Need Help!- servo drive for parker sm series motor

[ihavenofish]

hi, im working on 2 gantry router projects fo rme and a friend, the designs are basically the same, the only real difference is the amount of travel on each.

ive got a dozen or so parker SM232BE-NFLN motors lying about, and would like to make use of them.
http://www.compumotor.com/literature...sz23_encdr.pdf
http://www.compumotor.com/literature..._sz23_crvs.pdf
http://www.parkermotion.com/products...80_567_29.html

id also like to use mach 3, because its relatively easy and cheap to get going, and theres alot of support available. this means i need step and direction input.

the motors are about 480w continuous, and acording to the specs use a 170v bus, however my motors say 340v on the label - they may be custom spec, not sure. in any case, parker has 2 drives that work with these motors and accept step and direction.

the current model is the aries AR-04SE which handles up to 400w continuous on a 170v bus. the drawback is that this drive is $750 which makes the whole thing alot of money. ive never seen a used or surplus model.
http://www.parkermotion.com/products...80_567_29.html

the obsolete model is the TQ10-SD, which is nowhere to be found new or used. the original retail was over $1000 though.
http://www.parkermotion.com/products...80_567_29.html

the nice thing about the parker models is they are all in one. just plug them into a 110v outlet and off you go.

basically what id like help on is finding an alternate drive that costs much less. preferably under $250 each. they can be used at that price, but i do need at least 6 of these, probably 10.

any ideas?

the alternative is to ditch these motors and go to steppers, but id really like to use the ones i have if possible for performance and precision reasons.

[Al_The_Man]

It looks like they will be fairly flexible as they can be run as DCBL and have the encoder and hall effect combined.
If you want to run them with Mach step/dir then you need drives that close the encoder loop.
The voltage may be a limiting factor for economical ones though.
Al.

[ihavenofish]

Originally Posted by Al_The_Man It looks like they will be fairly flexible as they can be run as DCBL and have the encoder and hall effect combined. If you want to run them with Mach step/dir then you need drives that close the encoder loop. The voltage may be a limiting factor for economical ones though. Al.

i think im going to use a gecko 540 stepper set up just to get the thing working. i can always swap it out later on if i find the ideal setup for these motors. the only big thing ill be losing out on is dynamics, since my mechanical setup can handle 0.5G acceleration and 1200ipm.

at this point though, ill settle for a working machine that i can use!
ive had these components for like 3 years collecting dust.