[abegg7]

Hello everyone!
Newbie here and to machining as well, i recently purchased a well used Tree 200u, early 2 axis cnc. of course the computer does not work, it displays gibberish on the pendant screen., and if i use the auto mode, the x & y motors take off at full speed until one hits the travel limit switch, so i know the motors work.
Repairing the cnc portion does not seem real practical at this point, so i was wondering if i could use the westamp motor control boards and wire in my own input controls for forward/reverse and speed control?
Furthermore, can i use the tach readings for some sort of dro, in other words, can the tach outputs be used for a dro input?
All in all, it seems like a very well built machine, all 3 axises are smooth and tight, i have taken the head apart and inspected the gears and bearings, they are all fine.
However, the power quill feed belt was in pieces, and it is missing the power feed pulley, no big deal at this time, i'll fix all that later.
So if anyone has any experience with this type of conversion, i am open to suggestions!
Thanks!
Geoffrey

[abegg7]

Attachment 308840Here is my mill,Attachment 308842And here is my Leblond 13" regalAttachment 308844
Just learning how to use these, it's been fun so far!

[mikecolee]

Hi Geoffrey,

I call myself a "newbie" as well when it comes to CNC work. I had several years with an old Bridgeport however before I sold it and purchased a 1986 vintage J320 with a Dynapath D10 control. I ended up replacing the D10 with new motion control hardware from CS-Labs and I run the machine with Mach3. I spent about $650.00 for a CS Labs CSMIO/IP-A motion control computer, another $150.00 for the Mach3 software. Lastly, expense wise, you'll need a PC to run the Mach3 software. My machine uses DC servo motors driven by servo amps that require +10/-10 vdc for control. I am guessing yours is similar. Each servo motor has an encoder on the motor shaft that provides feedback to the motion control computer and/or the servo amps so that motion of an axis can be precisely controlled using a closed PID loop.

So, to answer your questions:
Yes, you can use your existing servos and amps if they are in good working condition.
Yes, the servo encoders will provide "DRO" functionality. (with additional HW/SW)

I might also suggest you look into the Mesa: 4I27A 2 axis servo motor controller card (analog out). It's a lower cost option and you can go with LinuxCNC to run your machine.

Hope this will help... A proper economic analysis is important as well as you may also want to consider looking around for a newer 3 axis machine that may require less work and $ to upgrade... In my case, I quite enjoy tinkering with machines and electronics so the retrofit/upgrades were part of the fun of leaping from manual to cnc machining. Now that I've had my J310 running for about 6 months I can say I no longer miss the Bridgeport.

Mike

[MJ_cnc]

i was wondering if i could use the westamp motor control boards and wire in my own input controls for forward/reverse and speed control?
Furthermore, can i use the tach readings for some sort of dro, in other words, can the tach outputs be used for a dro input?

The westamp servo's could be tuned and setup to travel at a reasonable speed, although I don't know too many people doing that. The westamps work by taking a voltage between +10Vdc and -10Vdc and drive the motors proportional to that voltage (ie +10vdc is full speed Clock wise). You'd have to setup something like that to drive the motors at the speed you want, something like an arduino, but I don't know of anything you can buy to do that. I guess you could by an adjustable DC power supply. Both of those options take work and probably not what you want to do.

For the revolvers, there are resolver to quadrature converters, Jon Elson at Pico systems has one Pico Systems : Resolver Converter [Resolver] - $150.00. They're $150 ea, not sure if they're multiple channels or single channel.

Also, I wonder how your mill calculated position in the first place? I have an Anilam that I converted and it has westamp servos with tachometers, but I have glass scales on each axis for position.

One last option would be to replace the westamps with something from Copley controls like a 422 or something from ADVANCED Motion Controls Servo Drives Brush Brushless Motor.

Lastly, I'm a fan of LinuxCNC, you could buy a controller/breakout board from Pico Systems or Mesa to run the XY with CNC.

Anyway - good luck, you have options, just depends on how much and what you want to do. Seems like you have a good handle on it so far!