Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] new to me Bridgeport Series 1w/boss3, bunch of questions....

Hi Mike,

If you have 3-phase then there is no real reason to change the control
if it already works.

You cannot easily use the exising electronics to drive the steppers. At
the very least you will need to buy some Gecko or similar stepper
drives. Geckos are a little bit small for the job but they can be made
to work quite well. On my machine I made a stepper power supply by
rewiring the main 110V transformer to 460V in, giving 55V out from my
240V mains. The rectifier and smoothing capacitors were rescued from the
original control box. This power supply gives me 79VDC out with 243VAC
mains on no load. With Geckos connected this drops to 75VDC if the
machine is stationary and about 71VDC if all 3 axes are moving
simultaneously at full speed.

With Gecko G201s and Mach2 I get a safe maximum speed of just under
100IPM, nearly double the maximum speed of original control. The same
power supply should run servos quite well but you may need to fit some
sort of surge limiting circuit to control the voltage during heavy
deceleration.

Les

mueller914 wrote:

> It's an older 1977 model and seems to work okay (still at the
> original shop and not at home yet), I am looking forward to playing
> with this machine and making chips, it's many, many times bigger and
> badder than my 3-n-1 Shoptask for sure!!!!!!
>
>
> Questions:
> Where can I find information on what stepper motors should be
> installed?
>
> Should I change out the Boss 3 controller and run the original motors
> using a PC and Gecko's or is there a way I can run the machine from a
> PC utilizing the stock electronics?
>
> Sooner or later I would like to change it over to a Servo CNC since I
> have a Camtronics(?) powersupply and Gecko's for my 3-n-1 mill/lathe.
>
> Should I be able to use my existing power supply and Gecko's??
>
> thanks,
>
> Mike Mueller
> Antioch, CA
>