Hi Nate,
The simulated resolvers should work but hard to say what the accuracy would be. Assuming the lead screw directly connected to the motor and 1024 counts per rev that would be 0.0002" resolution. But my experience with resolvers is that they may not be perfectly linear because of the high interpolation over a relatively large sine wave. Sometimes they have noise of several counts unlike an optical encoder. Adding encoders might improve accuracy and resolution if an encoder of more than 1024 counts/rev (256 cycles/rev) is fitted.My main question is: Is there a potential problem (loss of accuracy) using the simulated encoder signal to feed position information to KFlop/Kanalog instead of a physical encoder mounted directly on the motor shaft? Would it be necessary to modify the motors to add an encoder, or would it be possible to increase machine accuracy by doing so? It will currently hold tolerances about +/-.001, and I would love to get this better, even at the expense of sacrificing speed if needed.
Sorry but again hard to say for sure. I would expect that in velocity mode you could move slowly (possibly with reduced servo gains) while monitoring following error and soon as a significant error occurs stop and assume it is locked.The spindle motor is also a servo motor with the same type of simulated encoder from the drive, and it drives the spindle using a belt. I will need to orient the spindle, both for boring head retract and eventually getting the tool changer working, but because of the belt I can't do this based on motor position. It currently orients by spinning the motor slowly until an air solenoid activated detent pops into place and locks the spindle. Is there a way to control the torque available to the motor while operating in velocity mode so the detent can actually stop the spindle, and turn off the motion command once it locks? Or must this drive be operating in torque mode? I have the manuals for the axis drives, but not for the spindle drive, so I am only assuming they are operating the same way.
That should be possible.Finally, if I wanted to add a 4th/5th axis but have the controller configured to initialize either with or without the additional axes, is this easy to do? I would love to have a 4th/5th axis that I can take on or off as needed.