[Sparky_NY]

Thus far I have been extremely happy with the retrofit. No complaints at all.
I did get the belt drive and motor mounted on the knee and that operating also. Also got a enclosure made up which works very well.

I'M BACK>>>> i had the V2 E3 in my shop just taking space since last year and I really want to get this retrofit underway(wedge)now I just have to buckle down and re read everything i lost from a year ago

wish me luck!

[greeder88]

If anyone has boss 9 control cards or encoders leftover from an retrofit I will buy them. I am looking for eizo , bmp cards and 200 count bei encoders. I have several r2e4 Bridgeports I try to keep running. E-mail me at [email protected]

[hudsonCAD]

Sparky,

I know this thread is a little old now, but I'm looking for a competent toy cnc machine. I keep ending back at Bridgeport/Clones.

This seems like a very viable conversion, can I ask roughly how much you spent on it? Also, why did you decide to drive the knee just for tool length?

Anyone care to weigh in on Prototrak vrs Eztrak vrs Boss conversions?

Thanks!

Andrew

[Sparky_NY]

Sparky,

I know this thread is a little old now, but I'm looking for a competent toy cnc machine. I keep ending back at Bridgeport/Clones.

This seems like a very viable conversion, can I ask roughly how much you spent on it? Also, why did you decide to drive the knee just for tool length?

Anyone care to weigh in on Prototrak vrs Eztrak vrs Boss conversions?

Thanks!

Andrew

Under a thousand for everything. The servo drives were the most expensive items. I am extremely satisfyied with the mill. Yes, I did the knee drive mostly for tool length offsetting although it sure is nice not to have to crank it anymore. I would not hesitate to reccommend a bridgeport for a "toy" machine, it is quite capable, pretty easy to find a a great price, does not take up a lot of room, parts are easy to come by as well as information.

As for prototrak vs bridgeport hardware, the big consideration I see is that the bridgeport factory cnc would have a internal ballscrew drive for the quill. The aftermarket quill drives just don't compare. If you can find a later boss with servo's the performance and accuracy is quite a bit better than the earlier stepper units. I do circular pockets and pretty much always end up within a couple three tenths of the programmed diameter which still amazes me.

[hudsonCAD]

Under a thousand for everything.

That's very exciting, I had in my mind that it was considerably more expensive. I've been searching on and off for a while now and this seems like a very good route. A 4th axis like you have would be very nice as well!

As for prototrak vs bridgeport hardware, the big consideration I see is that the bridgeport factory cnc would have a internal ballscrew drive for the quill. The aftermarket quill drives just don't compare. If you can find a later boss with servo's the performance and accuracy is quite a bit better than the earlier stepper units. I do circular pockets and pretty much always end up within a couple three tenths of the programmed diameter which still amazes me.

Thanks for that info.. Would not driving the Knee give you a larger working cube? I thought the Prototrak equiped machines did that, or is it not that big of a deal?

[Sparky_NY]

[QUOTE=
Thanks for that info.. Would not driving the Knee give you a larger working cube? I thought the Prototrak equiped machines did that, or is it not that big of a deal?[/QUOTE]

Not sure what you mean by "larger working cube" ?? But driving the knee does not change the travel of the knee so its limits and travel remain the same as a manual crank.

Some bridgeport type knee mill retrofits drive the knee for the Z axis rather than the quill. That method does give more travel than using the quill but at the expense of speed. You just can't get 700lbs of knee/table/vise etc to jump up and down quickly. My knee does 70 ipm as compared to the quill at 250ipm. ANy 3d profiling work and this makes a huge difference as well as for peck drilling.

[hudsonCAD]

I've heard that about the inertial problems with driving the knee. I thought it was possible to put the knee in as a redundent driven axis which would give you a larger full CNC working area/box/cube. I don't know enough yet to know if it's possible to code that way or not however. Also, couldn't you lock the quill if you needed to take some serious bites?

[Sparky_NY]

I've heard that about the inertial problems with driving the knee. I thought it was possible to put the knee in as a redundent driven axis which would give you a larger full CNC working area/box/cube. I don't know enough yet to know if it's possible to code that way or not however. Also, couldn't you lock the quill if you needed to take some serious bites?

Bridgeport factory built cnc's do not have a quill lock like the manual machines. As for software control, it would depend on the controller you use I suppose.

[astr]

Wow - am I glad to have found this thread. I recently picked up a R2E4 Series II that I want to retrofit to run under Mach3. This thread looks like the perfect guide for what I want to do. I was also considering using the Dugong drives and reusing the Bridgeport drive power supply but was unsure if that approach would work. I was also tossing around the idea of using the Smoothstepper. It looks like you have had great results from exactly the combination I was considering! Thanks for doing such as great write up with photos.

I'm not sure what the exact differences are between the R2E4 and the V2E3 but there appears to be a lot of commonality in the electronics and cabinetry. The servos are different - mine are SEM's with Heidenhain ERO 120 encoders (optical) but looks like the AMD encoders will work fine.

[Sparky_NY]

Wow - am I glad to have found this thread. I recently picked up a R2E4 Series II that I want to retrofit to run under Mach3. This thread looks like the perfect guide for what I want to do. I was also considering using the Dugong drives and reusing the Bridgeport drive power supply but was unsure if that approach would work. I was also tossing around the idea of using the Smoothstepper. It looks like you have had great results from exactly the combination I was considering! Thanks for doing such as great write up with photos.

I'm not sure what the exact differences are between the R2E4 and the V2E3 but there appears to be a lot of commonality in the electronics and cabinetry. The servos are different - mine are SEM's with Heidenhain ERO 120 encoders (optical) but looks like the AMD encoders will work fine.

The R2E4 and V2e3 are quite similar. I believe the electronics are identical. I would not hesitate to replace the encoders you have. The amt encoders I used are far less prone to problems, especially with old ones like you have and the increased resolution helps a lot too.

The dugong drives have changed recently but only in name and packaging. This was for ease of manufacturing. I forget the new model name but they are still 35amps 140 volt. Cnc4pc now distributes them here in the US.

I remain extremely pleased with the mills performance. Yell if I can help in any way.

[astr]

...
The dugong drives have changed recently but only in name and packaging. This was for ease of manufacturing. I forget the new model name but they are still 35amps 140 volt. Cnc4pc now distributes them here in the US....

I checked with CNC4PC. The Dugong drives have been replaced by the DG2S-16035. This is not a one-for-one replacement as the some of the functions included in the Dugong drive now have to be purchased separately: Instead of a simple braking resistor as used by the Dugong, now you have to purchase a complete "braking box" as a separate item. Additionally, a separate programming stick must be purchased for motor tuning and drive diagnostics. Also, the differential signal converter for the encoder is no longer included.

In my opinion, this is a major step backwards as, not only is this a significant increase in cost, but also an increase in the complexity of putting a system together.

[Sparky_NY]

You are correct about the new servo drives. It is not as bad as it first seems though. One programming stick is all that is required for any number of drives and it is only $16 US. The differential adapter for the encoder is only $6.50 but there is another way, if you are going to use the Amt encoders, they have a differential line driver cable assembly that is very cheap, it houses similar electronics right in the cable assembly making the cncdrives adapter unneccessary.

The breaking circuit may or may not be necessary. On my bridgeport, with its powertron servos, it was found that the breaking circuit NEVER fired at all. In my case, I could do without the braking circuit altogether.

Lastly, on my bridgeport with its servos, the optimal tuning turned out to be with the servo current set for 15amps. This means that the larger 35A drives were not necessary and I could have gotten away with the 20A drives and saved money. The voltage on the smaller drive is lower however. Many have retrofitted bridgeports with Gecko servo drives which are rated about the same as the cncdrive 20amp series drive but with far less features.

The cncdrives tuning software is fantastic.

[billsnogo]

Wow - am I glad to have found this thread. I recently picked up a R2E4 Series II that I want to retrofit to run under Mach3. This thread looks like the perfect guide for what I want to do. I was also considering using the Dugong drives and reusing the Bridgeport drive power supply but was unsure if that approach would work. I was also tossing around the idea of using the Smoothstepper. It looks like you have had great results from exactly the combination I was considering! Thanks for doing such as great write up with photos.

I'm not sure what the exact differences are between the R2E4 and the V2E3 but there appears to be a lot of commonality in the electronics and cabinetry. The servos are different - mine are SEM's with Heidenhain ERO 120 encoders (optical) but looks like the AMD encoders will work fine.

astr, have you started the conversion? In the next couple of weeks I plan to buy some parts for my series I with SEM servos, and am illiterate when it comes to electronics and love guides to help me along (similar to SparkyNY).

Looking to buy so far:
c32 board CNC4PC
smooth stepper
3 DG2S-16035 drives
PRG01 USB programming stick
3 BRKC-180 Braking Circuits
3 amt encoders (don't know if it will need to be amt102 or amt103?)
a pendant off of evilbay
mach3
maybe a power supply (just don't know enough to possibly reuse current ones)
VFD??? to control spindle speed of the variable speed head (not sure how to find the "right" one)

ps
anyone in the twin cities with this kind of knowledge that wants to earn some money, I would pay to have there knowledge to help me get this up and running

[astr]

astr, have you started the conversion? In the next couple of weeks I plan to buy some parts for my series I with SEM servos, and am illiterate when it comes to electronics and love guides to help me along (similar to SparkyNY).

Looking to buy so far:
c32 board CNC4PC
smooth stepper
3 DG2S-16035 drives
PRG01 USB programming stick
3 BRKC-180 Braking Circuits
3 amt encoders (don't know if it will need to be amt102 or amt103?)
a pendant off of evilbay
mach3
maybe a power supply (just don't know enough to possibly reuse current ones)
VFD??? to control spindle speed of the variable speed head (not sure how to find the "right" one)

ps
anyone in the twin cities with this kind of knowledge that wants to earn some money, I would pay to have there knowledge to help me get this up and running

+I have not started my conversion other than try out a cheep Chinese VFD VARIABLE FREQUENCY DRIVE INVERTER VFD NEW 3HP 2.2KW o2 | eBay. It worked great but I'm not sure about how reliable it will be. I also mounted an ATM102-V encoder on the SEM servo. I had to turn the servo shaft down to make it fit. Other than that I haven't made any further progress.

By the way, you only need one BRKC-180 Braking Circuit per power supply, not one per drive.

[billsnogo]

I also mounted an ATM102-V encoder on the SEM servo. I had to turn the servo shaft down to make it fit. Other than that I haven't made any further progress.

By the way, you only need one BRKC-180 Braking Circuit per power supply, not one per drive.

Thanks! Saved me some $ already :banana:

How hard had it been to turn down the shaft? I might make an adapter, need to get the encoders first and go from there I guess.

[astr]

Thanks! Saved me some $ already :banana:

How hard had it been to turn down the shaft? I might make an adapter, need to get the encoders first and go from there I guess.

It was relatively easy. After removing the old encoder stuff. I chucked the servo shaft into a lathe and turned down the end to fit one of the adapters supplied with the ATM. I left the servo intact. I only spun the shaft with the servo body remained stationary. I was originally concerned that the chips might enter the servo but it was not a problem.

I also purchased the cable that has the differential line driver that is built right into the cable and used that cable to connect to the original mil-spec connector that came on the SEM. I was able to reuse the original can that came on the SEM. I'll see if I came get some photos for you.

[billsnogo]

It was relatively easy. After removing the old encoder stuff. I chucked the servo shaft into a lathe and turned down the end to fit one of the adapters supplied with the ATM. I left the servo intact. I only spun the shaft with the servo body remained stationary. I was originally concerned that the chips might enter the servo but it was not a problem.

I also purchased the cable that has the differential line driver that is built right into the cable and used that cable to connect to the original mil-spec connector that came on the SEM. I was able to reuse the original can that came on the SEM. I'll see if I came get some photos for you.

So the shaft has a section turned down, but does not go all the way to the end of the shaft? (trying to picture how you would turn it down while still having the servo assembled)

thanks again

[Johns tool room]

So the shaft has a section turned down, but does not go all the way to the end of the shaft? (trying to picture how you would turn it down while still having the servo assembled)

thanks again

theres about 3/4" of shaft sticking out beyond end of casing. you see the center hole?


This is a pic with that end covered up but the end of the shaft showing also has a center hole ( personally I'd chuck it up in the 3 jaw)

Use teh casing as a steady rest and don't forget to ziptie your wires down.

Now turn down teh end that is sticking out to 8mm. Might have to reverse the spindle and approach from the back or not?

I hope you all don't mind that I join you all as I am now in the same boat. last 3 months had my heart set on another controller and now they refuse to sell to me. I guess I am going breakout boards and DGS drives. I have a V2XT mill

[astr]

So the shaft has a section turned down, but does not go all the way to the end of the shaft? (trying to picture how you would turn it down while still having the servo assembled)

thanks again

1st, I removed the tach generator and the associated magnets as these were no longer required. I then chucked the pulley end of the servo in the lathe, leaving the whole servo minus the stuff on the tach end intact. I used a live center on the end that I was turning down. I just spun the shaft inside the servo while the servo body remained stationary. I then turned the last 1" of the shaft down to the diameter required for the black adapter (IIRC it was 0.375"). I then drilled and tapped the end plate to accept the encoder mount.

The 1st photo shows the mounted encoder on the end plate. I was able to reuse the standard cover. Note the bulge bulge in the cable. This bulge is the single ended-to-differential converter as supplied by AMT.

The 2nd photo is of the turned down shaft with shaft adapter in place. You can still see remnants of the threads on the end of the shaft.

I routed the AMT cable the same way as the original cables and soldered the ends to the original bulk head connector as seen in photo 3. I was able to maintain the same pinouts as used by Bridgeport.

[Johns tool room]

I got to ask a few general question about the breakout board and the inputs. Say I wanted to for example wire my low air sensor how would I go about that? Is there anything I would have to buy so I could hook up the air sensor wire to teh C32? It looks like all my inputs are 24VDC except for the speed controller.

In regards to outputs, I need 2 that are 110 VAC, 3 that are 12 VDC and 3 that are 24 VDC, do I need to buy anything in addition to the C32 ?

Did you wire your limit switches in series for each axis? Do I need homing switches? Do Ineed a special board to plug those into?

How did everyone go about the high low gear induction sensor?

Then there is that sensor on the speeder? where did you plug that.

Can mach deal with a variable speed set up like the V2XT?