Hurco BMC 20 Ultimax 3 Retrofit

I will make this the beginning of the official retro thread

Yasakawa CACR servo drives, analog input

Quadrature encoders on everything

It is the Ultimax 3 control

Thanks guys!

[quote="Jake" post=59364They are supposed to be Baldor DC brushed servos with encoders. I am imagining the servo amps are analog input.[/quote]

That sounds like a fairly simple retrofit. You will still need a +/-10V card for LinuxCNC, though. Are you assuming that the Pico stuff will turn up, or not?

Supposedly the machine ran right before they dragged the block over it. So there should be good parts. I wanted a bed mill but these are about the heaviest knee mill you can get and the price is right. It appears to be a low hour machine also.

I hope the Pico parts show up, I want them. But three weeks and nothing from the seller at all makes me wonder.

I dont have the machine at the shop yet so if the Pico gear does not show up by then I will get a battle plan together for that. I need to get a hold of Jon, to see if his brushed amps will work with those servos, there 150v max and 16 amp continuous. Big brushed Baldors

Thanks Andy!

Jake wrote: need to get a hold of Jon, to see if his brushed amps will work with those servos, there 150v max and 16 amp continuous.

Keep the existing amps.
They are almost certainly velocity-mode drives with tacho feedback to the drives. No point changing that.

They should be one of the Servo Dynamics servo amps in there. He is supposed to get me some additional pictures when he gets a chance.

On hardware, would one of the Mesa plug-n-go kits like a 7i67-5i25 get the job done to go from the PC to the machine?

I think I am at the point with the Ebay gear that I am just going to get my money back and be done, and get the planning rolling on this machine.

Thanks Andy!

Jake wrote: They should be one of the Servo Dynamics servo amps in there. He is supposed to get me some additional pictures when he gets a chance.

On hardware, would one of the Mesa plug-n-go kits like a 7i67-5i25 get the job done to go from the PC to the machine?

7i77 / 5i25 ought to work, or you could stick with Pico and use the PPMC with the existing amps.

But wait to see if the amps work first, you can test them with a battery.

Well it looks like I am going to pass on the Hawk, more money than I want to spend on a knee mill.

There is a BMC20 VMC that I have my eyes on. If I can get it for the right price I am going to get it. 7.5hp 6k spindle, Fanuc red cap servos, tool changer. It hasn't run in a long time, allegedly the board have been checked out by a CNC tech and there supposed to be functional. The machine is in a totally manual shop and the guy that runs the shop knows virtually nothing about it. All the manuals are with the machine. So i will see what I can come up with on it. Its about the ideal machine that I have wanted. I have wanted a 40" X, 20" Y 20" Z machine with a 10HP ~ 10K spindle, covers me for everything I would want to do but without going huge, on size, weight, and power requirements.

Well it looks like I am going to close the deal on the BMC20. I finally have him down on price where I am willing to give for it. !

Hopefully I will have it in the shop in a couple weeks. We will see.

Then I can really pester the hell out of yall on the retrofit!

Good Luck on the retrofit !

Thanks! I am sure I will need it!