Can this Servo Motor be used?

[BWay]

I am building a CNC router and recently purchased 2 direct belt drive linear actuators that came with 2 AC servo's connected to a 10:1 gearbox. The motor, reducer, and actuator are nicely put together. Originally I planned on replacing the motors with DC servo's but I am reconsidering.

Here are the details on the motor:
240 VAC Input
12.5 (lb-in), 1.4 (Nm) Rated Torque
5000 (rpm) Max Speed.
7 lb-in (0.79 Nm) to 55 lb-in (6.3 Nm) of continuous torque
Encoder resolution: 2048 lines per rev.

So my questions is before I scrap these motors what are my options for using?
What type of drive and control setup would I need?

[Al_The_Man]

You need to know what type of feed back and commutation the motors need, are they AC sinusoidal or BLDC, this will decide the type of drive you will need, then there is the control capability are you using closed loop back to the controller or through the parallel port such as Mach?
Your budget and the decision on the method of controller are going to decide whether you can use them.
Al.

[BWay]

Al...thanks for the response. I will need to do some more home work to figure out if the motors are sinusoidal or BLDC.

Would Mach be a better choice then EMC if I stay with this motor? I recognize there are other factors but what is your opinion on this?

[NC Cams]

The tag on the motor say it is made by Control Techniques

They show up readily on Google.- top of the list actually.

ONce there, type in the model number found on the tag.

SHould tell you all you need to know about the motor and type of drive it needs - id od hope you can read FRENCH as the stuff I found was all in that language.

Part of the fun of using surplus equipment is looking for and finding the innformation needed to make the "bargain" useful.

Have fun.

[Al_The_Man]

Originally Posted by BWay Would Mach be a better choice then EMC if I stay with this motor? I recognize there are other factors but what is your opinion on this?

It it not so much the motor, per se but what is available in the way of drives, so first you would need all the info on the motor to make an informed decision.
Al.

[NC Cams]

Look at it this way.

You have three dumb things that you're trying to interface; a computer, a drive via LPT port and a motor.

The motor wants to be fed either AC or DC power ONLY. It wants it fed a certain way. Period. It probably gives back a feedback signal to either the servo amp or directly to the PC, again it doesn't care. AND it doesn't know what it is talking to.

YOu have a servo amp that is going to pass AC or DC power to the motor. It senses voltage and/or current so that it does not fry itself. It doesn't know or care what the motor is - it will only do what it was designed to do per instructions it is given by the LPT port. IF you had enough pushbutton switches and could push them fast enough and in yhe right order, you could make the motor run without the PC. It is the responsibility of the integrator to match the mptor to the drive and the drive to the PC and the software

THe PC is essentialy being fooled into thinking that it is dumping pages of text through the LPT port via the MACH program As far as the PC is concerned, the servo drive in this instance is essentially nothing more than an unusual printer.

The person who origianly designed the LPT port would probably say that the use of a printer port to drive a servo motor "was outside the realm of intent for an LPT port".

Via the clever programming and creativity of folks like Mach and Gecko, a "printer port" has been turneed into a machine tool interface. Cool

However, when it comes to the INTEGRATION of these parts. they are assuming that he eventual user is or will be take the "tools" that they've provided and, with a bit of knowledge and education, be able to adapt them together and put them to good use.

A motor isn't a motor. A servo amp is not a servo amp. Until or unless someone who has found/used the EXACT same motor and EXACT same servo amp and eventually the EXACT same PC (they all seem to work different with Mach) can tell you what to do, , you're probably going to have to do your own research into the type and drive requirements of your particular "great find" motors. THis is the challenng and rewarding part of DIY CNC stuff. This is NOT a plug and play hobby.

Until or unless that good Samaritan comes along, here' s some more helpful hints.

Look up some servo repair shops in your country. who work with your motor.

Ask them if they can tell you what kind of drive the motors need.

See if there is an agent or branch of the motor maker locally, then call them.

SUrf the motor makers web site.

I found a ton of information available that the search engine found just by typing in the motor model number.

Start reading and ddown loading the various PDF".s. As stated erlier, they are mostly in French. You're on your own in the resolutin of that problem.

This is not a show stopper. When I found an article on servos that I HAD to have translated, I went to the local university and asked around at a coffee shop if the kids knew anybody who culd translate Chinese. Got a number, made the call, deal was struck. THe kid mad a term paper out of it and got paid nicely for it. Ah Capitalism.

The zone members can answer some questions off the tops of our heads. IN other instances, we can point in the direction on how to FIND the solution of the problem.

In this case, if AL-the-Man can't answer it off the top of his head, you'll have to become friendly and adept at using Google or the other solution methods provided above.

Good luck in your search.

[Al_The_Man]

The motor says 'Made In USA' and it appears Control Techniques are under the old Emerson Brand now, so it should not be hard to get data, an email to Emerson support may get somewhere.
Al.

[BWay]

Al and NC Cams...thanks for your response. Probably my biggest concern before getting to into using these motors is that many have recommeded that it is essential to use a drive that is matched to the motor (specifically with AC Servo's). In other cases I know that this can be worked around without too many problems. Of course being new to all of this I will need to keep researching....

Thanks!

[KTP]

Probably you can use the control techniques (emerson) brushless drives that show up all the time on ebay to drive these motors. Search for En-204 or EN-208 on ebay. Usually over a period of a month or two you can pick one up for under $150.

I use these almost exclusively now to drive my brushless motors. Step and direction input, sinusoidal AC drive, industrial case...