retro a anilam crusader II on a alliant mill

Howdy

I have had a Alliant (bridgeport clone) knee mill for over 10 years. Its a good steady runner, one glass scale and a blown resistor in that time. The Anilam Crusader II works well but I am getting tired of uploading files as the controller will only take about 28k of data at a time.

What is the minimum retro that I could do to it to get increased file sizes. I'd rather not gut it as everything is working now. I am use to Centos linux so I can deal with linuxcnc (maybe) and I ran ubuntu a few times. Is it possible to replace just parts of the control with linuxcnc??

Westamp boards, SEM servos, glass scales and ball screws. I looked at this 4 or 5 years ago and everyone wanted to go to stepper motors... No.

Thanks
Jim

Minimum hardware is:
1) a PC with LinuxCNC
2) some kind hardware to send a signal to your servo drives and receive a signal from the encoders. Pico and Mesa are the most popular
3) some cables, although you might be able to reuse your existing cables depending on what connectors they have.
4) plenty of grey stuff between your ears

kornphlake79

Thanks Kornphlake. Gray matter is rare this time of night.
Would like to replace the control box on the raised post and make connections to a computer with drive cards. Leaving the box with the amps and transformers alone.

Jim

Andy

Probably other sites, definitely not here. As I remember it, few people had a board to handle servos, everything was steppers. Or at least an affordable option.
I have been reading posts here about the mesa boards and that looks like the way I'll go but I am not sure how to accomplish what I want. I was hoping someone who has already done this conversion could help me out with how they did it and how the finished unit looks and works. At least one person has done this conversion on a Crusader M series but I am not sure what the differences are.
If the old controller box has 5 connectors. Power, Xaxis, Yaxis, Zaxis, and a large plug with the wiring from the main box containing the servo amps. Can it be replaced by a PC with the mesa boards and a monitor? Since the old control has a E-stop and reset button can those be wired in separately?
With the mesa boards as in the Kit you showed, are there cards required for each drive or will those two cards handle all drives. And possibly a fourth axis?

Thanks
Jim

I have the 6i25 and 7i77 board that I am going to use for my Anilam Crusader II with linear scales. I am purchasing the ENCY encoder splitters as well, so I can use the original control in manual mode as a DRO while tuning the Linux CNC. I went with the 6i25 which is PCIe. It works the same as 5i25 PCI board, but is the later slot type. Mine are Glentec drives, and if you do a bit of searching, you can find wiring diagrams for most of the info you need on your control. Mine was pre-RS232, so that was my main reason for changing.I have also considered AMC 30a8 brush type drives from Ebay if the originals fail. do a search and you should find several others have done this conversion already.
Fred

Fred
With your setup will you still use the e-stop and reset buttons on the original box?
Your going to split the axis feed back between the old box and linuxcnc, what about the wiring in the large plug?
Jim

Jim,
I was going to split the encoder signals to the original, and the 7I77 board, then leave the original box alone until I made sure the feedback from the scales was good in LinuxCNC. kind of saves the fooling around with a travel indicator, as you have a running system to check to. This would also allow checking voltages under motion while the original box was set up. Mine is early enough that it has the reset for the drives on the side of the box for the drivers and power. As for the main cable, I disconnected it and the control fires up and the DRO reads position and feed velocity. Seems like overkill, but they are actually pretty cheap, and with a 9 volt battery, an LM7805 regulator chip and some alligator clips, you have a standalone encoder tester. If you are going to build more than one machine, they could be good toolbox pieces. The goal is to remove the original controller, make a new smaller box and use the little Dell Optiplex 755 I have for the control. I would like to build something like ALLOY CRAFT did for his CHNC Hardinge, check out the link here, he made a really clean setup. forum.linuxcnc.org/forum/30-cnc-machines...-way?start=110#44388