What brand of hi-end drivers ? At the begining I was looking at OMRON drivers but soon I discovered that is way to complicated and I have no suport (like a forum). So I'm looking each day to the Gheckos. Chinese drivers could be an option but again no suport. So the ideea is to keep it simple and again the SUPORT is very important.

Marius, please don't use "quotes" if you are replying to a post directly before yours. See:
Using quotes when replying to a post - only use if essential please

Marius, I am hearing good things about the drives (and support) from Motion Control Products in England. (Those drives are made by Leadshine in China)

I'll say hello to everyone and thanks to Gerald for his hard work and generosity.
I have saved my first post until I could give a little help instead of asking for it!!

I have built a small mdf based machine ( I know the curse of cnczone but I've learnt enough to bring me here) and I used Motion control products' drivers for this, I don't have experience with Geckos to compare but I have had no problems with them at all and they survived me wiring them up so they must be fairly resiliant.

Oh and I had my laser cut parts delivered today!!

Mark.

Mark, the link it doesn't work. It's from the same company Gerald recomended ?

Marius

Marius,
Yes I was just pointing out that it was the same company Gerald mentioned. My experience with these drivers is good so may be another option. Hope it helps someone.

Mark.

OK. I'll start reading about those drivers because very soon the next step is the "kitchen table"... And this is my reason for many sleeples nights. What kind of BOB did you use ?
Thank you,
Marius

I used a very basic generic BOB on the old project with no bells or whistles so I'll be looking for something much like the pmdx 122 for this one.

Mark.

First test !
 

Finally my MM is moving (without motors) :)! Tomorrow the rack is the next step and after that I’m ready for painting.

Transformer - 800VA too big ?
 

Hello everybody,
Today I place orders for the Z axis and one ball screw, linear ball bearing. I’m ready to place order for the transformer. A Romania company http://www.petra-toroid.ro/ after sending details regarding motors, drivers, BoB, they recommend this configuration:
P=800VA U1=230V U21=50V I21=16.0A U22= 9V I22= 0.5A.
Is it more than I need ?

Marius

Marius,
That is an 800 VA transformer. It is probably more than you need for total power. Also dont forget that the secondary at 50VAC will be about 50 X 1.414 = 70.7 VDC. Is that a little too high for your motors? If they are close to the pk296a2a we have here in North America you probably want 35 to 40VDC. Double check your motor specs. :)

The 50V looks too high. What drives will you be using?

Sorry Heath, didn't see your post #41 on top of page 2, before I responded to Marius's post #40 at the bottom of page 1. I make this mistake quite often. :o

Gerald,
No problem, I believe I have done the same for some of your posts too. Seems like we post around the same times. :)

Second choice for transformer
 

Thanks for reply. I give to the producer all the specification for Gecko (I prefer american instead chinese), and PMDX 122 and PMDX 135 and the motors are OM 7.2 and these are his calculation...
So is to big :confused:.
And he give me a second choice:
P=800VA U1=230V U21=27V I21=29.5A U22= 9V I22= 0.5A
If I use -PMDX 135-5020 sau PMDX 135 - 8020.
The first choice is if I use only PMDX 135-8050.
So what should I ask for ?

Marius

Marius,
That transformer, while it has way more current capability than you need, the output voltage would be about 38VDC. That would be a good choice for half coil wiring of the motors you have selected, if they are the same specs as the pk296a2a motors we use here. Is it possible he could give you a 500VA transformer with 27V out and a 9V tap? This would be a better overall choice, and would probably cost a lot less as well.

Okay, if I was the transformer maker, and someone gives me the spec sheets like you did, then I would also offer exactly the same transformer as he did. He did quite a good job of searching data out of those specs!

However, you will want to wire those motors as half-coil for the best overall speed, torque, heat when used in our router table application. That means we will not use the full 80Vdc that the drives are capable of.

Also, all 4 motors don't need full power all the time, that means you need less than 800VA.

This is the spec of the transformers we had manufactured in South Africa, using similar motors as yours:
P=300VA U1=230V U21=29V I21=9.0A U22= 9V I22= 1.0A
They work fine - no overheating.
(I increased the current of the 9V section in case I want to drive proximity switches from that)

Heath's suggestion of 500VA will cost a little more, but maybe you will sleep easier - it is a safe choice.

I would take the PMDX 135-8020 because the extra $12 gets you better capacitors (higher voltage rated), irrespective of which transformer you get.

OK, somehow things will begin to clear up around me. I’ll go with PMDX-135-8020, PMDX-122 and of course the famous Geckos 203. Two days ago I contact Campbell to buy most of an enclosure but till now no answer regarding the transport cost. I don’t want to waste more time because at the end of the week painting is the next step and I didn’t have any part of the electronics. Maybe for the next MM I’ll use Campbell BoB.
Tank’s for the info.

Marius

Be careful of Mr Campbell's shipping. He likes using "USPS" which is the USA "Post Office". They will hand the parcel to the Government Post Office of Romania without insisting on proper tracking and insurance. I ordered one of his BoB boards together with 4x Geckos, all prepaid of course. Well, the parcel never arrived here, and the only thing he was willing to do was to send another BoB board. Goodbye 4x Geckos!

It is good to know that. A few minutes ago I just finish speaking on the phone with the guys from PMDX in order to confirm the order and in 30 minutes they said the invoice will be sent by mail.
Perhaps I'm tired but there is no phone number to speak with Mr. Campbell. Very interesting...
Doesn't matter because I'm on the way with PMDX. The Romanian company who produce transformer tomorrow will send the goods. I chose the 500VA and the price its 54, 5 $.
The control box start to appear from darkness :).

Hi, everibody
Great, great site. And a wonderful comunity around it. I'm proud I was alowed to join. Keep on with this fine job!

From my part, first step done: download went ok. Next step is to study. It will take a long, long time, because it happens that I know some things about what this is about, but in some other way ... And maybe there will be some more steps, one of them including building such a baby. If this won't happen, I'm still satisfied, because I found You.

Finding AVO's posts, I take the opportunity to say him: "Salut, s-o vezi iute gata si sa te bucuri de ea!" :D and ask him: "Spune-mi, daca se poate, te rog, unde si cine ti-a facut debitarile si indoirile. Si mai ales cat ti-a luat. Ca la mine asta e problema. Intre a sti si a dori, pe de o parte si de a putea, pe de alta, e o diferenta la care nu e sigur ca pot face fata. Multumesc."
For the ones who do not understand romanian, all this means I want him to tell me where, who and especially for how much he's got the cut & bend job done.
Good health and Happy MechMate Buiding and Enjoying, to all of YOU ! :)

Hello OldRat
 

Here are the invoice from the company in Bucharest who cut with waterjet:
Petru Soiman
Buna ziua,

Debitare waterjet repere otel cu material de la client:
- desen 1030422 = 43Euro/buc fara TVA
- desen 1020452 = 26Euro/buc fara TVA
- desen M510314 = 13Euro/buc fara TVA
- desen M510324 = 9,8Euro/buc fara TVA
- desen M130332 = 9,2Euro/buc fara TVA
- desen 1040434 = 6Euro/buc faraTVA
- desen M510312 = 15Euro/buc fara TVA
- desen 1020451 = 28Euro/buc fara TVA
- desen M118027 = 2,5Euro/buc fara TVA
- desen 1040432 = 23Euro/buc fara TVA
- desen 1020458 = 7Euro/buc fara TVA
- desen 1020456 = 6,4Euro/buc fara TVA
- desen 1020457 = 12.6Euro/buc fara TVA
- desen 1030455 = 31Euro/buc fara TVA
- desen 1040372 = 3,1Euro/buc fara TVA
- desen 1060215 = 38Euro/buc fara TVA
- desen 1060315 = 18,8 Euro/buc fara TVA
- desen 1060325 = 12Euro/buc fara TVA
- desen 1040330 = 39Euro/buc fara TVA
- desen 1040387 = 3,1Euro/buc fara TVA

Pretul include doar debitarea waterjet, fara material.
Separat pentru operatia de indoire pretul este de 1Euro/indoire fara TVA; pret valabil daca se executa si debitarea.

Termen de livrare: 2 ~ 3 zile de la plata avansului
Modalitate de plata: 30% si 70% la livrare

Cu respect,
ing. Petru Soiman Tel. 0726.694.211
Engineer
Cautis JB '93
petru@mail.cautis.ro,
Phone No:
0040 21 461 04 94
0040 21 461 05 84
0040 21 460 30 01
Fax No: 0040 21 460 04 88
www.cautis.ro
Suna-ma si tu maine si iti dau mai multe detalii. Inginerul respectiv e super de treaba iar calitatea lucrarii fara discutii. Tel:0722353138 Marius
Happy to see that I'm not alone around here because only my wife understand the importance of this project.
Call me to give you many details :).

Marius

Hallo, Marius
Thank You for your kind, prompt & detailed answer. It will help me a lot. Maybe not today, but one of this days I'll call You.
In the predictable future, I'll be not able to show any progress, but me and all of us will closely watch yours.
Happy MechMate building to everyone :)

Transformer
 

Today I get the transformer. Great company! They produce and deliver a custom transformer in 2 days from the moment I placed the order and they are situated 600km from Bucharest. The PMDX and Geckos are on the way :). By the way: till now still now answer from Campbell. One more time I thank you Gerald because you warn me.

Marius,
That looks like a very nice transformer. From the label I think that will work very well for you. :)

Gecko arrived, MM back on his feet.
 

Yesterday was a full day : Gecko arrived and MM is on his feet again after the painting. Now I'm looking for a control box and there are a lot of stuff to finish on MM like chain cable, leveling, etc. I'm waiting for PMDX...
But the most important step for me right now was to see the MM painted and put all important pieces toghether. Here are some pictures.

I do not believe that you are a lawyer by profession - we all know that lawyers only write long stories and are useless with tools! :D

Yes you are right with the other lawyers but not me. This business (woodworking) for me is more than making money it's a passion and this kind of machine will push me to the next level in furniture production. Just imagine how much I need such a machine when I work for it 3 days a week from 7PM till 2 AM and next day back to the office fresh and crispy. But it’s for real: building MM becomes an addiction :).

Pinion On Rack alignment
 

Last night I made some tests to put motors on positions and the pinions are not standing 100% on the racks. For example on Y axis the pinion is pushed too much outside the rack. On X axis is not that much. I can push the pinion only 2mm to the inside of the rack but it’s not entirely on the rack. Is it OK to stay like that? What kind of problems should appear in the future?
The PMDX arrived today :).