Brother TC-211

Rigidity is one thing I had hoped for. The machine does look substantial, more than I expected. Very reassuring. Really useful info about the Z axis, motor brake, etc. I'm not sure if the spindle motor has a resolver or encoder. The AB3000 drives seem to be aimed at running encoders (nothing mentioned about resolvers in the docs after a quick google).

All AB3000 controllers seem to have a serial interface it seems. Would I control them via that? I don't want to get into Sercos with fibre etc (interface depends on drive model options), sounds expensive. I assume I could run the spindle motor open loop with the AB3000 controller, if it turns out my spindle motor has a resolver. am I correct?

As it happens, I don't have the original drives, and am not sure if they were integrated or separate, how to control them, etc. Overall your info has given me quite a bit of encouragement. Thanks ihavenofish.

for the ab drives, there is a pulse and direction version. im told it should actually support resolvers. it may be worth trying to snag a single one on ebay for $100ish and test it. if it works, then just buy more.

in this case, linuxcnc would be "open loop" as it would not read the encoders, but the drives would be closed loop and spit out an error if they lost position. tuning would be left to the drives themselves which have an auto tune function.

when you size the drive, i should note that you want to go one size up. the brother's servos are designed to be in the intermittent zone for accelerations (especially the spindle which can spin up to 6k in 200ms), so you need a drive thats happy with that. so, for your 100w motors, you might want a 200w drive.

it seems there are analgue versions as well, but im having a hard time figuring out model numbers. the nearest i can gather is the "DN/C" devicenet model supports "everything". but im not sure thats right either.

it does seem to support sin/cos for feedback, but, those seem to be dedicated drive models.

so, basically, i think you can use them, i just have no idea what model youd need!

ok, i got it. the model with no suffix - 2098-DSD-005 - is the basic model that takes both analogue and step and direction. on 230 single phase, this will feed up to 500w continuous, and likely work with all 3 of your axes. or your spindle, youd want 2098-DSD-020 wihch supports up to 2000w continuous, also single phase 220v. these take incremental encoders and sin cos resolvers. we have never figured out if the toshibas are sin cos though.

if it has an SE suffix, thats sercos ONLY, and you dont want that. if it has DN on the end, this is devicenet AND analogue and step and direction. so you can use this, but dont pay extra money. models labelled HV are 400v 3 phase. models labeled X i dont know what they are. they seem to have no differences between the regular ones.

literature.rockwellautomation.com/idc/gr...2098-in003_-en-p.pdf

heres someone with 5 for cheap with free fedex shipping. i guess it cant hurt too much to try one out.

www.ebay.ca/itm/Allen-Bradley-Ultra3000-...a:g:myAAAOSwU9xUS0f6

mblaszkiewicz do you have scanned wiring diagrams or other documentation for Brother TC211 ? I just bought one for fitting Linuxcnc on it, and have only "programming" manual.

Iscanned the pages in this forum for the controller. The x y z limit switches are in the middle of the bar life number30 on the bottom of the cabinet. I could never figure out the toll changer. Btw I lost the machine when I lost the house so I can't go look. I tried to sell it but no luck then ran out of time.

Sorry to hear that you lost your machine, I will start my own thread next week when the work on machine starts.

There is a lot of info in the beginning of this thread. I was able to control the machine with it cutting any wires. It was always able to go back to original condition. If you have specific questions just ask.

Meanwhile someone has used closed loop steppers. Their argument was it is cheaper and easier to maintain (if one of the original motors failed for example), replacement steppers being easier to source.

I doubt that closed loop steppers are adequate for this type of machine tool , not because of torque or speed, but because they can't support index home . Therefore you can not set up the job on the mill and turn it on next day and have precise machine position you set the day before.
For now I plan to use the original drives , if one goes bad it will be replaced with ac servo drive and motor (we use Xinje servo drives and motors as replacement for other machines if needed).