Re: Remember Mr. Bill's servo lite?

I know this post is old. But I just read it for the first time.

Dan,

Glad to hear you have seen Bill in recent times. I have not had the honor. I am also still running his Servolite hardware every day. It's served me so well. It's so repairable and as I found out a while ago, very upgradeable.

I use a 22 amp variac for my power supply for my 3 axis machine. Everything is mounted in a 4' tall rack mount cabinet. One day I was pulling out a constant current supply that was right above the variac. At some point I rotated the variac from it's 75vdc setting to 130vdc. When I turned on Servolite all of the fets and diodes popped 'rigorously'. Since every ic was in a socket I replaced the chips that were damaged and the fets too. But I had found 200v replacements for the fets and for the filter caps. They dropped right in. Turns out that Servolite can run at 200vdc Which is what 130vac becomes when it's rectified. I ran the motors at 75vdc for 10+ years. I run it at 90vdc these days on the original 38v Ametek motors that he built for me. They never get hot. So if that variac ever gets bumped again, it won't trash the Servolite hardware anymore. That was a couple of years ago. My Servolite system is incredibly stiff. It can hit 135ipm. Something is holding it back. I will find that issue and solve it! I need more speed!

If you see Bill again, let him know of this story and that his hardware is very much in use!

I'm looking for spare Servolite hardware to add a 4th axis and spindle motor control to the mill. Plus if I someday cnc my lathe, I would like to use Servolite for sure!

Mike

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com, "Dan Mauch" <dmauch@...> wrote:
>
> Bill Wainright is still around. I spoke to him yesterday. We live about 23 miles apart . Bill and I go way back to the mid 90's when we both were working on CNC. I met him at a Seattle Robotic Society meeting where I was giving a presentation on CNC. I mentioned that I had some 20 antibacklash ballscrews and that I was going to use 2 of them on my Enco knee mill. After the meeting he said he wanted to buy 2 of them and invited me to see his machines. His homemade machines were very impressive. Bill is a very impressive guy that in my opinion is very,very smart.
> He has good machinery knowledge and is a wizard with electronics. I helped him get started in business with the purchase of three of his original servo amps. The circuit boards were outlined machined. I installed them on my enco knee mill and ran them for several years. We discussed a joint venture where he would produce the boards and we would sell them on both his and my web sites. The problem with his original design was that the boards were pretty big. I suggested that he redesign them and have commercially made boards. That is how servo lite got born. I sold several of his boards that I designed a case to house them and sold them. Some of his servo lite systems are still in use today. I have one school teacher that has used them for at least 10 years and periodically calls for tech support for replacement servo motors that the students fry.
> When the Gecko G320 came out it basically wipe out his sales because the G320 was smaller, easier to assemble and cheaper.
> Bill has been working with 3d carvings and has created some beautiful and complex carved boxes. The guy is amazing
> Dan Mauch
> economical 3D scanner software and kits
> low cost stepper and servo motors.
> cases for Gecko drives
> kits and assembled 3-4 axis drives
> www.camtronics-cnc.com
> www.seanet.com/~dmauch
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: imserv1
> To: CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Saturday, March 27, 2010 2:32 PM
> Subject: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Remember Mr. Bill's servo lite?
>
>
>
> I stumbled on this while doing some research today. Thought I would share it with the group:
>
> http://rotordesign.com/servolite/step_and_direction.html
>
> It's an attempt to recreate Mr. Bill's Servo Lite web site.
>
> Here is a build log that is liked to the recreation of Mr. Bill's site:
>
> http://rotordesign.com/cnc.html
>
> It dates back to 2000AD. Note the oldest link in the blog is to the original Mr. Bill's web site. Dated 8/29/2000
>
> I'm sure there are others in the group that can fill in the blanks about Mr. Bill.
>
> Fred Smith - IMService
> http://www.imsrv.com
>
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>