Machsupport Forum

Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: sunracer on March 27, 2007, 01:52:08 PM

Title: Wabeco F1210E retrofit?
Post by: sunracer on March 27, 2007, 01:52:08 PM

I have a new Wabeco F1210E (high speed) 3 axis mill. I’m not sure if it has stepper or servo motors. I also have a motor control box that accepts input from a PC serial port. The thing came with NCCAD6 which barely functioned and I upgraded to NCCAD7 that is marginally better (unless perhaps, if you speak German).

I'd like to swap out NCCAD for Mach3 and save my motor control box and just substitute Mach3 for NCCAD on the PC. Can nayone offer guiadance on how to make this set-up work or is the Wabeco control box too proprietary?...Scott

Title: Re: Wabeco F1210E retrofit?
Post by: Chaoticone on March 27, 2007, 02:00:59 PM

Hey Scott,
   Do you have any info. on the controls, manual, link, etc.?

Brett

Title: Re: Wabeco F1210E retrofit?
Post by: sunracer on March 27, 2007, 02:25:21 PM

I have the manual that came with the machine but it's in broken English (German) nut there is quite a bit of detail in there...

Title: Re: Wabeco F1210E retrofit?
Post by: Peters on March 30, 2007, 11:35:16 AM

I suggest you look in the Wabeco Yahoo groups for information. You can also contact
Markus at Wabeco USA for a turn key conversion to mach3.

The F1210 uses steppers. The easiest way to covert it is to keep the steppers and replace
the stepper drives, add a standard breakout board, and load mach3. I have a F1210 running
Mach3 now.

Title: Re: Wabeco F1210E retrofit?
Post by: sunracer on March 30, 2007, 02:20:31 PM

Thanks for the info it's very helpful. Can you tell me who's stepper drivers you used or did you get yours from Markus? I'll check out the yahoo wabeco group as well but I'll reserve my comments on Markus and MDA (his company) for now - I know him and I bought this machine from him.

Title: Re: Wabeco F1210E retrofit?
Post by: Peters on March 31, 2007, 02:52:52 AM

My stepper driver was built by me. It uses Geckos and a Campbell design breakout. I have helped friends use PMDX and ncPod breakout boards.
After helping with a few conversions, it is clear the wabeco steppers are not the best. My next project may be to replace them.

I'm surprised Markus sold a machine with Wabeco controls. He normally buys them "CNC ready" and adds his own controller with Mach3.

Title: Re: Wabeco F1210E retrofit?
Post by: sunracer on April 02, 2007, 05:58:19 PM

If I buy a campbell parallel breakout board will you give me some pointers on how to get my set-up working? Did you build your own Gecko drive box or buy a pre-built one like those from Denver controllers?...

Title: Re: Wabeco F1210E retrofit?
Post by: Peters on April 02, 2007, 06:00:58 PM

Yes, I will help.

I built my own stepper driver box using parts from PMDX for the power supply.

Title: Re: Wabeco F1210E retrofit?
Post by: Chaoticone on April 02, 2007, 09:12:07 PM

Lots of help here on the forum Sunracer,
    You might want to look at the tutors and manuals in the Tutorials section. If all you are running is a few steppers, that should be a snap. Peters has offered to help and lots of others will too I'm sure.

Brett

Title: Re: Wabeco F1210E retrofit?
Post by: Brian Barker on April 04, 2007, 09:28:03 PM

If you use the PMDX board there are very few wires :)