Brother TC-211

mblaszkiewicz wrote: Any reps from mesa or pico that wish to chime in with info and suggestions I would really love your input.

Well, we still don't know a lot about what the machine has on it that can be re-used. If the drives sense the
resolver position and send quadrature output back to the CNC control, that will be a big help
in the conversion. If not, you will need converter boards to read the resolver signals.

Our (Pico Systems) PPMC is designed for servo amps that take analog velocity commands.
We also have resolver to quadrature converters for reading most types of resolvers.

Jon

JR1050 wrote: Emcpt makes several good points. The first being if the machine works,at least for now, learn the original control. If nothing else you will at least get a chance to understand how the mechanisms of the machine actually operate. The chances of you ending up with a nighmare at this point are looking good. It is easy to tear the machine apart, it is not so.easy to get it all working again.

Having done many retrofits of oddball equipment, much of it computer gear and not specifically CNC,
having the machine working makes it VASTLY easier to figure out wht the normal signals look
like, so you can provide the proper signals with different gear. So, before tearing the macine apart,
make sure you have scoped out all the important signals and know what the characteristics
are.

Jon

Any changes I make to the machine will be from unplugging from the control boar and rewiring from there. I will be able to change back by re plugging in the orginal system. As for learning the control on it. The brother control is a conversational controller with NO OUTSIDE programming ability. It has very limited memory and limited milling capacities. It has very little use for me as it is now.

mblaszkiewicz wrote: As for learning the control on it. The brother control is a conversational controller with NO OUTSIDE programming ability. It has very limited memory and limited milling capacities. It has very little use for me as it is now.

We realise that, but using that control will at least confirm that everything is working correctly. It can be frustrating to spend days chasing down faults in the new stuff you have added, only to find that the fault is in the old stuff that you thought worked.

The first thing to do is work out what each pin in the connector is. Some will be obvious, some will be less so. Once you have the list it will be time to choose interface hardware.

Well picking up a 15 hp 3 phase motor next week. (it is coming cheap). If some one could give me some advice (wiring and parts) for a balanced converter it woul be greatly appericiated.

mblaszkiewicz wrote: Well picking up a 15 hp 3 phase motor next week. (it is coming cheap). If some one could give me some advice (wiring and parts) for a balanced converter it woul be greatly appericiated.

My self starting (start/stop with a push button) rotary phase converter plans are on this page

gnipsel.com/shop/machine-shop.xhtml

JT

Thanks for the info and the diagram. Could you include a pic also. My electrical is very rusty. Ill be on the phone with a friend while wiring.

First off, congrats on the Brother! While this one is older, like no memory, no gcode, etc, these machines were built very solid/stable, very few quirks. very simple and reliable, mechanically and electrically for the most part. Not the beefiest but pretty quick and take up very little space.

I've been considering picking up a brother in the future but would like to get more familiar with the linuxcnc control side and it's capabilities first.

As far as cost of using the old hardware vs. selling and getting new stuff....

Brother did their own control pretty much from the start. Later and modern generation machines actually run a Linux kernel.

-Can you identify what all the boards in the control are? If you are extremely lucky you might be able to use the original servo amp and driver cards, if neither are integrated into the motherboard or backboard.

-Are the servos DC brushed, brushless or AC servos? Brushed DC servos are the easiest and cheapest to re-use and use with linuxcnc IMO. Look at the servo amp and servo axis cards and how they talk to the NC. Some controls like the Philips 432 had really simple step and direction signals and would be really easy to use the existing drives with linuxcnc.

-The ATC might be the hardest part to retrofit, depending on your programming and logic comfort level, figuring out the logic and programming, and how to integrate that.

Thanks for the good words. It is ac servo's as far as the manual says. Friend of mine has been talking to a few people about it and my plans for the machine. Looks like a have a possible $9.000 order if I can get it going quickly. Tomorrow I visit the bank for a loan. If their is any one who has done a retro fit with the existing drivers and servos willing to take a trip to the north east I would love to talk to them about it. Id be more then willing to cover air fare and some spending money to get this done now. Just send me a quick note here and an email.

mblaszkiewicz wrote: If their is any one who has done a retro fit with the existing drivers and servos willing to take a trip to the north east I would love to talk to them about it.

You might be lucky and find someone wiling to visit you in person, but previous requests of the sort seem to normally get no response. I think this is because most of the folk here have so many projects that their time is very valuable to them.

Do you have the machine powered up and running?

What is the timescale for this order you have? I have seen the situation before where someone needs a machine up and running in a couple of weeks, and it really is unlikely to happen in that sort of timescale for a first-time conversion.

Is there any way at all that you could make the parts using the conversational control that is already there? If you don't have that fall-back then I think it would be a risk to take that order.

If you definitely want to start the conversion then choose Mesa or Pico now and we will take it from there. (I don't think anyone here is going to push you in either direction over that choice)