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Author Topic: Denford Triac ATC - guidance on updating to Mach3(?)  (Read 20700 times)

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Offline Sweep

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Re: Denford Triac ATC - guidance on updating to Mach3(?)
« Reply #10 on: November 18, 2006, 08:48:32 AM »
Thanks for your input John S & Chaoticone.
The prices for the components seems ok, even if I budget a shade higher by purchasing them in England. Usually $700 ends up equaling £700! With prices in this area I can afford to put that into it straight away and not have to save up my pennies for months on end.
Question is can you all cope with the endless requests for advise?

...Richard

...Clueless in Yorkshire

Offline Chaoticone

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Re: Denford Triac ATC - guidance on updating to Mach3(?)
« Reply #11 on: November 18, 2006, 08:55:43 AM »
LOL, My wife and kids have been training me for this for years. :D
;D If you could see the things I have in my head, you would be laughing too. ;D

My guard dog is not what you need to worry about!

Hood

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Re: Denford Triac ATC - guidance on updating to Mach3(?)
« Reply #12 on: November 18, 2006, 07:03:48 PM »
In the worst case you are looking at three steppers, three drives and a breakout, As John S said the steppers can be had from Arc Euro for about £80 each, the Drives can be had from them as well but as I have never used them I cant say they or good or bad. I use Gecko drives (G202) and they are about £80 each delivered from the USA, I use a PMDX breakout board which is about £40 if I remember correctly, so add that all up and it comes to about £500. If your motors are OK then that saves £240, you get the idea ;)
 I did my BOSS Bridgeport for £1500 but that included the Mill itself, a touch screen, MPG etc all of which were not necessities. (well the mill was a necessity ;)  )
Hood
« Last Edit: November 18, 2006, 07:05:29 PM by Hood »

Offline John S

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Re: Denford Triac ATC - guidance on updating to Mach3(?)
« Reply #13 on: November 18, 2006, 08:11:30 PM »
Hood steppers suitable for this mill work out at about £40 each.
i have used Arc's drives and found them to be OK.
In fact I had an upset the other week and managed to clear a problem up I had had for a while with some Gecko 210's.

I crashed my Z axis one Sunday, my fault, right tool, wrong offset and hit the vise jaws with a 20mm end mill. Not a hard smash, the jaws will clean up at 20 to 30 thou and the cutter took a light regrind to get back to standard but it took the Z drive Gecko out.
Full blown burn out, all Mosfets fried and didn't blow the fuse.

Fortunately had a new drive and fitted it, ran rest of Sunday and all day Monday, switched of Monday night OK.
Switched on Tuesday Morning and no Z drive again, can't see a problem inside the drive but it's dead, again fuse OK.

Had a spare Arc drive so swapped the micro steps to 8 from 10 and fitted it. ran two air test runs and put it to work.

Now since converting to Gecko drives the Z has lost steps on programs with many short Z moved like canned cycle drilling.
After 1400 odd hoes I can be up to 12 thou out, not a real problem as they are all thru holes but annoying.

Tried all sorts of help, leading edge, trailimg edge, pulse width, pulse space etc, etc, from Ian Eagland at Ahha and Mariss at Gecko but still lost steps.
When I swapped to the Arc drive this problem disappeared without doing anything.

On the X3 I have just converted I have used the C11G breakout board from Arturo Duncan at http://www.cnc4pc.com
This is a nice board as it has the relays on board, charge pump and can run the spindle via a VFD or even a DC speed board.

John S.

Hood

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Re: Denford Triac ATC - guidance on updating to Mach3(?)
« Reply #14 on: November 19, 2006, 04:32:36 AM »
John
 Yes I see now its not a big mill, the pics didnt load properly last night when I got home so I wasnt sure what size it was.Good to hear about the chinese drives working well and surprising to hear about the G210, I have had G201 and G202 and they run sweet.
 Hope I didnt put Richard off by stating the price of the steppers as I know he will not regret getting this mill, and with a bit of luck the motors he has will do anyway.
 Hood

Offline John S

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Re: Denford Triac ATC - guidance on updating to Mach3(?)
« Reply #15 on: November 19, 2006, 04:58:30 AM »
No Hood I hope you haven't put him off, for what he's got to pay for this mill it needs buying even if a conversion isn't imediate on the cards.
If he doesn't he'll kick himself later.
He says he wants one to do up and work and not a conversational piece but if it was me I'd put it in a corner and not talk about it until I was ready to fix it.  ;D

Never worked out why that Z axis was a problem, even loosing steps it worked OK for about 18 months, the other two axis don't loose steps.
I'm not fully convinced that the 210's and 201 are suitable for the larger old type 42's as fitted to the Bridgies and similar machines.
When you read of a problem it's always these motors that have the problem and I feel they are operating beyond their limits.

Modern motors are smaller and have less detent torque and don't seem to have these problems.
One fact I have noticed is that the track on the Gecko board from the Mosfets to the connectors are only about 2mm wide, on the Arc drives with them being bigger they are about 8mm wide.

John S.
« Last Edit: November 19, 2006, 05:00:05 AM by John S »

Hood

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Re: Denford Triac ATC - guidance on updating to Mach3(?)
« Reply #16 on: November 19, 2006, 05:28:51 AM »
That is more than likely the problem John, I am kind of in the same boat with the lathe I am about to do, its got huge servos and most drives will be pushing their limits but I think the teknix ones might just do me.
Hood
Re: Denford Triac ATC - guidance on updating to Mach3(?)
« Reply #17 on: November 19, 2006, 08:52:14 AM »
Sweep,

I am running a StepmasterCNC controller with a Taig mini-mill.  I can't answer all your questions, but with regards to the StepMaster controller - it seems to work very well.  I had a problem with the first controller I received, but it was a protype.  Dealer agreed with me on that and provided me with a new unit under warranty.  I would buy from again if the need arose.

Bob @ BobsShop

Offline Sweep

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Re: Denford Triac ATC - guidance on updating to Mach3(?)
« Reply #18 on: November 19, 2006, 09:17:28 AM »
The deal is done!  :)
Collecting the machine on Tuesday so will get some more of the spec and condition posted then.

Thanks to everyone so far

...Richard

Offline John S

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Re: Denford Triac ATC - guidance on updating to Mach3(?)
« Reply #19 on: November 19, 2006, 03:32:11 PM »
Good lad you know it makes sense,  :-*