Brother TC-211

Thanks its a start. Now a newbie question. What do all the cards do, and I would love to create a modern panel, and have full use of the tool changer, add a tool setter, and possibly a probe in the future.

emcPT wrote: It seams that your drives accept +-10V analog signals.
If the drives are in working conditions the retrofit will not be expensive or too much hard (well it will be easier).

I would suggest that the first thing to do is to find where the analogue control signals to the drives are connected, and perhaps see if you can make the axes move with a 1.5V battery or similar.
(this needs to be done with some care).

The motors have resolver feedback to the drives, what isn't clear is whether the drives convert that to encoder pulses for the controller or not.

LinuxCNC can work with resolvers (my own machine uses them) but I am not sure if the converters have to create the excitation signal too. (sharing encoder signals is easy, sharing resolver signals might be less easy).

This problem goes away if there are linear scales on the axes.

[quote="emcPT" post=45598I would recommend a 5i25 + 7i77 for the control of the servo motors. Probably a 7i74 and a 7i84 will be needed after if a lot of IO is needed (if you want to maintain the control with physical buttons, that I personally like).[/quote]
For wiring up the control panel a 7i73 might be better. (as it has MPG inputs and supports matrix-wired switches). Cheap too.

mblaszkiewicz wrote: Thanks its a start. Now a newbie question. What do all the cards do.

Computers are Digital. +/-10V is an analogue signal, so you need some hardware to produce the analogue signal, and to convert the machine voltages on switches and such to safe voltages for the PC to interpret.
The spec for the 7i77 is here: store.mesanet.com/index.php?route=produc...83_87&product_id=120
Another possibility is from Pico Systems: www.pico-systems.com/univpwm.html
Both of these are fully supported by LinuxCNC. Also LinuxCNC is fully supported by both manufacturers. (You will find them on these forums answering questions).

Hold off buying any hardware yet though, it is possible that you might need something rather different to run with Resolvers.
(I like resolvers a lot, they are fundamentally better than encoders, but a lot harder to use with a digital system)

I will go back to the manual and find out what I can about the resolvers on the system. Again Thanks to everyone here for the help

andypugh wrote: For wiring up the control panel a 7i73 might be better. (as it has MPG inputs and supports matrix-wired switches). Cheap too.

The 7i73 is harder to connect. The use of the IDC connectors make the connections more difficult and less user friendly. I am telling this because I have one in a machine with also a 7i84.
The 7i84 also allows MPG, but yes it is a bit more expensive.

Swapping your resolvers for compatible encoders should also not be a large issue if your current resolvers do not work.

With a help of a scope you should be able to check if your drive convert the resolver signals into encoder signals that would be directly accepted by the 7i77 (that in your current machine, would be connected to the controller of your machine).
This seams the most likely as in your documentation it is written:
Location and signal output: AB signals 1024 with a Z
Z is the index of the encoder, being A B the channels of it.
If you connect a scope to this "signal ouput" you should be able to look at the A and B channels (also the Z) when rotating the shaft to prove that they will work.