Reccomend Drives & Boards: DC Servo/Tacho (LinuxCNC Retro of a DCC CMM)

Hi, I'm looking for a recommendation on servo-drives and IO boards compatible with some existing servo-motors on a machine I have in my shop.

The machine is a DEA Swift CMM (full DCC) currently running on an old Windows 2000 PC with 1999-ish Tutor software.
These machines have three axes in a gantry configuration with acme lead-screws.
Each axis is driven by Yaskawa UGTMEM01MB47S DC servos with tacho-generator feedback.

The motors are 24V with 4 brushes.
The tachometer generators are 7V / 1000RPM units.

This is information on the servo / tacho units:
TSEZ-C249-1C.pdf

The other part of the equation is that I'll need to sort out reading the Heidenhain scales. My search results around the forum have lead me to some information on that, but any input is welcome. The read heads on those are Heidenhain LIDA 19R/100.

I'm new here, but fairly savvy with production CNC machine tools, electronics and some software development. I have zero experience with LinuxCNC, but would like to develop some CMM software for Linux. I believe the best way to start is to configure LinuxCNC to control the axes and give accurate position readout from the scales.

All suggestions for hardware, examples of similar projects, and related information I can read are appreciated.
Thanks!
-Chris

I had a similar problem.. i needed 3pcs dc servo drives
so made 10pieces dc servo drivers of tarocco open source project.
My motors was 24vdc with brushes & 500 lines per revolution optical encoders.
These drivers accept step-dir & read incremental quadrature encoders.
so can be driven by linuxcnc.

To drive you dc motors you need a simple H bridge driver
and read feedback of linear scales to linuxcnc.

Thanks vre, those look useful at a glance.

I'll have to sit down and compare the specs. I do have a set of three extra servos, so maybe I'll give one a try on the test bench.

Hallo Chris,

very good idea to make a CMM module for linuxcnc, i tried that too, but my maths knowledge is to limited. How to calculate a circle from 360 points with Gauss filtering or as MZC???

As per your machine, i recommend MESA Electronics hardware!
If you Amplifieres are able to be driven by +-10V, there is the 7i77 card, or you use otter or STMBL amplifieres. The reading if the Haidenhein Skales should not be a problem!

Are you in Germany?

Norbert

Norbert, I'm in Washington State, in the USA.

I do have the original system in working order. It is a 20 year old proprietary system made by DEA called Tutor-P interface.

The servo amps are most likely analog as you suggested, but I do not know for sure. The old computer runs Windows 2000 Pro and interfaces via a special CMM software called "Tutor for Windows" via RS232 port. There is a logic board and a three axis servo board. Both are proprietary DEA items.

I do not have any schematics or design information on the OEM servo amp/driver boards and they're expensive / rare. If they ever die, it will be costly to have them repaired. I'd like to replace everything up to the servo motors and the scales, so re-using the DEA amps is what I'm trying to avoid.

I'm slightly familiar with MESA as I've been reading the forum researching this project. From my current understanding of LinuxCNC, a small servo amp that runs on +/- 10V analog signal and the MESA I/O setup would be ideal for this project.

Hallo Chris,

so if you want to change the amplifiers, have you taken a look at the MESA 7i40 - DUAL DC 400W amplifier board?
I used that one to rebuild an old HP plotter, also with DC Motors and encoder mounted on the motors.
I used it in combination with a 7i43 EPP card, but today I would recommend a 7i93 or 7i80HD as that would allow to connect to the PC with Ethernet card.

If you ever write some code to calculate elements from collected points, please give me a notice, as I have also 2 CMM, what could need new software.

Norbert

yes the 7i40 is an excellent board, initially used with 7i80 ethernet then replaced with a 5i23 for faster servo thread (8khz) against 1 khz of 7i80. the difference is seen.
regards
Mauro