retrofit on EMCO PC turn 55

yesterday the last half were blank. Now they are there. Must be something to do with Windows7!
Sorry for the non issue.
cs

No eBay APP ID and/or Cert ID defined in Kunena configurationI received some questions based on this topic and I would like to address them here because I'm sure people here will have valuable input.
Here is a copy of the email....

Hi-
I'm looking around for a CNC lathe, and considering a used PC Turn 55. (For
example
)
I have some experience with lathes (~300 hours) and excellent technology
skills (I helped design a computer at the chip level, for example), but I
have absolutely no experience with modern CNC machines.

2 questions
1) What do you get out of a retrofit vs the original software? (I have no
idea what the original software does.)

2) How is it going? If you feel like the project is converging, I'm pretty
sure I could follow in your footsteps.

I finished this project a long time ago so parts of it may be a bit hazy. I do have a fair number of pictures that might help.

I did a retrofit because I didn't have any of the original Emco software and frankly didn't care to learn about it or the antiquated PC associated with it. I would also bet the original software does not have the features of LInuxCNC. I was familiar with LinuxCNC and it works well for me. I also wanted to use the emoc tool turret and I could find examples of other turrets that I figured I could adapt. That is a topic covered in another thread.

My conversion consisted of gutting all the old electronics including the odd 5 wire stepper motors. I used some nice stepper motors from Keling that work very well. I used a Gecko G540 for the control even though it has two drives that I don't need (it was still the cheapest solution). I reused the existing 24V power supply because it was adequate and I needed 24VDC for the turret motor. I used a Teco VFD from dealers electric and interfaced it to the G540 for spindle speed control. I removed the big red box on the back and scrapped it (I did save the yellow plate and cut it to size to make a bottom for the grey part of the cabinet. I put all the new electronics in the back of the grey cabinet.

My system requires 2 parallel ports in order to have enough I/O for the spindle encoder and tool turret.

If you do decide to convert a PC Turn55 we can address the conversion in stages.

I noticed that the current version (the Concept Turn 55) lists 52mm as the maximum turning diameter in spite of a 65mm center height. Is the PCTurn 55 indeed limited to such a small size?

It looks like I will be doing the conversion. The one I bought is missing the PC and the card (though it has the software.)

What kind of motors did you get, and did the slot right in where the old ones were?

What did you do about the turret?

Roughly how much would it cost if you did it again (you don't have to be exact.)

What parts do you have? If you still have the original stepper drives, and if they take step/dir signals then it is a pretty easy conversion.
My shopping list would probably be
Intel BOXD525MW $80
8 GB SATA DOM $40
60W PicoPSU $30
Mesa 5i25 $80
Mesa 7i76 $120

Then keep the existing drives and stepper motors.

Alternatives include the Pico PPMC USC. for £250 for the control card. You might also consider the new Intel DN2800MT motherboard which runs direct from a 12V supply (which probably exists in the case). It will work with the PPMC / USC as that uses the parallel port for communication, but as it has PCIe rather then PCI you would need to change the 5i25 to a 6i25 if going the Mesa route.

www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item...813121442&Tpk=D525MW
www.mesanet.com/ (Anything IO FPGA cards section)
www.pico-systems.com/univstep.html

If the motors are 5-wire and all the wires are used, then that means that they are being drive by Unipolar drives. This isn't a bad thing, necessarily, as it was clearly adequate when the machine was built. You can run a 5-wire motor with a bipolar supply simply by ignoring the centre tap as described here: www.stepperworld.com/Tutorials/pgBipolarTutorial.htm but I doubt that the increased performance would justify the expense, and might just lead to overheated motors.

that looks a nice machine that andy even supplys a molex connecter and sata hdds from (the 12volt input) no need for a psu at all just a nice compact 12v din rail psu