Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] replace Heidenhain with Gecko?

ebiz_59 wrote:

> I am looking at a Bridgeport CNC mill (with servos) that has a Heidenhain controller with Z axis out. I have seen a few similar machines that use steppers and Gecko G203V drives. The mill I'm looking at has servos and I am thinking about replacing all 3 Heidenhains with something like Gecko G320x or G340 drivers. Is that a reasonable thing to do? Will Gecko drives handle the Bridgeport servos? And it would appear to be a pretty straight forward replacement - or am I being too naive?

First, you need to find out what is wrong with the Z axis.
Is it the motor, encoder, servo amp, encoder counter, or
????? If the encoder counter, then no problem, as you
will be replacing that. If servo amp, then you may
want to replace all servo amps to keep it all the same.
You could replace just that one amp, possibly with
a Copley Controls or AMC analog servo amp.

Or, you could replace all the electronics, and depending on vintage,
that may be the best option. I am assuming this has DC
brush motors and digital-output encoders.

I have some products that could be used for this. I have
a PWM controller that works with EMC2 to control up
to 4 axes of servo motors. And, I have servo amplifiers
that work up to 122 V and 20 A.

If you have resolvers on the motors, I have a converter
that turns that into the tradidional quadrature encoder
signal.

Jon