Planning - Bridgeport Interact 1 linuxCNC Retrofit

What size braking resistor did you go with?

I have only tried the EXE 602s. There are a lot of version of the EXE's but documentation is really hard to find. Do your 702's have any jumpers inside? The 602's have 5 but I don't think their function matches the documentation. In hindsight I would have used 610 to get 10 fold interpolation. It would be nice to have a little more encoder resolution. If I can't get the EXE nonsense sorted out I will probably put in AMT10 encoders. It would require fabricating a mounting plate and cover, that I hoped to avoid.

I am using a 15" HP L5006tm touch screen that I got on ebay for $80. I was not sure about how well the touch screen would work. With my limited experience so far must say that I am really happy with the usability. I divided functions so that the touch screen only has setup and I only use physical buttons for operation. That ended up being reasonable, but after plying a bit I would be less hesitant to put more functions on the touch screen. You should plan on having a wireless keyboard available for the rare, but important times when you need it.

I built custom panels to mount the monitor and the new controls when the original monitor and TNC151 were. Since my machine was initially working (before I broke it) I used it to make the panels.

For the braking resistors I used 7, 6 ohm, 50w resistors (DigiKey part # A102165-ND) wired in series and mounted on a piece of 1/8" aluminum. That provides 300w of dissipation and it barely gets warm after repeated braking.

I am assuming you are talking about fly back diodes? Yea you can reuse old ones, they keep voltage spikes off of your field power when coil is turned off, magnetic field collapses and drives current, diode let's it drain through coil, there is not really a good rule for sizing those, so old ones will probably do fine

Got off the phone with Mesa Electronics today.

The person I talked with was very helpful, I was concerned with the hold placed on my order since it "fell off", I'm using USAA banking. I'm hoping Ill get my hardware soon .... here is hoping! And I have only been waiting for a short time so far

csbrady,

Yes my 702b have jumpers. I called the manufacture to get the documentation for mine. They were extremely helpful and had my documents within minutes.

I'm contemplating removing the casing from my 601'c and use just the boards stacked up with nylon spacers. However I'm concerned with noise. Ive seen another do it this way and takes up minimal space.

I plan to go with a 3 hp or above for the VFD, I plan to mount it externally. Re-using all the existing hardware as long as it works. When it goes out I will probably upgrade to AC drives/servo's - then rewire. But for now Ive got my fingers crossed.

Also, is there any possible way I could get your configuration folder files and custom panel? I would love to tinker with it while I'm waiting for my Mesa hardware. You wouldn't happen to still have your drawing file for the panels you built as well would you? I planned on doing the same things when I get my mill running. Would save me a lot of time measuring, ect...

Nice breaking resistor setup! I'm going to copy you!

TntSalad,

I was talking about keeping my existing fly-back diodes installed, Im replacing my relays with new ones that already have a fly-back diode installed. I was concerned with having "double" diodes per relay.

Ok, I thought so. If they end up in parallel no big deal, smaller one will break down first. However, if new relays have diodes already than I would just pull old ones out if it's not too difficult.

I had the same issue as you with USAA and mesa btw, it will go through fine don't stress over it.

I looked at the 702 documentation for hints that might help with my issue, but the 702 is a really different animal. I see that the 702 have 25 fold interpolation so you can get a lot more resolution. Did you call the USA distributor number or Germany?

Attached is a tar file with my configuration files and the new GUI.

Chris