[awemawson]

I am working on a Traub TND350G lathe that has a faulty controller, and if I cannot fix it, one of my options is to create another one possibly using LinuxCNC.

However my concern it the actual hardware interface - this needs a bit more than a breakout board from a parallel port! There are 128 inputs and 109 outputs not counting the specialist interfaces to the two spindles and three axis drives. The current controller also has about 32 analogue input/outputs but I don't think they are actually used - the AC servos are digitally interfaced. (not sure about the 'C' axis which positions the main spindle)

So what is available to talk to LinuxCNC and all this lot?

[samco]

http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wik...orted_Hardware
A singe mesa 5i22 has 96 I/o........

I used 2 5i20's in my conversion.... 72x2.... Working awesome.

Sam

[PCW_MESA]

I am working on a Traub TND350G lathe that has a faulty controller, and if I cannot fix it, one of my options is to create another one possibly using LinuxCNC.

However my concern it the actual hardware interface - this needs a bit more than a breakout board from a parallel port! There are 128 inputs and 109 outputs not counting the specialist interfaces to the two spindles and three axis drives. The current controller also has about 32 analogue input/outputs but I don't think they are actually used - the AC servos are digitally interfaced. (not sure about the 'C' axis which positions the main spindle)

So what is available to talk to LinuxCNC and all this lot?

With so much I/O a PLC might be a consideration (LinuxCNC will talk to ModBUS PLCs)

If this is 12 or 24 VDC field wiring, this is also easlily doable with a small set of Mesa Smart Serial
I/O modules which are fully supported by LinuxCNC

A simple host interface card (5I25), a 8 channel RS-422 interface (7I74) and 5 remote I/O daughter cards (2X 7I70 input and 2X 7I71 output 1x 7I84 I/O) will give you 128 12V/24V DC field inputs and 112 12V/24V 350 mA field outputs. Dont know what the 'digital servo' interface is but if the drives can use step/dir or analog +-10V, one additional daughtercard will give you this plus 4 or 6 encoder inputs (and possibly eliminate the 7I84)

[awemawson]

No I also don't yet know the details of the 'digital servo i/f" ! I think it perhaps is a Mitsubishi / Meldas proprietry thing. Each AC servo drive daisy chains to the next, starting at the DSP output of the cpu card, and ending up with a terminator rather like a scussi arrangement. The position along this daisy chain determines the drive identity number. The drives are quite complex, but I have a feeling that they include an extra card to give this particular interface, and it perhaps could be stripped out to allow a more conventional 10-0-10 analog drive. Main spindle servo & motor is 18.5 KW !!!!

[Al_The_Man]

! I think it perhaps is a Mitsubishi / Meldas proprietry thing. Each AC servo drive daisy chains to the next, starting at the DSP output of the cpu card, and ending up with a terminator rather like a scussi arrangement.

Sounds like the same interface used on Mitsubishi CNC systems, if you post the model of the drive, it some can be configurable for other control methods, also there is s/w for setting these drives up.
Al.

[awemawson]

Al, Hi !

The controller is a Traub TX8F which is basically a Mitsubishi Meldas M320V using standard Meldas cards in a slightly non standard configuration. The drives are driven by the MC161C-1 card (and / or the MC652). The drives themselves are Mitsubishi Freqol SR-SFs.

Some pictures here if you like (may have to register, but well worth it as an interesting place):

http://madmodder.net/index.php/topic,8261.0.html

[andypugh]

this needs a bit more than a breakout board from a parallel port! There are 128 inputs and 109 outputs

LinuxCNC + Mesa Smart-Serial cards can give you thousands of IO points (one 5i22 PCI card + 4 x 7i44 + 24 x 48 IO boards (7i64 or similar) is 1536 IO points per PCI slot, but you would need quite deep pockets, $1320 using 7i69 boards (TTL) or $4497 if you wanted the 7i64 board (which handles 48V 2A style IO)
This is just an illustration of what you could have. Given that you need less than a tenth of that. it would cost less.