We have a waterjet & I am starting to research replacing our old 486SX PC based system running DOS 6.22 & Indexer to one running Mach3 on XP. I just learned about Mach3 last week. I saw a kit from Machmotion ( I thought they were Mach3 developers) that is a CNC Plasma or Oxy fuel Stepper Kit [X15-350-01] but their drivers won't work with our 5 Phase steppers so I thought Mach3 didn't work with 5 Phase Drivers & steppers. I like the control cabinet Machmotion has in this kit.
I have open loop steppers that are Vexta 5 Phase .72 deg./step, DC 2.8A PN/PK596AUHA with an obsolete 5 Phase Driver UDX5128NA. The replacement for our obsolete driver is PN/UDK5128NW2 and is almost $1,100 plus has a long lead time.
We have been using our present setup for 14 years & the steppers never skip a step. Are most steppers this reliable?
In reference to a post from mr.c....I though??? would be better if I would switch to a cheaper 5 Phase driver in the new Mach3 intigration since the Machmotion kit couldn't use our drivers.
Here is a Pic of the Driver setup & others.....
http://picasaweb.google.com/Share.Pic.53/VextaDrivesMotors?authkey=Gv1sRgCJTBqseVwrnhpAE#