Retrofitting a Shizuoka AN-S 3 axis knee mill

I have a Shizuoka AN-S cnc mill with an Allen Bradley control that does not work. It has Baldor Big-MHO DC servos that are in good condition. Mechanically, the machine is excellent.
I would like to do a Linux CNC conversion. The current servo drives are Westamp from the late 80's. I would prefer to remove these and use something newer, and more reliable.
This machine has encoders on the motors, so there are no glass scales to deal with.
I'm looking for suggestions for the motion controller and servo drives.

Thank you
Brian

hi nice projekt
are you planing to use the internal as the tachometers 7V/100rpm will may be a problem

there are some projekts involving this things on
where are you located just Continent

and what are you planing to go for as there is no info on the Spindles ballscrews or maybe corrected 32mm Trapezional as of the build

I haven’t found anything suitable yet, but just started looking.
Yes, the motors have tachs.
The motors are 120v dc.
I attached a photo of the info plate on the servo.

Brian

If you decide to keep the Westamp drives, then I might recommend the Pico Systems PPMC, a set of boards to drive analog velocity servos.

If you decide to replace them, then I might recommend the Pico Systems PWM controller system, but those servo amps are only good up to 20 Amps. Depending on the size of the machine, that might be sufficient. (It looks to be about the size of a Bridgeport Series-II.)

(Full disclosure, I make the Pico Systems products.)

Jon

Thank you for the input.

Jon,
I have looked at Pico. I think your products are great, but I do want to match the servo amps closer to the motor. This machine is probably similar to a Series II, maybe a bit heavier.
This machine is used in a professional shop, and it will see some heavy milling.
I'm familiar with the Centroid options, but I would like to do a Linux conversion, mostly for the educational value.

Currently, I'm reviewing Advanced Motion Controls to see if they have anything suitable.

Brian

OK, another option is to get a set of analog drives from AMC and use our PPMC controller with it. They did have drives rated up to 40 A peak.

Jon

I have just purchased the same type machine with an Allen Bradley control although mine was already removed before purchase and the same servo motors, and I am also hoping to do a retrofit to run it on LinuxCNC. Were you ever able to get your machine running on Linux? What drivers did you end up using?

There are lots of drives offered on eBay. Check the specs on the motors to see what the peak current rating is. Does the machine have DC tachometers? Generally, with analog velocity servo amps, that would be the case. AMC makes some beefy velocity servo amps, but the higher the current, the harder they are to come by.

I have an analog servo interface set for that type of servo amp, called the PPMC.
See pico-systems.com/osc2.5/catalog/index.php?cPath=1 for some more info and pictures.

Jon