G'Day Friends
I am working on the Bridgeport conversion still
, but getting closer by the day which has come to a point of getting spindle feedback back to Mach.
Reading lots of threads and examining different options has pointed me to the conclusion if I can get cutter spindle feedback not motor spindle is what I need or desire, but on a Series 2 J head mill thats a little harder than done. Others have used larger motors and a 1:1 timing belt and run the encoder from the motor, which is fine but it tends rendser the back-gearing useless for feedback will be false.
I have now 90% completed a unit where I can run a 1000line encoder AB&Z +/- off the top of my draw-bar with no issues at all giving me direct Spindle feedback (hooray)
After a little more reading and conversing with others, most likely I upgrade to Mach4 over 3 on the mill, reading through the Mach4 instructions there is a provision for feedback on (pulleys and different gearing) with ratios on the spindle tab, or am I reading this wrong?
Motor is VFD controlled, it drives the cutter spindle with a toothed belt at 1:1, no problems there. But what happens when the back gearing is engaged for slow hard work and or rigid tapping?
If these parameters can be set in Mach will it do the for me with encoder driver directly from motor or am I still better of having the cutter spindle encoded.
Thanks
When I get this one sorted Ill Ask about the lathe, where I am replacing the Spindle motor with an AC servo, will have a slight mechanical advantage to spindle driven by toothed belt ratio 1:0.8
this will have not only have encoder feedback from the servo but also pulse timing from spindle, Configuring might be a headache!