Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: valecnc on May 17, 2006, 01:09:00 PM
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???I am stil trying to use mach3 in my t20 thinkpad 700mhz.pentium3 it works or looks like it works fine,I have not been able to get communication to the mills bandit control.can anybody point me in the right direction?.I would like to keep the same servos and drivers but I don't know where to put computer signals in to make servos move.I don't know anything about the servos(brand or specs,only that they worked fine before the control stopped working(I burned a 21408404c regulator board from the bandit,if I could get another one could be back in business for a little longer).
I want to eventually change everything to parts that I knowI can find replacements for.
As I was saying need to be able to get computer signal to servo drivers .do I need a board in between the servo driver and the computer?if I have mach 3?l
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I'd bet your original servo drives only take 0-10v analogue velocity commands. Do they have tacho's and encoders?
There are several step/dir > analogue converters out there, by far the best value for money is the skyko ones at http://www.skyko.com/
Never used them thoug, but I have heard good reports.
Whatever, you MUST get as much information about your machines original circuits as possible. It's not fun having several hundred wires to buzz out and work out what they do! Been there and done it!
You can make it work, it just takes some research..
Wayne....
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Come to think of it... I've worked on a few old Bandit controls many years ago and they were all Stepper based. Are you sure you have servo's?
Do the motors have name plates with specs on them? If so let us know what they say..
Wayne....
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the only reason I think they are servos is because they are strong and smooth when moving,other than that I have no clue as to what they are,I have not taken them apart.I will take one apart ,and I should be able to tell what they are just by looking at the construction( think) it has been a while since I oppened one up ,maybe technology will fool me.I opened one and the only thing I could see after the first cover was a terminal board with 6 wires all of them the same gauge.no thin wires so I can only think there is no encoder so they must be stepper motors ?.
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NO.... dont take the motors apart! Do they have brushholders or none?
Take a digital photo of the motors and post in here.
You say six wires? Possibly steppers...
Wayne...
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I don't have a camera ,but I will bring one tomorrow.no brushholders on motor body,so it could be a brushless stepper motor.As it is the machine was capable of locating very precisely.It makes me think that the way it has to position is by counting pulses inputed in the direction it needs to go by the controller.In order to use the same motors wold I have to put an encoder on the shaft , or could it be done by inputting a number of pulses to position or move to a location?
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Please do try to take some pictures so we can be sure of what you have.
The Bandit is a fairly old control so is more likely to be stepper based, but I like to be sure before giving any advise.
Let us know....
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thanks for your interest in helping me I will go away today ,tomorrow I will have pictures for all the parts in the machine control and motors.maybe someone out there wil recognize them and sell me an old regulator board to get back in business.allowing me some more time to do my conversion a setep at a time.
thank you again.
Vale.
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well good morning everybody.I got some pictures now I just need to find out how to attach them to this message.some of the pictures did not come up as good as I would like but they show the motor.maybe you can tell what it is by looking at them.
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Thats almost certainly a stepper motor.
Looks like you may be in luck if you can interface to your drives.
Any change of seeing whats in the drive cabinet? At least see if you can read off any makers names and model numbers off the drives.
Wayne....
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it seems the picture did post ,the machine looks at 90 degrees because my son turned the camera.but you can see all motors and also the controller.maybe I should also post it in one of the other categories so more members will see it maybe one of the has allready acomplished what I want to do for the same machine.I remember someone asking how to do retrofitting for a shizouka about 4 months ago.the boards have a legend 8A/ph max 21407201 c,d,b and have a logo which I have seen in the past but can't remember who it belongs to it looks like a sideways M crossed by an elongated S.
now that I look at the legend ,could this be 3 phase stepper motors?is there such a thing?.
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From what you said about the 6 wires earlier it sounds like a pretty standard stepper.
The drives? Well who knows. To run direct from mach you will have to locate the step and direction inputs, and hope they are designed for 5v signals.
I I were there, I'd be able to check but I'm not! do you not have any schematics for the machine?
In the long run it might be better to get 3 geckodrives, at least then you will know what you are driving. Forget any of the cheaper drives out there, they would not be man enough for this size of motor.
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I was looking at a automation direct stepper driver 4035 which says it is a 2 phase (don't know what that means exactly) and also looked at the skyko p100 but I could not see how to connect it (seems like it will need to have an encoder ).looked at the gecko drives 212 and it seems to be able to put out enough power.but again I am still unfamiliar with tehe way to connect them.
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I mentioned the skyko because initially you said you had servo's ;)
Gecko's would be far the best best as a LOT of mach users have used them successfully. Plus your motors are fairly large.
It might be worth asking if there's anyone in your local area who is useing Mach so you can see what it's about. I'm not even sure where you are!
Wayne...
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I live in Arizona but my shop is in mexico.I see that the gecko 210 is also capable of 7a output but less costly.I guess that the difference would be smoothness in the performance at the various speeds.where could I see a set up that is a little more explanatory than a block diagram to review the way the machine needs to be set up,would you know?
Vale.
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good morning again .
Wayne are we in the same time zone?that is not important unless it interferes with our daily activities I guess.I think I have a good motor to replace the ones on my machine , in case I can't get them to run with the gecko 212 drive and my T20 thinkpad laptop.homeshop's RHT34-1200 looks like a good motor with 1200 oz/in I would probably still have to make an adapter plate to install .What do you think?have you ever used any of those motors/drives.?
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I'm in the UK.
Been just a bit busy with a nightmare grinding job, which isn't going quite to plan.
If I were you I would try to keep the original motors if they still work ok. You may even be able to keep the orginal drives, although they would probably be lower performance than a Gecko. The critical thing is to find out if your drives are compatable.
Modern drives like the Gecko are microstepping drives, which gives you much smoother motion than the older full and half step drives.
Other items on your machine you may be able to keep are the power supplies, if they are suitable for the Geckos (if you go that route)
I did look at the Automation direct drives you mentioned. They were not only more expensive than Gecko's but also only 35v 3amp if I recall correctly.
The voltage is really what determines your motors speed and the current the torque availble, thats a very simple explaination! If you motors are 8amp you should attempt to run them close to that.
On my stepper system I run my drives at 72v, and my motors are 4.5amp. It works very well.
Wayne....
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Thanks for your help wayne ,I will order the gecko(one to try out and understand conections and control)this week and as soon as I have it in my hand I will install it.In the mean time I still have to fix the bandit so that I can run the machine again.I have a couple of jobs I need to run on it.
Since you are in UK then we are about 5 hours difference , it is 12:20 here so it should be about 20 past five over there (monday 22).
Vale.