[pete from TN]

Hello guys,
I am interested in hearing input on the DMM larger commercial sized servos and amps. I am getting ready to retrofit my Cincinatti Arrow 500 VMC and they apparently sell some motors that are sized similar to my original ones. Has anyone here bought and ran these motor/driver setups on a larger machine yet? I know they are getting good feedback from the smaller hobby sized mill guys and I like the nearly plug and play setup they sell. I am thinking about using their motors and drives and using a mesa card setup on my control. Anyone here done this? How do you find the quality of the drives and motors? I am about ready to pull the trigger on these and would like to hear pros and cons about them before I do. thanks in advance...peace

Pete

[mactec54]

pete from TN

I'm not sure what you mean, by the hobby size mills as opposed to the DMM larger commercial sized servos and amps

There is no difference in quailty or performance, for Hobby or commercial, there are some hobby users that have the new 120/240v Drives in use

All of there Drives Motors are being used for commmercial or Hobby machines, it just depends on how much power/speed you need, as to which size Drive/ Motor you use

I don't know what motors you are looking at, you will just have to match the torque close to what you have, don't go lower than what you have, & you will have no problems

[pete from TN]

Thanks for the response, I am sure that there is probably no difference in the quality between the hobby sized motors and the more commercial motors they sell. What I was looking for is direct experiences with the commercial sized motors and if they are working well and lasting awhile or not. My motors are the 130mm frame ac servos and they are equipped with resolvers and I want to replace the whole setup. I did look briefly at trying to find some reasonably priced drives to run the factory motors and hook them up to the mesa cards but really did not find anything for the prices I want to pay. The DMM setup seems to have what I want for a reasonable price and I have seen good results from the hobby sized machines on here so I thought I would inquire into the commercial sized drives and motors. Thanks man...peace

Pete

[ViperTX]

Pete,

Look for DeCaussin's video on youtube. He converted his Fadal VMC15 using the Flashcut system.

Paul

[mactec54]

ViperTX

I don't think He changed his Fadal VMC15 to flash cut, he used his VMC15 to build some smaller cnc mills that he used Flash cut control on

[mactec54]

pete from TN

That's a big motor 130mm frame size, Dmm have only just started with these bigger motors, They had them at the IMTS show up to 2KW, & all the large motors were running on the 120/240V Drives How many Watts are your old motors

[pete from TN]

Viper I have seen and marveled at the VMC15 he built using flashcut and while it is impressive for what you see of it I am not at all surprised that the owner of FADAL was able to get that done. The issues there are significant added costs and having to use their software.

Mactec,
That is exactly the reason for this posting, I know their motors and drivers in what I will call the COMMERCIAL sizes are kinda new and you are right when you say that the 130MM motors are quite large, they are, but that is what came on my machine and I need to replace them with similar motors. They are actually small as servo motors on CNC machining centers goes, this is in essence a very small VMC after all. From what I gather about the motors on my machine they are AC brushless three phase motors with resolvers. The X and Y are 4nm motors, the number plates say 2000RPM 2.69 AMS 1.39 KT NM/AMS and insulation class H. The Z axis motor is 7nm 5.19AMS 2000RPM and 1.35 KT NM/AMS not sure if it has a brake on it or not and they are all direct driven with a funky crush sleeve looking coupler to the ballscrews. They are large enough to be starting to look like the spindle motor on my RF45 CNC LOL, and they are expensive to repair or replace. That is precisely why I am looking at stripping this machine and building a retrofit with EMC/linuxCNC and Mesa boards and using the DMM commercial servos and drives. I was just hoping that someone here had already been there with the units and had some input. Peace

Pete

[pete from TN]

as far as the wattage, I THINK they are like 1000watt motors but not entirely sure on that one. There is a fellow who posted a video of a Cincinatti Arrow 500 running some aftermarket motors and EMC/linux/mesa on youtube. His name is Lee and he was kind enough to post here recently. I am trying to find the time to call him on the phone and chat to discuss what he did and how, It looks like a good option to me and from what I am reading the linuxCNC setup is as good as anything out there right now. Very configurable which will probably become important with the toolchanger and also has some features that I will really want like Rigid tapping and I believe the control has distance to go DRO capability which I find on the Haas Machines we use at work and is very useful to keep you out of trouble when running a virgin code. There are other reasons too, my last machine running mach3 had some annoying quirks and I kinda like the clean look of the LinuxCNC user interface. I also like the larger graphical screen because I like to see what I am screwing up real time LOL...peace

Pete

[ViperTX]

ViperTX

I don't think He changed his Fadal VMC15 to flash cut, he used his VMC15 to build some smaller cnc mills that he used Flash cut control on

Dave also converted his VMC 15 to FlashCut, look for that video. I was researching buying a VMC 15 based on Dave's recommendation and I was worried about running into problems with the controller and drivers (similar to what Pete has run into).

Paul

[asuratman]

Pete,
Why not trying the package DMM has first rather than go directly using linux cnc. Their package is plug and play.

[pete from TN]

Not sure what you mean exactly. That is exactly what I am considering. I am looking at their DMM commercial sized servo motors and drivers and using the Mesa cards and LinuxCNC to control them. I like the Linux CNC control package and there are many others who have commmercial machines running on the system. If you are referring to the DMM package that includes the mother board and everything the only issue I have with that is the fact that is runs on parallel port control. I gotta be honest when I say that I am unsure about what exactly it entails but it does have a good record of performance on here with the smaller mills. I like the mesa cards that run via PCI slot and are also what I would consider plug and play in most respects but it also gives you almost infinite configurability which is going to be highly desired as I start to mess with the toolchanger control. Again the goal here is going to be to simply get the basis machine running with all three axes and the spindle and power drawbar just to get me making parts. The Toolchanger can be sorted out as it comes. It will be difficult enough just to get the basics done here I think since I am new to the analog drives and servo tuning on them. The DMM setup is not only impressive looking and well regarded it is also one of the most reasonably priced I have found so far. I would like to get some of the motors and drives Kudos and Lee used just to have their assistance with it more easily but it appears the drives and motors setup will be several hundred bucks more per axis. I am still looking at my options here. Since I am working now the urgency of getting it done quickly will be slightly dissipated. I STILL want to get it finished as soon as possible tho...peace

Pete

[mactec54]

ViperTX
Dave also converted his VMC 15 to FlashCut, look for that video

Yes I found it, had not looked at what he had done in a while,by the video Dave did it this year

Flash cut is good control,& has been around for a long time, But most retro fits like this take a lot to get everything working how the original machined worked, as Dave found out

His machine was new, not sure why he would want to change it

I think Pete is on the right track, with using the linuxCNC setup

[asuratman]

Mactec,
You mean using Linux cnc, the machine can do more and easier to set up.

[mactec54]

asuratman

Linux cnc is the control, as Mach is a control,there are many other controls to but these are low cost & do a great job, none are easy though, when there are tool changers/ spindle orientation / rigid tapping Etc to get working, Linux is a good choice for the control as there are other people that have done this before, so lots of good information to work with

The new Mach4 Pro when released will be just as good as the Linux cnc control

[Bl@ckrat]

Did you ever convert your machine over to the dmm's ?

[mactec54]

Did you ever convert your machine over to the dmm's ?

No he used another brand of Servo Motors Drives, & has been happy with them

[pete from TN]

I am sorry yeah Mactec is correct I did not actually go with the DMM servos not because they were not good or anything mostly because the motors on my machine more closely matched the offerings from Teco than those of DMM. I went with the Teco servos and drives from Machmotion. They have been working quite well for a good while now and I have made many parts with them. I am still working on the retrofit but the axes are done and as said I make parts whenever I have work for the machine. The price difference between the DMM and the Tecos was negligible as was the support. I have a thread in the Cincinatti Forum chronicling the buildup of the machine called Pete's Cincinatti Arrow 500 adventure. You can read about my misadventures there. Peace

Pete