Reply with QuoteAwetmore,
Have the seller take a few pictures of the inside of the controller and post them here, that way we can give you good advice.
Jeff...
Upgrading an old Super-Tech Taig Mill
I'm looking at a used Taig Mill which has a SuperTech CNC conversion. It comes with SuperCam (the DOS version).
What controller did these come with?
How can I identify if the controller uses a pulse and direction scheme, or if it is running using an older control scheme that wouldn't be compatible with Mach3?
What drivers and steppers were these machines typically sold with in the early 2000s?
I'm trying to determine if modernizing the machine would be as simple as a new controller board, or if I'd be looking at a new controller, drivers, and steppers (so basically I'd just be buying a 2019CR).
In the photos the motors appear to have NEMA23 mounts and are octagonal. The controller looks like the EMC-XYZ-MUBX. The seller does not believe that it is Mach3 compatible.
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Awetmore,
Have the seller take a few pictures of the inside of the controller and post them here, that way we can give you good advice.
Jeff...
Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.
I'll try that.
If that doesn't work I'd still like to get an idea of how to identify the "good" internals myself. Does the old style system just have the parallel port pins going directly into drivers, while the newer one has a controller in there first?
Have you contacted SuperTech? they are still around.
No. I was hoping that someone from the company would be active here and might answer out of band. I didn't want to interrupt their normal stream of mail from actual paying customers with one from a guy buying a used machine.
Super Tech Here
I have put the XML configuration file for the controller and the mill in a zip file and put a link to it on my web page for the Taig Micro Mill with Parallel Port interface.
http://www.super-tech.com/root/grp.a...Taig-3000-LBMP
It's been something I been meaning to do.
The EMC-XYZ-MUBX controller is compatible with Mach3.
With the unzipped EMC-XYZ-MU_TaigMill.zip file Mach3 should be plug and play.
Thank you for your consideration.
Dennis
www.super-tech.com
Thanks Dennis, that is great!
alex
I bought the system today and it turns out to have a EMC-XYZ-BX controller, not the MUBX. I'm assuming that this is an older design which is not Mach3 compatible?
Is there a wiring diagram on the Super-Tech website for the DB9 connector to the motors?
Is an upgrade EMC-XYZ-MUBX controller board available? How much does that cost? I'm also considering going to a Gecko G540 (and using the power supply and wiring that came with this one) or just using SuperCam under Win98 for a little while to get a hang of things.
I'm impressed with the overall setup of this 5 year old Super-Tech machine. The motor mounts have nice integrated homing switches. The controller box has nice wire routing and everything is pretty well labelled.
I found the parallel port pinout on the main board when I removed the power supply. It looks identical to the one for the EMC-XYZ-MUBX. Is it safe to try the same configuration file in Mach3?
What is the difference between the MUBX and BX series of controllers?
Difference between controllers
The difference is in the Steps per Revolution.
The MUBX is micro stepping at 1600 steps per revolution.
The BX is half step at 400 steps per revolution.
The only changes you have to make to the Mach3 configuration file is the steps per Unit. Change it from 32000 to 8000 for the Taig Mill and it should work.
Oh, ya the EMC-XYZ-BX drives the motors bipolar and the EMC-XYZ-MUBX is unipolar.
Dennis
www.super-tech.com
Thanks Dennis.
I got it working with EMC2 (Linux equiv of Mach3) over the weekend if you'd like a copy of the configuration files.
That would be great! You can email them to me at xyzinfo@super-tech.com
You could attache them to a post so everyone has access to them also.
There are over two hundred controllers like that out there.
Dennis
www.super-tech.com
One last issue.
The home switch on my Y axis is acting like a kill switch. If it is depressed then the stepper for Y is shutoff (making recovery from this difficult). I've verified that it is the driver doing this because the same thing happens if I plug in the X motor instead of the Y motor.
Is this a feature that is somehow enabled on the board? Or is it a sign of some sort of fault?
Most likely the configuration for MACH3 is not perfectly set.
Or are you using EMC when you find this out.
The Home Limit Switches are just status lines to the controller.
One thing to do is to change the polarity of pin 1 in Mach3. Pin 1 is used to synchronize motors when there are two Y motors attached.
Dennis
www.super-tech.com
Thanks Dennis.
I was doing this under EMC2. I never did much with Mach3 before giving EMC a try and finding that it works pretty well for me.
The configuration that works for me is at http://www.phred.org/~alex/cnc/taig-super-tech.tgz
I'm wondering what rapid feed rate I should expect with this controller and the PacSci 2.3 amp motors? I find that 30ipm works well, but going much higher can stall. 30ipm seems plenty fast for a little mill like this one.
I look forward to making some chips soon.
I think 30 ipm is about maximum you can safely get with that setup.
I trust 24 ipm as a rapid travel a little more.
The moves at just a little greater or less than 45 degrees are the most difficult for most setups. That's the type of movement to test your rapid travels with.
Thanks for the link to the configuration file.
Dennis
www.super-tech.com
By the way if you download the demo version of SuperCamXp, you can use it to generate G-code files from DXF files or draw your own toolpath and export it to a G-code file.
Download URL: http://www.super-tech.com/root/grp.a...uperCamXp-Demo
I wrote the program to directly run the mill with out the need of G-code files but put the export G-code feature in to replicate jobs on larger mills.
The EXPRTCNC command on bottom right of sidebar menu is the way to creating G-code files.
Maybe that'll get ya closer to making chips.
Dennis
www.super-tech.com
Re: Upgrading an old Super-Tech Taig Mill
Just wondered if anybody from the forum, may have gone through this experience prior? I'm in a an identical situation (EMC_XYZ-BX server motor and USV-CAMpod) and as Super-Tech is not in business (owner died) and its website is down. I'm hoping someone out there might have the config files mentioned in this thread, and would be willing to share them? Im working other angles (controllers and motors) to get my mill updated but this would seem to be the most straight forward for me.
