Thanks for the info Hood

Hi Jimster,

I've been doing Bridgeport retrofits for quite some years. Have done almost a dozen BP's so far. Most of them were TNC145 based with Bosch Servo amplifiers and SEM DC servo motors. On the first one I did, I put Rutex 40A DC servo drives on original SEM motors, Mach3 parallel port based config and the original pneumatic speed change involving variable pulleys. Rutex are not in business any more. The next few I did were with replacing DC servos with AC servo (1 KW), replacing variable pulleys with fixed ones and putting in a 2.2 KW VFD for spindle speed control. On another one I used DC servo drives from cncdrive.com with SEM motors (don't forget to use the original inline coils with this setup). Another couple of machines with Smooth Stepper and AC servos. The last one with UC100 motion controller from cncdrive.com. For the DC servo drives (both Rutex and cncdrive) I had to replace the encoders with TTL ones.

I guess the most cost effective way to retrofit these machines is to use DGS drives from cncdrive.com, VFD with fixed pulleys (the variable pulleys need a lot of mechanical maintenance) and UC100 (or UC300) as motion controllers.

The most efficient would be with new AC servos, UC300, new MPG, VFD and of course Mach3.

Zafar

Zaffar, would you rate the Rutex and DG2S  type drives in the same league as, for example, the Bosch?
I certainly wouldnt, no experience with Rutex but I have helped a friend set up a lathe with DG2S.
Dont get me wrong, the DG2S are excellent drives, just I dont think they are in the same class as the more Industrial rated ones.

Regarding the controllers, the problem I see with all the ones you mention is they are 5v I/O, that means you either have to convert the rest of the machine to 5v or have some conversion of the 24v to 5v just before it enters/leaves the breakouts. 5v can work well but as you know noise can be an issue if you are not careful with routing/shielding/grounding. 24V is much better and is obviously the reason the vast majority of Industrial machines are that way.


I much prefer differential Step/Dir if using it, its just so much more noise immune, most of the drives I have used can accept differential and that meant when using devices such as the ESS I had to make up line drivers.
However using the CS-Lab products all of the above issues are non-issues as it caters for them all, 24v I/O and differential step/dir signals.
One thing however is I dont think I would go back to Step/Dir unless the hardware used made it a necessity, the analogue control is just so much better from what I have seen, encoders updating Mach is a big advantage as Mach always knows where it is, even after E-Stop, Limits being hit, manually moving an axis etc, so no more having to re-home each time you enable the servo drives.
 
There of course is the HiCon, which is Step/Dir, that can feed back encoders to Mach to update the position but I have no experience with them so cant comment on how well it works.

These are just my thoughts obviously
Hood

Hood,

You are right. DG2S and Rutex can't compete with the industrial drives like Bosch. They are just simpler to integrate with the step direction output from Mach3 parallel port. If one wants to use the analog input drives then I guess the best controller would be Galil or CS-Lab products. Unfortunately I haven't experimented with both. Couldn't recommend something for which I have no experience. The BP series control logic is mostly 24V, so I prepared custom break-out boards to hook them with the controllers or the Mach3 PP. This makes the project more complicated and, if not handled properly, more prone to noise interference. My retrofit skills are still evolving and I am learning as I go. Too many toys and so little time .

Zafar

Zafar,
 skills are always evolving, if I look back at my first retrofit I can see a massive change in the way I do things now that I have gained more knowledge along the way
Regarding the analogue controllers, I have only tried the CS-Lab one but you not only have  the Galil, as you mentioned, but the DSPMC and the Kfop/Kanalog and I would think they all work well.
The CSMIO/IP-A however is in my opinion an excellent controller, I thought the IP-S was as good as it could get until I put the IP-A on the Chiron.
I bought an IP-S for testing out on the small lathe with the intentions of putting it onto the big lathe in time, now however I will be getting another IP-A instead. I have the luxury of AC servos that can accept step/dir or Analogue so that is no problem.
The only thing that is holding me back at the moment is threading, it works well with the exception of the pull out at the end of the thread is slow, should be fixed in Mach4 as it seems it is a Mach issue. However I have every confidence that if it is not fixed with Mach4 that CS-Lab will implement it via a M-Code, they have done that with rigid tapping and it is excellent.

Hood

Thanks Zafar and Hood for your input. I am going to going down the route of the CSMIO/IP-A route. If I wanted tap threads on the mill, I'm assuming I'd need to add some sort of RPM sensor onto my spindle motor??

Hood, the only think putting me off the CSMIO/IP-A is the lack of user manual in English, is there much too it, could I get away with google translate?

A manual should be out sometime but really its not that hard. There is the connection diagram for the IP-A and then the actual setup is more or less the same as the IP-S of which there is a manual.
If wanting rigid tappping then you will also require the Enc module and you would need an encoder fitted to the spindle or spindle motor.
The Enc module shouldnt really be required for the IP-A as you have encoder inputs on it but it seems they have tried to keep the plugins basically the same and you need one I am afraid, may not in the future but....
Hood

Ok I'll order the enc module too then.

What do most people use as PC's for their mach3 installs. I'm not sure if I'm better off getting a touch screen pc based install and mounting that in the cabinet where my heidenhain currently lives, or just getting my hands on an old panasonic toughbook with touch screen?