so, I wanted to post this in the drives forum, as my post in the camsoft forum about the ability of these drives was deleted, even though it was in response to a question from other camsoft users :stickpoke:

in any case. I just finished up a retrofit on an eaglecnc knee mill (about the size of a BP series II), using the automation direct SureServo motors & drives. We used a direct drive, 1kW Med Inertia motor/drive combo, and ran the machine with a GREX motion controller over ethernet, controlled by MACH IV Industrial.
The ballscrews and ways on the machine are in VERY good condition, and are a perfect candidate for testing out a "new" entrance to the cnc drive world.
the mill itself is discussed in the linked thread by the owner, who i work with.
http://machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=502.0
check out the videos, very worth it!

My take on the motor/drive combo:

VERY capable: Very smooth motion, both high and low-speed, no cogging that i could feel. The machine is currently running at 500 ipm, very happily, and we are very certain we can give it another little kick in the pants... problem is.. you run out of travel awefully fast at those speeds

SETUP: Initially, I was very frustrated trying to set these drives up, but it turns out that when you actually read all of the setup guide/users manual.. it becomes very easy hehe, go figure Once I got command parameters setup, tuning the drives couldnt' have been easier. You can either go in through a serial link from a computer, or you can navigate through the front-panel keyboard on each drive. There are several auto-tune features built into the drives, as well as a "continuous" feature where the drive will constantly learn and adjust it's parameters. After running in the learning mode for a while, I grabbed the parameters it had set for itself, tweaked the PID parameters a little, and called it done.

PERFORMANCE: I really can't compare too much with any other drives right now, as I have just come off a retrofit of a 40thousand pound cincinatti horizontal, using analog amplifiers, and a different control system.. but I can't begin to express my pleasure with these drives/motors. The motors are very compact, but have ENORMOUS ammounts of power behind them. position holding is great, and the ability of the drive to "get 'er done" makes me giggle like a schoolboy

COMPARISON: I have used a few other drive systems, and frankly, have yet to find one that i like as much as these. The internal tuning parameters/routines are great, enough so that I have no wish to go back to my other systems. As capable as the AMC drives i have used, with a far easier tuning methodology. Although, I do wish that there was an "on screen scope" so that i could visually see the PID tuning results & such.

OVERALL: I would recommend these drives to anybody that is going to be doing a retrofit, or a full-on build. The price.. yeah, it's a little high, but.. the pre-built cables for motor power & encoder feedback are a nice feature, and the match between drive and motor is always a nice thing to have. All in all, A+!

Feel free to email me, or post in here if you have any questions you would like answered!

-nate