Bostomatic 400-2 Retrofit

Hi All!  This is my first attempt at a retrofit.  My Bostomatic 400-2 is a 4 axes, 2 spindle (4000rpm & 30000 High speed), 16 turret tool changer model.  Luckily it was converted to a PC control back in 2004, however in March I had a servo amp fail and it must have back feed back into one of the proprietary boards and/or the PC control boards of which I can't find replacements.  (Bostomatic and the Retrofit company are out of business).
I have all schematics for the original and retrofit so that is helpful.   I am planning on reusing as much as possible of the original equipment initially and upgrade when I can.Luckily, with the earlier PC conversion, all the relay and control items were run through 2-24 port WRC Acron (similar to opto-22 boards) that I believe will plug directly into a mesa board.  If I am not correct about this let me know!  I would like to keep my Servos and spindles on different boards so the upgrade track will be simpler.   I’m not set on the control panel interface, I am willing to replace the pots with rotary mpgs if they are easier to work with for the manual overrides, suggestions are welcome!I have been going through the Mesa selection and I have come up with 3 configurations that would like to get some feedback on.  They are all roughly the same price, so I am looking for performance benefits and or LinuxCNC programing/mapping benefits. 
Option 1:
Mesa 5I24----WRC1
              

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WRC2
              

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Mesa 7I44 ----7I69

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7I48

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4 Servo Drives with Encoders with 2 extra
                                                  

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7I33TA

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Main Spindle & HS Spindle
                                      

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7I69

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7I42TA

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Control Panel interface
                                                                        6 on/off switches, 5 position rotary switch
                                                                        1 MPG, 3 Potentiometers 2 spindles & feed manual 
                                                                       overrides (I’m not sure if this card can take 5kohm pots)

Option 2:
Mesa 7I94

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7I69

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WRC1
                           

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WRC2
              

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7I69

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7I48

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4 Servo Drives with Encoders with 2 extra
                          

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7I33TA

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Main Spindle & HS Spindle
              

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7I69

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7I42TA

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Control Panel interface
                                                6 on/off switches, 5 position rotary switch
                                                1 MPG, 3 Potentiometers 2 spindles & feed manual
                                                overrides (I’m not sure if this card can take 5kohm pots)

Option 3:
Mesa 7I80

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7I48

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4 Servo Drives with Encoders with 2 extra
               

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7I33TA

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Main Spindle & HS Spindle
                

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7I44

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7I69

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WRC1
                                       

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WRC2
                           

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7I69

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7I42TA

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Control Panel interface
                                                             6 on/off switches, 5 position rotary switch
                                                            1 MPG, 3 Potentiometers 2 spindles & feed
                                                            manual overrides (I’m not sure if this card can take 5kohm pots)

What does everyone think?
Thanks for the help!

My most recent conversion used a 5i24. It's a great device at a good price with lots of pins.

I would tend towards one of your options that includes a 7i44 (or 7i74) as the easiest way to wire your control panel is to put a 7i73 in there and run one CAT5 cable back to the main control box.

One suggestion for OPTO22 interfaces: a 7I90HD
We have no 7I69 stock and it will be a long time
before we can build them again

A7I90HD with sserial remote firmware can
interface to 3x 24 I/O OPTO22 modules

The only real feature it lacks compared to
the 7I69 is that it does not have the reversed
I/O numbering option that the 7I96 has

Thanks PCW & andypugh,
I am leaning towards the 7I94, 2X 7I90HD for 7I48, 7I33 & 2 WRC connections.
For the panel I am looking at the 7I73.
My main concern is the 3 potentiometers. It looks like the 7I73 has 3 analog inputs, will these work well for the pots?
Also, are there breakout boards for the 2x20 & 2x17 header plugs?

nduerr wrote:

My main concern is the 3 potentiometers. It looks like the 7I73 has 3 analog inputs, will these work well for the pots?

It has 4 analogue inputs, numbered 0 to 3. 

They read to 8 bits, ie 0 to 255 on a 3.3V range. So should be fine if you want to stay with potentiometers. You might want to consider swapping the potentiometers for encoders, though. (there are many 16-click encoders available in the same format as potentiometers) as encoders "play better" with other signal sources. A potentiometer, being absolute, always has to "win". 
 

There is no way to get 7I33 or 7I48 support for the 7I90HD in SSerial mode

I would suggest

1 7I94 (ethernet SSerial linterface + 1 25 pin expansion connector)
1 or 2 7I83 (analog +-10V out) (SSerial)
1 7I89 (8 channel encoder interface on 7I94 parallel expansion)
1 7I73 (front panel interface, SSerial)
1 7I90HD (OPTO22 interface, SSerial)

The options are getting sifted down!
PCW what are your thoughts on this config, similar to option 3 above?
1 7I80HD
1 7I48 Axis servo control w/ encoders
1 7I33 Spindle control
1 7I44 (8channel ethernet SSerial interface)
1 7I73 (front panel interface, SSerial)
1 7I90HD (OPTO22 interface, SSerial)

I t should work but lacks some advantages
(analog out isolation, simpler cabling)
and is more expensive than my suggestion

I usually use a 7i84 for the operator controls, I think I used it because it has screw terminal blocks . have had issues trying to use analog pots for things like feed over ride, since you can’t exactly get the analog to digital conversion perfect, it eats up a ton of real-time cpu and lcnc doesn’t seem to function properly, that was the explanation that I had read in another thread. What is the pc control that you are removing?

It was converted to MDSI OpenCNC (now Hurco) in the early 2000's. Both Bostomatic and the Integrator are out of business so no help there.
As far as I can tell with what testing I can do, the A to D board is working but the encoder board is not working, and they are so old that I cant find any used replacements. When I turn it on, all the axes run to their limits... so conversion it is!