[pcalonzi]

Hey everyone,

First off I'd like to say that i've been a member here for a while and absolutely amazed by what some of you guys have built over the years. I am working on a project for my company and am a little lost. We have a machine that requires vertical movement. Currently it was built with a set of dovetail rails that cannot be removed without an entire machine teardown. Which would be too costly as well as take the machine out of commission for too long. Currently height adjustment is done by through the use of a steel block with various holes and a spring loaded alignment pin. I was given the project of converting this to a computer controlled servo drive. My plan is to build another rail off to the side from 80/20 linear products and drive that with a servo motor connected to a ball screw. Here is my problem: I am great with the mechanical side but I am having trouble sizing the servo motor and determining what drive controller I should be using. Any help will be greatly appreciated. I will include some pictures when i get back to work on tuesday.


Thank you,

Patrick Alonzi
[email protected]

[pcalonzi]

I know I need to use a servo driver and a servo amplifier but I am unclear how the whole system links up. Can a PC output a position to the driver and then the driver while take care of everything?