[todd goff]

I have a Koike ik-1200-j with the Westinghouse linatrol optical tracer (which is not working now) that I am contemplating upgrading with Mach 3 software but was wondering if this is even doable. Where should I start or have I just completely lost it. If any of you guys have done anything like this then please give me some advice and thanks in advance.

[Jim Dawson]

Anything is doable if you are clever enough You have the main mechanical hardware there so it's just a matter of figuring out what made it move in the original configuration. Worst case, replace the existing motors and drives with new steppers & drives and connect to Mach3

I guess I would start be finding out what kind of motors and drives are in the original system to see if they are compatible with any Mach3 type control system.

[todd goff]

Anything is doable if you are clever enough You have the main mechanical hardware there so it's just a matter of figuring out what made it move in the original configuration. Worst case, replace the existing motors and drives with new steppers & drives and connect to Mach3

I guess I would start be finding out what kind of motors and drives are in the original system to see if they are compatible with any Mach3 type control system.

I can submit some pics of the machine on the forum Jim if it would help. In a nutshell though, the tracer arm moves and moves the torch with it when it moves. The hard part to figure though is the drive for the tracer. It’s very unusual; you have drive motors with bearings on them that run on flat rails on top of the table assembly; it’ll be fun I do believe.

[Jim Dawson]

Pictures are always helpful

[todd goff]

Pictures are always helpful

Well, here’s the latest in the plasma table saga. I went ahead and bit the bullet and bought a kit from dmm tech and am waiting on it. I removed the motors off of the machine and the gears. The motors in the kit from dmm are 14 mm shafts and mine are basically 3/8 so modifying my gears ain’t happening ( besides they’re helical). I took the diameters of both gears and added them together so I could figure what gears I could replace them with and came up with what breaks down to be a 1:80 ratio where it was a 4:29. I’m not too happy about that but somethings gotta give. Correct me if I’m wrong, but gear ratio should not be a major factor should it as the computer should configure everything when I put my parameters in upon setup; or am I wrong?

[Jim Dawson]

Yes, you can adjust the ratio in software. You just set the number of pulses/inch in Mach3. The DMM setup software has ratio setting also, set this first then Mach3. Good choice on the DMM Tech servos, I like their products. I have installed 6 of them so far and have been happy with the result.

[todd goff]

Yes, you can adjust the ratio in software. You just set the number of pulses/inch in Mach3. The DMM setup software has ratio setting also, set this first then Mach3. Good choice on the DMM Tech servos, I like their products. I have installed 6 of them so far and have been happy with the result.

The main selling point for me was tech support. A friend of mine told me how good it was and it really is. I hate that my gears won’t work but hey; make it work, right? I’ll keep everyone posted and will post some pics of the progress. I still have to get a computer, thc and the gears. I have to check my gear pitch depth on the gear teeth to make sure it will fit. There were 2 helical gears at 2.691 total pitch diameter (somewhere around 32 pitch) I would say without gauging. Now I’m going to a 20 pitch with total p.d. of 2.800 which is about .100 greater diameter. Wondering if I can pull it off? We’ll know more later.right?