When I first converted this lathe to Mach control, the year was 2003. I had a single phase AC drive motor for the spindle with no speed control and steppers for the axis. I needed an index pulse in order to thread. The next incarnation was about 2007 and I was using a 3 phase motor and VFD for the spindle, I used a converter to make 0v to 10v for the VFDs speed control. I still needed an index pulse though. About this time, or a bit after, the USB smoothstepper became available, I had a lot of issues with electrical noise from the VFD, but soldiered on.
In late 2010 I decided to upgrade my lathe to servo motors, after much to ing and fro ing I ordered servos and controllers for the lathe, I also ordered a new KRV3000 milling machine, and GSK servos intended for the mill . Business was doing well, the kids were starting to leave home and the world was my oyster so to speak.
The first thing to arrive was the mill on the 30th Mar 2011 I picked it up from the carrier, unloaded it in my shed and then received a phone call asking me to come on an overnight camping trip. Reluctantly I agreed.
Then I had a severe car accident in the early hours of the morning on the 31st of Mar 2011. I was rushed to hospital, despite the policeman in attendance trying to cancel the ambulance, saying there was no need of an ambulance, just a hearse. Luckily the ambulance was already dispatched, and being mistrustful of the diagnosis provided by members of the constabulary, came anyway.
I was airlifted to Melbourne and spent the next 6 weeks in a coma, with the prognosis that even if I did live, I would be in a wheelchair and on dialysis for the rest of my life. After 7 weeks, the staff at the Royal Melbourne hospital started to call me the "miracle man". By the following September, after a period in rehab hospital, I was back at home, albeit, still a bit the worse for wear.
Then followed a period of slowly regaining my mobility, finding out and guessing what I was doing before the accident, and continuing with some of the projects that I had started. I fitted the GSK servos to the mill, and used the Adtech motor that I had earmarked for the spindle on the lathe, for the knee on the mill instead, since the GSK servo that I had bought wasn't powerful enough.
I fitted the Adtech servos to the X and Y axis of the lathe, and used the GSK servo for the spindle on the same. This was in 2017, a bit later than I had initially planned
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Anyway, to answer your question, now that you have a bit of background, I already had an index pulse, prior to fitting the servos, I did give brief thought to using the encoder on the spindle servo motor to provide information about RPM, but decided that I didn't need to, and that I'd only be making extra work for myself, since I am still a long way behind where I imagined I'd be. Oh and did I mention that I ran for the first time since 2011 the other month?
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