Yaskawa SGDB to 7i77 - drives don't have the 'standard ' 50 pin connectors

I've got my Mesa hardware finally and can now look into getting everything wired up.
The manual for these drives is massive and surprisingly often lacking in actual useful info.

In this case the whole manual constantly refers to the 50 pin 1CN connector. Well mine don't have a 50 pin 1CN, they've got 26 pin 1CN's and a 9 pin 4CN. 4CN is referred to once in 500 pages and it's to describe the connector number and manufacturer. Sweet.

In its original setup the 4CN connectors on all 4 drives were daisy chained together with a cable that terminated at the HSD motion controller.
The 26 pin 1CN looks to have the enable, ready, limit and home switches connected to it.

My issue is I have no idea how to get the encoder signals to the 7i77 as I don't have a pinout to refer to that actually relates to these drives.

Any one seen this before?

SPH wrote: I've got my Mesa hardware finally and can now look into getting everything wired up.
The manual for these drives is massive and surprisingly often lacking in actual useful info.

In this case the whole manual constantly refers to the 50 pin 1CN connector. Well mine don't have a 50 pin 1CN, they've got 26 pin 1CN's and a 9 pin 4CN. 4CN is referred to once in 500 pages and it's to describe the connector number and manufacturer. Sweet.

In its original setup the 4CN connectors on all 4 drives were daisy chained together with a cable that terminated at the HSD motion controller.
The 26 pin 1CN looks to have the enable, ready, limit and home switches connected to it.

My issue is I have no idea how to get the encoder signals to the 7i77 as I don't have a pinout to refer to that actually relates to these drives.

Any one seen this before?

Whats the drive full model#? Show a pic of the drive also.

SGDB drives have encoder outputs that connect right into the 7i77.
They also have velocity +-10 control that also connects to the 7i77.

Good point, sorry for not providing full info.
Drives are SGDB-02VN, 10VN, 15VN and 20VN

I don't have a picture that I can upload quickly but here's a pic of a drive that looks exactly the same as mine. Looks like all the VN series have the same connector configuration.

*sorry, pic link was a dud, a quick search of SGDB-02VN will bring up a few pics of the same drives with the 9 pin 4CN connector visible top left.

Unfortunately I'm pretty sure the SGDB-XXXN drives are Mechatrolink interfaced drives
not analog/step-dir like SGDB-XXAD drives

Take a look at this thread:

www.forum.linuxcnc.org/27-driver-boards/...trolink-ii-interface

Not sure if dm17try has an interface or not but he would be the one to ask

PCW wrote: Unfortunately I'm pretty sure the SGDB-XXXN drives are Mechatrolink interfaced drives
not analog/step-dir like SGDB-XXAD drives

Take a look at this thread:

www.forum.linuxcnc.org/27-driver-boards/...trolink-ii-interface

Not sure if dm17try has an interface or not but he would be the one to ask

You have a reference for these servopacks?

Do you know if SGDB-XXVD-Y1 is capable of analog control?

I dont know off hand, you can find a pdf for some mechatrolink drives by googling for "SGDB-ON"

PCW wrote: I dont know off hand, you can find a pdf for some mechatrolink drives by googling for "SGDB-ON"

Thanks, I found the suffix list for SGDB

This is a bit of a set back to be honest. Classic example of not knowing what I don't know.
My level of knowledge isn't really up to blazing new trails with this gear, I might have to look for new drives (or newer at least).

I guess I can always ebay up some more standard sigma 1 or 2 drives and sell mine. Might be cheaper to get DMM though.

Let me know what you guys think, is it easier to just look for newer sigma drives? Can I keep my motors?

I’m here at the workshop looking over the machine. Doing a bit of eBay trawling while I’m at it. There are quite a few sgdb drives available from China at around $500 each. The main one I’d be concerned with is the x axis as it’s a 1.8kw motor and replacing it would be a major headache. Just because it’s so hard to access, adapting a new motor in there would be horrible. Also a new 1.8kw motor and drive would be prohibitively expensive.
I could easily adapt the y and z motors to newer, smaller servos. The z no longer needs to be the 1.5kw monster is was when it had the boring head and 100kgs of shrouding installed. A 1kw would be heaps. Same for the y axis. It’s 0.85kw now, could be less but I’d probably just order two 1kw or the same kind.

Any thoughts? Would I have any potential problems running two different brands of motor and drive on the different axis’?

My main thought with replacing the drives and motors all together is I can hopefully get around some of the issues I see people having getting these things tuned and running correctly. I’d only have the one 20 year old drive to tackle.

Its not that bad......

China - 1.8kw AC servo and drive

China 1kw AC servo and drive

Here are same ac servos on a cnc router I did with a friend. But are 1.2kw X, 2-Y with planetary gearboxes and .750kw on Z axis.
Been working for years now, not one issue.