I'm converting a Mori Seiki SL1 CNC Lathe. I've decided on Pokeys, probably 57E with M16 Mobo or, it was suggested, 57E with an M15 and a C62. I'm curious whether 57CNC might work as well. Here's what I need to accomplish:

I want to run mach 3 as I understand the lathe portion of mach 4 is not quite there yet.

1. X and Y AC Servos
2. Accurate Home, after touching limit switch, with the pulse index differential thing on the servos, not sure how this works yet.
3. I was told I can thread by using the pulses of the servo encoders and adding an encoder to the spindle motor.
4. Spindle Speed control by way of 10V out to a VFD.
5. Will need to control an automatic tool changer, figured I could us PoBlocks to program it as a PLC to control this function. I'm familiar with ladder logic.
6. Standard inputs and outputs, limit switches, buttons on a custom pendent to control simple functions such as start, stop, run, etc...

!!!!! NIT PICKING ALERT !!!!!!!

On a lathe it is Z and X. You need a three axis lathe to get Y involved.


Mike

Get the 57cnc it has way more pins and it can do all you need.

they can be a bit funny to set up,

you connect everything up before you first power it up, then when you first start M3 it auto sets most things, you still have to set the pwm. the limits and home switches and E stop you just have to set the pin state.
I just finished setting up a router and setting the pwm is a pitta you have to experiment with the settings to get it to run as expected

other than that Its a good product to own

LOL I'm so used to typing Y and X.

@dude1, is there much difference between the 57E with M16 and the 57CNC? Would i have to use a breakout board with the 57CNC?

The 57cnc is a everything but a spindle and stepper driver, it controls them same with the 57 E or U bit it has a lot of pins it costs more but if you want a control panel and a pendent and a lot of things the 57cnc is the way to go

its features
Compatible with USB 1.1/2.0 HID standard,
- standard English USB keyboard simulation (with triggering support for up/down keys),
- standard USB joystick simulation (6 axes, 32 buttons with triggering support),
- Ethernet 10/100 with DHCP client or fixed IP support,
- TCP or UDP connection with the device,
- Modbus TCP support (access to digital IO, analog inputs, encoder values, digital counters values, PWM outputs, LCD display, PoExtBus devices, matrix keyboard status),
- web interface with newly designed dashboard and I/O status display with multiple user accounts,
- 28 digital inputs or outputs (software configurable) with pull-up resistors and available as virtual USB keyboard keys. There are additional 4 dedicated digital outputs,
- 5 analog inputs (12-bit) with digital low-pass filtering (4 analog inputs also include analog low-pass filter with 1.9 kHz cut-off frequency),
- multiple encoder pair inputs with three additional dedicated high-speed encoder and one ultra high-speed encoder inputs,
- digital counters on specific digital input pins,
- high performance 8-axis 125 kHz pulse engine with dedicated motor connectors,
- up to 16x8 matrix keyboard with triggered keys/alternate function support,
- up to 4 high-speed fully configurable PWM outputs (25MHz PWM timer) - two of them with open-collector transistor outputs,
- dedicated connector for HD44780-based character LCD (up to 4x20 characters),
- dedicated connector for PoPendant1,
- PoExtBus support for adding up to 10 external shift registers (e.g. PoExtBusOC16, PoExtBusRE, etc.),
- PoNET devices support (48-key CNC keyboard),
- fail-safe support in case of communication interruption,
- support for up to 100 sensors, that can be connected to I2C bus, 1-wire bus or on the general purpose analog inputs,
- intuitive and user-friendly software,
- third-party support via communication DLL library and extensive protocol specification document that allows porting to other systems.

Ok thanks.

So you can't control a VFD for the spindle with the 57CNC? I thought I read it can output the 0-10V for that?

it controls not drives as in it does not have a spindle controller on it but can control a spindle driver/controller I have it controlling a superpid and a G540 I did not put that to well

Cool. Thanks.

Any idea of how to wire it so I can use the pulse index for homing? I think they call it differential, not sure what that is, but what happens for accurate homing it touches off of the home switch then backs off until it reads a specific pulse from the encoder on the servo. So it's dead perfect every time.

I would not have a clue

lol, no problem. Thanks for the help,