidshare.com/files/139963543/gfk1848c.pdf.html

[battwell]

it appears to be an analogue controller which accepts +/- 10v for speed control, but according to page 5-19 you can program it to accept pulse/direction signals too

do you have the fanuc programming cd mentioned to communicate with the controller for programming?

it has a 2500 encoder fitted on motor

[Monitorboy]

No, I do not have the programming software. I guess I will have to purchase it in order to use these. Is that correct? Will the popular cards for the stepper motors work for these or do I have to buy a special card for Servo motors?

As I said I am clueless on the electronics of making this work. I can handle the building of the machine, and have done alot of CNC programming and operating in the past, but do not know my A** from a hole in the ground when it comes to the electronics.

[battwell]

i would wire your motors up to your drives and have a play first, maybe getting some more advice.

do you require these to run at full speed as at that voltage your above most hobby drives from what i can see. if you can get away with approx 80v which will equate to roughly 70% max speed then one of the gecko drives (servo drives that is should run them ok) check with gecko to confirm.
your not looking for stepper drives!

the drive literature states they will run with step/pulse signals so try running your drives first. read the manual pdf for wiring instructions. your drives are already perfectly matched to motors etc.
they have loads of features you dont need too!

[battwell]

http://geckodrive.com/product.aspx?c=2&i=14457

gecko 320 would work at reduced speed but would require a power supply built

[samco]

jeepers. if it will do +/-10v - use EMC.

pico systems and mesa make interfaces to run this style drive. It would also give you a ton of i/o. why does everyone want to convert it to step and dir?

http://linuxcnc.org/
http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/emcinfo.pl

supported hardware
http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/emc...orted_Hardware

sam

[Monitorboy]

Still invesigating with Mesa, Pico and Gecko.

Gecko says my motors are too big for their stuff.

Mesa and Pico I am still investigating.

Jon from Pico has been extreamly helpful.
I found out that I have to buy the "Special programming software" for these controllers from GE Fanuc, it is called Motor Developer. Finally got a price of $593.00. Also that the encoder has a propritary signaling scheme, so the motors have to be used with the controllers. Seems like this is getting ot be more trouble than it's worth (or that I can afford).

I still have some more investigating to do before I give up though.