Eagle KM-750..Anilam Crusader GX-M

[ardor]

Got my Dell back from my daughter & have loaded Mach 3 R1.84.002.
Copied the xml file from the other box
Bought licenses from Newfangled for Mach & Newfangled.

Ordered this board from Ed Gilbert

Homing Accuracy and High
Speed Opto Isolation from
the Parallel Port

Should be here soon.

[DennisCNC]

Are you going to use one of these with the original drives?
http://www.skyko.com/products/

[ardor]

Are you going to use one of these with the original drives?
http://www.skyko.com/products/

I thought that the board from Ed wouldn't need anything else, that it could work with the original drives.  Am I wrong?

[Hood]

Depends what the original drives are, if they accept step and direction signals then  they will probably work, if they need analogue signals then you will need either different drives or the pixies etc.
Hood

[ardor]

Depends what the original drives are, if they accept step and direction signals then  they will probably work, if they need analogue signals then you will need either different drives or the pixies etc.
Hood

OK, how do I figure out what the original drives need?

Your keeping me busy between this thread and the touchscreen/lathe.

[Hood]

Well you are going to have to find their specs. They kind of look similar to the ones that were in my Lathe, they were HiAks, if they are then I think they are analogue. Find the specs and you should get that info, then if they are analogue the pixies should work for you and it would be cheaper than getting new drives, also you know these drives are suited to your motors so best to try and keep them. I have no experience with the pixies so it might be worth doing some searching on CNC Zone to see what you can find out.
Hood

[ardor]

Darek aka Hillbilly has a mill just like mine, he used to do retros and has given me some info lately.  If he doesn't see this I will try to get in touch with him.

[Hood]

Dont wait, send him a PM
Hood

[fdos]

The drives will be analogue velocity signal or at least normally on commercial machines they will be 99.9% of the time.

If the drives are good, then you will need some data and 3 of the Skyco cards to convert step/dir to a velocity command .  These seem to have a good reputation, and are cheaper than most alternatives.

As Brian said above you could go the whole hog and put Brushless drives and motors on, but that will cost a fair bit.   I see his point, but don't really agree that it's mandatory to making a machine reliable. Brushed systems are equally reliable, but never quite as fast and do every few years require their brushes changed.

400"/min is doable with brushed motors as your original setup proves.   Going much faster would be pretty pointless and scary on an open machine like yours, I'm used to 1500"/min machining centres and even they make me twitchy sometimes!

The limiting factor on your speed will be the resolution of your encoders and the availble pulse rate from Mach.

Have you looked to see what encoders you have?

Wayne....

[ardor]

Have you looked to see what encoders you have?

Wayne....

The encoders are Sumtak opticoders.  635 p/r  0.200" lead on the screws 3175 pp inch