ProLight 5101 Retrofit

Hi All,

Just wanted to post the mill that I just got done converting to LinuxCNC. I picked up an old ProLight this past fall, and a few weeks ago I finally got it done, well far enough done that I can make parts. First some details on the mill. It's 3 axis servos + ballscrews with a 6 x 12 x 9" working space. A 1hp 10K spindle also with a power draw bar. It had a Cincinnati Milacron controller on it that had failed, but luckily none of the controls in the mill had any issues. I ended up taking it completely apart, except for the ballscrew + ballscrew nuts, cleaned everything up and moved it down to the basement. Some details on the existing components that I used:

Servos - C23-L50W10M09 / Moog Components Group
Encoders - CP-550-1000-LD / Allied Motion
Servo Amps - 412 / Copley Controls Corp.
Spindle Drive - BOSS04-115AC-1Q / Minarik

I went with a Mesa 5i25 + 7i77 and am very pleased with the product, but the difficulty in actually getting one was painful and is terrifying just thinking about what I'll do if it fails (note to self, order spare). The computer I put together uses a ASRock Q1900-ITX motherboard, 8GB Ram, 250 GB SSD. I initially had a Corsair CX 430 power supply, which has good reviews and comes in a pretty box, but it turns out that it doesn't actually meet the ATX specs for ripple voltage and due to this the 5i25 was continually resetting. So I then did some research and ended up getting a EVGA SuperNOVA 650 G2 Gold which has been working great so far. A word of caution - these are both modular power supplies and even though they use the same exact connectors for their power cables it turns out that there isn't actually a standard for how that connector is configured. One of my SATA ports no longer works because of this... Thankfully the rest of the motherboard is fine though.

Now for some pics:

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/v/t1.0-9/10154986_10205383894422888_7446558214528553174_n.jpg?oh=b095195182706759d2d2b374547caba1&oe=5788FD2E

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xlf1/v/t1.0-9/12809765_10205383894462889_7803592392211007196_n.jpg?oh=7c81199d4483d92988d29081019d33eb&oe=574C3D9F

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfl1/v/t1.0-9/1459979_10205383894302885_7094319607539925570_n.jpg?oh=ca1dd2232ea75a6bf1bb9165c4dd53fd&oe=577A3026

I ended up picking up a workbench and shortening the legs to put it on. I might still bolt it to the ground but it seems pretty stable as it is. The enclosure that came with it was basically a cube around the whole thing - which worked well to contain the mess but it also made it very difficult to access. For instance to get to the X-Axis servo you only had about 3" of clearance between the chip pan and the enclosure. One of the things that I wanted to do with this was make everything super easy to get to, both for running it and for maintenance. The 3 lexan panels are on hinges so that they just swing out of the way and I can also unbolt the chip pan from the workbench in only a coupe minutes if necessary. I do still need to add a couple pieces of plastic on the back side of the enclosure. It wouldn't work well with flood coolant as it is, but this mill doesn't have enough rigidity/hp to really need anything more then MQL.

Tomorrow I'll add some more details on what I did for the actual configuration but so far I'm extremely pleased with LinuxCNC, it's a really awesome platform.

-Shawn