I'm thinking about going with the controller on ebay that you listed. Just not happy about the way they ship it (no insurance or tracking and the length of time for shipping). I sent a message to them to see if they can ship it another way that can be insured and faster delivery.

i just posted that as a price comparison. obviously its up to you to make sure your going to be happy with it and the terms of the sale.
i have dealt with a few of the asian companies on ebay and have always got a great deal.
shipping doesnt really matter here as i usually have to buy from the states or china/korea, singapore etc. their postal system is quite fast. its the UK side thats slow!
i bought 5 galil icm 1900 from singapore, they arrived in under a week.

contact these guys and see what they have
http://cgi.ebay.com/Galil-DMC-4040-Ethernet-RS232-4-Axis-Motion-Controller_W0QQitemZ390164299437QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item5ad79abead

i have had lots of galil items from them cheap! eg. 5 axis controllers 1750 isa bus for $130 etc

Waiting on controller, should be here on Friday. Purchased a Galil DMC-2143 with an ICM-20105 board from athomemarket on ebay. I think this should work to get started. Thinking of adding some Galil RIO's in the future to get more IO's and moving the spindle control over to it to free up one of the axis so an indexer can be added.

First question in a long list soon to come.

Can I use the 12v+- and 5V+ from the Mach computer power supply or should I add a separate power supply for the Galil Board?

Thanks,

Matt

dont know that controller.
download and read the manual.
you will need it to get it registered on pc and set everything up anyway.

its easier if you print it off if you can. its a pain working off pdf when your setting evertything up

The controller is here but, the icm board will not work for my needs. It is a icm-20500 d sub board and it looks like I need a icm -20105. The icm - 20500 with the d sub connectors can only control 2 axis, if it has the screw terminal connectors than it can control 4 axis . The good news is the controller has the 18-36v dc power option installed so I can use the 24v power that is in the control cabinet.

I have called Galil and ordered a icm-20105 board  that should be here next week.

Just finished loading a new version of xp pro on a 2.8 p4 computer.
The controller is hooked up with a crossover cable.

I downloaded and installed Gaili Tools lite so I can talk to the controller but did not see a way to register the it with windows or configure it the way the Galil plugin pdf shows. Went back to the Galil website and found Smart term in the older software section. That works just the way the plugin pdf shows.

Installed the latest version of Mach, did not install the printer port drivers because the controller is connected over Ethernet (is this correct?)  

Do I need the printer port drivers for mach to work with the Galil over Ethernet?
I noticed that driver test is not there either, is this because the printer port drivers were not installed (do I need this?)

i couldnt get galil tools to work either. i use smarterm. (think most people have found this)
dont know re printer driver. send crouch a pm or ask artsoft direct. ( i have printer driver installed on mine but its not chosen when it loads by selecting plugin once galil plugin is configured and registered with mach)

one thing you will notice is that mach wont show moves as its waiting for feedback from the galil . (all works fine when motors/encoders are correctly working)
make sure you follow the book carefully re servo first tests ie. limit the current etc as the motors can really move.... in the wrong direction!
luckily my first tests were on small yaskawa servos on the bench. was well worth doing to get your head around everything

The ICM 20105 board is here and is all hooked up.

The 24 volt inputs and outputs are working.

It has taken some time to get controlled motion on all three axis. Had some problems with the encoder voltage but Galil tech support has been very helpful with how to get the right voltage out of the ICM board. I have been unable to get Smart Terminal to move the axis with commands but can use Mach to move the axis.

Made a big mistake today while jogging the X axis in Mach. Not sure what I did but some how moved the X axis at full speed (39 inches per second). The 1000 lb head flew past the limit switch into the physical stop block, ripping out (4) m10 bolts and finally hitting the side frame of the machine making a dent in the very thick steel plate.

The way the limit switches are originally wired  is to cut the main power to the servo amps when the switch is tripped. I think this will have to be changed so there can be some control to decelerate the motor and stop the head instead of cutting the power and letting it just coast to a stop or slam into the side frame of the machine.

Trying to figure out how to control the spindle with the Galil 4th axis and Mach. I have it wired up to the 4th axis but not getting the 0-10v that is needed. I have the spindle mapped to the 4th axis in the plug in but not sure how to configure it past that. Do ports and pins need to be mapped, if so what are the numbers and what else needs to be set up. I have been searching the forum but not finding answers other than a script that somebody made for the Galil Controller but it seems there should be a better way.

while your testing its worth setting the axis to torque limit tlx2 for example gives max 2v out on x axis instead of maximum of 10volts. this stops you from shooting into limits and breaking things! you must send bn command to burn it.

re limit switches. usually there is also a shorting relay that after power is switched off, shorts the motor wires together to perform dynamic braking of the motor. check if its there and you havnt wired it out?
have you wired the limits into the galil? the galil can be set to stop the motor dead when limit is hit. and will then jog only reverse off limit.

re movement direct from galil. you must write acceleration/ deceleration time ,  distance pr then bgx for begin movement x etc etc
this is done in side window on left. its in the manual

oh. look what i wrote in my last post "make sure you follow the book carefully re servo first tests ie. limit the current etc as the motors can really move.... in the wrong direction!

I had set the TL to 1 but did not burn it in and had cycled power on the Galil controller before I switched to Mach. Good suggestion to burn it in until the testing is done.

When the PR 1000 and BGX commands are entered there is no movement. The limit switch state is off on the galil box and no errors are showing.

I did not wire the limit switch to the Galil Controller because the machine has 1 limit switch that rides on each axis so I'm not sure how the Galil would work if the same switch is wired to both + and - limit. Also with the power being removed from the servo amp when the limit switch is active it seems the galil box would have nothing to control.

The only axis that was originally wired up to for dynamic braking when the power is removed is the z axis, but it might be worth changing the other axis to work that way also.

Any thoughts on setting up the spindle?

Thanks for the help.

Matt