Finally getting around to documenting this, it has been a few months now since this project started.
This all started when I fried two of the original servo amplifiers (
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/servo-motors-drives/244822-fry-servo-amplifiers.html). This is a pretty large machine, travels are 20 x 40 x 20. It was not meant to be in a garage, so replacement parts are priced accordingly. A repair place quoted me $700 each to possibly repair the amps. New price is $1400 each. Not gonna happen, and I was sick cause I had parts to make.
Here is the machine at that time
I had long been dreaming of getting rid of the clunky dos-based control but there was one thing that kept me from doing it,...It worked and was very accurate. Having been through Mach builds before I know sometimes things can be less than predictable (the windows based motion control anyway).
With the idea of it "working" out of the way, it was time to look for another solution. As an aside, I make custom footboards for bass drum pedals
Luckily I had several stocked up, but I needed to get the machine going again asap.
I had received a private message from Larry Kenny of Larken Automation (
www.viperservo.com) several months earlier when I was researching the idea. At the time it was between the Viper 200 and another drive CNC4PC carried. They were the only reasonably priced drives that accepted step-direction and could handle the servo power requirement. The servos are SEM 140v, 6.5A continous, 30A peak, 31in-lb.
After a phone conversation with Larry I was confident that the viper 200 was the way to go. Larry was very helpful and support means a lot in this kind of project. 3 viper 200's and a BX7 breakout board on order...
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