Hi, I am looking at the Mitsubishi Ac servos and drives as they have the same mounting holes and flange size as My Fanuc 5M and 10M DC servos so would be an easy replacement.

http://www.machmotion.com/Drives-and-Motors-Mitsubishi-Servo-Drives-&-Motors/c47_49/p135/Mitsubishi-50-in/LB-Class-AC-Servo-Motor-with-Brake-&-Drive/product_info.html

I have a Galil DMC 1880 optima...will I still need to use this with these drives..I know the drives will accept the Step/direction  that Mach 3 puts out and the drives will close the loop but can the Galil be used like a smooth stepper to smooth the pulse train from Mach or will it not be necessary with these drives..?


John.

John,
You'll need to add the SM jumpers to the galil board to enable stepper output, but you will then be able to send step/dir at 3 mhz, way more than you'll need.
Download the Galil plugin and manual from the Mach3 site and you'll be good to go.
Kenny

Thanks Kenny that's great. Thought I had better check before I went ahead!!

John.

Kenny

I've just done some more reading on the Mitsubishi drives and it looks like they are analogue.

http://www.machmotion.com/pdf/MR_E.pdf

It seems that Machmotion uses its 106 breakout board and links this to each drive via a converter board plugged into the drive so the drive will accept step/direction.
I'm still not sure on this so I have emailed them to get more info.

http://www.machmotion.com/Parts-&-Accessories-Breakout-Boards/c36_26/p158/MachMotion&%2339s-IO6-Breakout-Board/product_info.html

If it is the case that the drives are analogue I presume I can use the Galil to send the analogue signal to the drives but still have the drives reading the encoder feedback and closing the loop...? or would I use the Galil to close the loop...

John.

John,
iI looked at the Mitsubishi manual quickly, but didn't spot the analog inputs. I'll look again. The analog input if +/- 10VDC will definitely work with the Galil. You'll need to connect the encoder passthru leads to the Galil encoder connections too. Be sure to use the latest Galil Plugin. Good luck, please let me know how you make out?
Kenny

How is that going to work when both drives and Galil are trying to close/control the loop.
For me, Usually the whole idea of using Galil is to use non intelligent analogue drives?
Nosmo.,

John,
If the drives are setup in torque mode, with the analog voltage controlling the output torque, the loop is closed in the Galil only.
Kenny

Thanks Kenny and Nosmoking here is the Reply I received from Andrew at Mach motion:

" John,


What are the old Fanuc motors rated at, as far as motor RPM and torque?  If you can get me this info than I can match it up to the Mitsubishi servos and let you know.  The Mitsubishi drives have 4 control modes, differential step and dir, +-10v ( I think torque or speed modes) and positioning sequencing normally activated with a digital input.


We have a little adapter card that connects to the top of the drive for easy access to the step and dir and drive error signal.  It also allows us to use a standard Cat5 cable as the control cable.  We have another mod-jack on the drive for emulated encoder out put, that will be used down the road with a motion controller.


If you will be using the drives in position mode than you can use their on-the-fly-auto tuning, which I think surpasses any other brand of servo drives on the market. "


I can see now that the adapter board is used for easy connection only.

I wanted to use the Galil as I intend to use  Etel Ring motors on the 4th and 5th axis and these will be using different drives to the Mitsubishi and may not be compatible with the step and dir out put from Mach3 (still waiting for info on the Etel motors!)  ...

John

 

Please have a look at Automation Directs DirectServo line. I know that they work very well with the Galil in Torque mode. Also Contact Smurph on this forum, as I believe that he is using the Mitsubishi motors along with the Galil controllers.
Kenny

Thanks Kenny it looks like  I will be able to use the Galil in step and direction mode for the mitsubishis and then set the other two axis for the Etel motors in which ever mode they require.

I'll check the Automation Direct sight and also going  look at the Teco motors too..the Mitsubishi motors caught my attention because they have the same mounting hole spacings and flange size as my Fanuc DC motors but it pays to look around     

John