Machsupport Forum

General CNC Chat => Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) => Topic started by: conect major on September 21, 2013, 01:04:24 PM

Title: Conect Contour Major Mill
Post by: conect major on September 21, 2013, 01:04:24 PM
Hi all. Total newbie here . Recently got a Conect Contour Major mill which had Denford software on it which we couldnt get to work. Want to convert this machine to mach 3 but dont know what we need. P Any advice on what we need to do would be appreciated.   
Title: Re: Conect Contour Major Mill
Post by: magicniner on September 21, 2013, 02:50:46 PM
I'd be tempted to go with a breakout board, individual axis driver boards to suit your stepper motors, PSU(s) and an enclosure.
Having succesfully added a 4th axis to a 3 Axis Routout CNC box, but only after I'd messed about with and sent back a 5-axis all in one board from china, I'd go with as many discrete parts in the system as possible, that way when a part fails that's the only bit you'll need to replace, if you go for one morev axis than you need you'll be able to repurpose the spare in the event an axis fails on a Sunday morning ;-)
ATB,
Nick
Title: Re: Conect Contour Major Mill
Post by: mc on September 21, 2013, 06:31:21 PM
Conect never used Denford software as far as I'm aware.

Conqueror Design who supplied quite alot of the original control boards to Conect still exist, and do offer an upgrade kit - http://www.eaziform.co.uk/index.php?products,cncupgrade
If your mill does use a Conqeurer board, then it's reasonably straight forward to convert to Mach.
You'll need 3 stepper drivers, a breakout board, and I think you'll need a 5V power supply, as I'm sure the original used 12V feed with onboard regulator to get 5V for the electronics. You may also need a few other components, such as an emergency stop/enable relay, as if the mill is anything like my Conect lathe, the e-stop button simply cuts the main power in.