He...he.. to keep an eye out on eBay, the least that's required is knowing what you're looking for - I didn't know the above brand up until a few hours ago

Dan

Yes, speed or torque mode for analogue, encoder follower or step/direction for position and can also be commanded over Modbus and CANopen.
Hood

Dan,
 likewise, but a quick search and a read of a pdf and you find out if they are suitable or not. These as it happens look like very capable drives, just hope they are as good as they look in the documentation
Telemecanique, Berger Lahr an Schneider are all one company now.

Hood

Still trying to sell my 4th axis anyone interested 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/281065111177?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Item No: 281065111177

John.

Still trying to sell my 4th axis anyone interested 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/281065111177?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Item No: 281065111177

John.

Obviously meant for my attention, yes I would love it, however I fear you would not be too happy with the price I would be willing to pay

Hood

Ok worth a try 

John

Got the USB to RS485  converter yesterday but just got time today to hook up a drive and see if I could connect to a drive. Found I only need the logic connected so that means I can bring a drive home and get used to the software in the evenings
I looked at the info in the drive and it has a time powered entry, one drive has been powered for a total of 136 hours and the other I looked at was 78 hrs so looks like they are almost new

Unfortunately the drives can not be set up with custom motors like the AB drives, I use,  can but I was in hopes that I could use an AB motor I have with them. Reason I thought it may be possible is the drives only accept motors with Hiperface encoders, these encoders store all the relevent motor data onboard and send it to the drive on power up. I was thinking the drive would read the info from my AB motor and set the parameters accordingly but sadly it didnt
 That means I wil need to use one of the motors that came with the drives for the Z Axis which in itself is not a problem as they are powerful enough, the problem is they are not braked motors. I have however found a motor I bought years ago and it has a brake, I got it really cheap and it had a Heidenhain ECN encoder so was no use for me unless I put another encoder on. I have now stripped out the brake so will be able to make up a housing on top of the Z axis pulley to fit the brake to.

Hood

Got the three axis motors fitted and cables run, the Y and Z motors cables run through some flexible conduit from the column to the cabinet and its a tight fit as the spindle cables also run through it, but got there.
Also got some other wiring done, contactors for coolant and axis drives and I am using a safety relay to power the contactors from a start/stop button I have placed on the control panel. The computer, 24v supply  and CSMIO will all be live when main isolator switch is on but the contatcors for axes spindle  and pump only come on when I press the green start button. I have the E-Stop wiring running through the safety relay so if I do not have the contactors switched on I can not take Mach out of reset even if I have the E-Stop pulled out.
 I have another safety relay on its way, this one I will use for the E-Stop. It has 3 NO immediate contacts and 2 NO Off delay contacts. The way I will have these servos wired is when I hit the E-Stop the safety relay will close the instant contacts which will send a halt signal to the drives, that will do a powered stop to all axis and then the off delay contacts will close and disable the drives via the dual inputs they have for that purpose.

Have also disembowelled the servo motor I had lying about and managed to eventually get the windings out and the shell cut down and welded to a 20mm thick piece of Alu. I made up a shaft that bolts to Z pulley and this then all bolts together to house the brake for the Z axis.

Few pics below.
Hood

As always, like your wiring work. Clean and nice. Yuor setup for the Z brake is nice too.

Dan

I would have preferred to have the brake on the motor but the ones I got with the drives didnt have them so had to think up something else.
Suppose there is a benefit to this way,I can remove the motor and the brake will still hold the axis, then again its (hopefully)  unlikely I will have to change a motor.

Hood