[Jeff in N.Y.]

Hello,
I am currently retrofitting the control on my Benchman mill.
I am wondering if anyone has diagrams of the electrical circuits,
specificaly the encoder breakout board, and the power board suppling the motor drives?
I am using a Vital systems DSPMC , motion control, Mach3 software, and the original servo motors, encoders ,amplifiers.
Any help would be much apreciated.
Thanks,
Jeff.

[meirbns]

Hello Jeff,
I just got Benchman 4000 CNC. I do not have the PC controller card. I would like to modify it to work with the Mach 3 SW and still use the original Servo and Encoder card.
I wonder whether you were able to find the electrical drawings for your machine. Can you direct me getting/purchasing the drawing.
many thanks
Meir

[steve_alaniz]

Jeff in NY, I have acquired a Benchman XT and am in the same boat as you. I THINK the motion controller card is dead but I am still waiting for 230V AC to really check it all out. I bought this unit knowing I might have to convert it to Mach3 which is probably what I should do regardless. Anyway, I believe the servo motors on these units are the way to go. I think 120lbs is the magic number for weight that determines if you go servo motor or stepper motors. The Gecko G320X would be a suitable replacement controller that would work with Mach3. The problem I face is that I want to keep the AC motor controller to run the 2HP spindle motor so that is an issue I haven't figured out just yet. But for the X,Y, and Z axis, the Gecko G320X will work IF I replace the encoder with a 5V unit since the current encoder is 24V. I think I can adapt a US Digital encoder and I have had a lot of experience with those. Mach 3 will supply the signals and the Gecko will control the Servo Motors after a bit of tuning. I'm Pretty excited about this machine... it looks rock solid and should work well for my applications. Anyway, If I find out anything useful I'll post it here.