Re: Thermwood retrofit

Jeff,

It depends on how much you want to spend. Here are some
options.

MDSI OpenCNC - http://www.mdsi2.com/
A little pricey, Allows you to customization with SDK.

EMC - http://www.linuxcnc.org
Free - For a 5-axis machine you'll need to know a fair bit
about programming and kinematics.

NC32/DeltaTau - http://www.deltatau.com
good pricing.

CamSoft - http://www.camsoftcorp.com/
Probably the best solution for your situation.

This is just my option.

Tom Freedy.
Precix Advanced Cutting Systems.

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com, "Jeff Lionberger"
<jjlionberger@y...> wrote:

> I have an old thermwood C70 5 axis router. It hasn't run for 2

years now

> because of controller problems of some sort. It has new DC Servo

motors

> that I think run at 90VDC and new encoders on it that were

originally

> thought to be the problem, but I guess not. I would like to

upgrade the

> controls and get it running, but the only experience I have is

small scale

> with converting a minimill over to run CNC using TurboCNC. One

of the

> issues I see is that the gantry moves using two servos and two

screws for

> each side. These need to be run together and the same time and

speed

> otherwise it will put things in a bind. I think the servos are

rated for up

> to 120VDC and at least one was a 4.7Amp servo. The original

software, if I

> am not mistaken, also was calibrated with a table of some sort for

each inch

> of travel compensation. The way I understand it, it is calibrated

using a

> laser and the discrepancies are entered into a table and the

software uses

> this to increase the accuracy over the long axis's. Does anyone

have any

> experience with a retrofit like this or can anyone tell me what

the best

> route to go on this thing would be?