Light Machine Corp. Benchman XTr (retrofit)

Here it is. Ultraware v1.60 with a pdf of the original printout from this drive. I was able to get it going on a windows XP machine, but not sure about anything else. To successfully access the drive, a cross-over serial cable is required. I highly recommend saving a copy of your drive .PAR file before making any changes. Also, look at starting the program in Administrator mode. It allows you to access a few more menus for setting up the motor properly. Opening every window and doing a screenshot helped me out when the VFD was replaced with a refurbished unit. If your VFD is bad and you do not have a .PAR file, hit me up and I'll give you the one I am using.

Here is the manual for the drive.
Ultra 100 Drive Manual

There is also a device that plugs into the serial port on the VFD that is made to forego the whole computer setup. The instructions on it are in the manual. I was able to pick one of these up from ebay a few years ago, and it wasn't cheap. If someone would like to buy it from me, shoot me a msg in the Freenode channel #linuxcnc.

Electro-Craft Servo Products
MMI-001
9101-1386
H000834

PS if anyone has the original model number of the Electro-craft AC servo, please post it. The label on mine has faded to blank.

try 2

The Model number is DDM-019. Thanks for posting that Mac... I'll try it on my machine later. I can't open it on my home computer because I'm running Windows 7 but with any luck this will work on the XT computer I have hooked up.

Azik1 if the 500rpm spindle does not work, you might check the vfd for a ICP error when you go to enable it. If you get that, then the drive is toast. Mine had to be replaced, which an ebay seller was willing to take a core on my broken unit and sell me his refurbished unit for a few hundred bucks.

A few revelations were made along the way.
1. Copley controls are set to torque mode.
2. I was able to setup a signal to the VFD to enable torque mode, and get signals to lcnc for current output and drive enabled.
3. The copley controls run on a 3kHz bandwidth. For the xyz axes, I was able to get them tuned at 1kHz and when I went to 3kHz they sounded better.
4. Trying to tune the 4th axis has become a PITA. I would really like to figure out an easier way to tune it correctly.
5. Currently, I am working again on a xml file for more controls and readouts for the purpose of running the VFD in torque mode, for the purpose of controlled spindle orientation and indexing.

Steve, did you end up getting a mesa card combo for your mill? (im running a 5i25, 7i77 and 7i84) Also, you mentioned making cuts. what kind of cutting depths are you getting?

Mac, thank you. I did replace Ultra 100 with Ultra3000, there is quite a few of them on ebay and they quite cheaper and more capable unit. Had to make small PCB breakout adapters to convert Ultra 100 plug into Ultra 3000 so that i did not have to cut and replace existing connectors on motor wires.