I remember there was discussion here about replacing CNC controls, but
could not find it, and what controls were liked.

We have an old Bridgeport in reasonably good condition that has an
ancient CNC system that needs to be replaced. What systems should we
look at?

Thank in advance.

Stephen

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Remove first spam only to reply

Stephen B. wrote:

I remember there was discussion here about replacing CNC controls, but
could not find it, and what controls were liked.

We have an old Bridgeport in reasonably good condition that has an
ancient CNC system that needs to be replaced. What systems should we
look at?
In the hobby-level arena there is LinuxCNC and Mach(x). There have been
lots of flame wars over this.

In the professional level, there are things like Centroid, Ajax and Acorn.
(All these are apparently by the same company.) The Acorn uses a Beagle
Bone type computer, and is amazingly inexpensive for a commercial control.

I have 2 mills running LinuxCNC here.

Jon

"Stephen B." wrote in message news
I remember there was discussion here about replacing CNC controls, but
could not find it, and what controls were liked.

We have an old Bridgeport in reasonably good condition that has an
ancient CNC system that needs to be replaced. What systems should we
look at?

Thank in advance.

Stephen

--


Last year Lloyd Sponenburgh upgraded his old Birdgeport Series 1 (I think it
was a series 1) Heidenhain controller to a plug and play Centroid
controller. It was not the cheapest option, but it was very fast and pretty
easy. I think he said if he was dialed on everything he could have done the
whole upgrade on less than one (1) day. Its been a while, and I am not sure
he didn't do the hardware slap in a day. He was cutting parts in a couple
days I am 100% sure. While Centroid would probably not be the way I would
go for my shop I can certainly appreciate that they had a hardware package
that allowed him to have so little down time on his machine. As a real
world working manufacturer I am sure his down time was a huge factor in his
decision making.

I've retrofit my KMB1 one twice. Once from the antique drip feed / tape
drive Randtronics system to Mach3 with Gecko Drives, and then from gecko
drives to DuGong 16035 drivers. I did my upgrades piece meal learning as I
went. I wouldn't do it that way if I needed it up and running quick though.
The first time took me a year atleast. Admittedly the second time only took
a week.

If you want to talk to Lloyd he is a daily regular on the CamBam forums.
The SNR here got to be to much for him.

On Thu, 21 Jun 2018 22:46:18 -0400, "Stephen B."
wrote:

I remember there was discussion here about replacing CNC controls, but
could not find it, and what controls were liked.

We have an old Bridgeport in reasonably good condition that has an
ancient CNC system that needs to be replaced. What systems should we
look at?

Thank in advance.

Stephen

https://www.mmsonline.com/articles/c...a-retrofit-cnc

https://machmotion.com/retrofits-main
https://www.microkinetics.com/index....ts/floor_model
https://machmotion.com/documentation...eco_servos.pdf
https://www.flashcutcnc.com/retrofit-solutions
http://www.centroidcnc.com/cnc_retrofit.htm
https://machinetoolproducts.com/cate...retrofit-kits/

It should be said..that one may..may be able to find an older CNC mill
for very little money that will do the job with a bit of fixing..for
cheaper than you can retrofit your BP.

I sold this Mazak 15x40 to a client, with a pickup truckload of
tooling for $3k

https://photos.app.goo.gl/npk79FtjimSpngjF9

He had a Mazak guy come in..get it running quite nicely, for $1k

So he has a nice, Conversational programming, color screen CNC mill
with 18 tool, tool changer, multiple coolant sprays and the full monty
for $4k ..machine and repair..and spent $1k to have it moved 26 miles
and set in place at his shop. For a total of $5k.

The first question you have to ask..what condition is your Bridgeport
ways and nuts in? You need to know that.

Also... It happes all too often that BPs are fine for about 14" ...7"
to the right and left of center..and then get tighter than hell in
both directions..as the center has been badly worn, over the years.
Second issue is the feed screws have worn threads. If you are going to
retrofit a manual mill to CNC..Id strongly recommend using Ballscrews
to replace the Acme nuts and threads on x and y. Z can be left as is
for the most part. Ballscrews can be purchased for hummm...$350-500
for the pair. It would be best if this was a chrome wayed
machine..but...shrug..a plain jane 1j or 2J will do..if its in good
shape.

I supplied a partial listing of the various makers of retrofit kits
for Bridgeport and similar mills above. I make no recommendations to
any of them. I do personally like the Centroid (pricey) kits and the
Mach3 kits..(cheap enough)..but all have decent reps in the community.

Gunner



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On Thu, 21 Jun 2018 22:46:18 -0400, "Stephen B."
wrote:

I remember there was discussion here about replacing CNC controls, but
could not find it, and what controls were liked.

We have an old Bridgeport in reasonably good condition that has an
ancient CNC system that needs to be replaced. What systems should we
look at?

Thank in advance.

Stephen
Centroid and Ajax are good controls that are made by the same company.
The difference is that the Ajax is much less money as it comes with
virtually no support. Years ago I installed an Ajax control on a mill
that had the original control fail. I went with 4 axes and it worked
well. It still works well. With the Ajax you need to pay extra for
every little option. The mill did not have an automatic tool changer
so I don't know how well the Ajax control would handle one. The 2
complaints I have with the Ajax are that the documentation at the time
I bought it was confusing in some places. It just wasn't written very
well and there were contradictions as well as ambiguous portions. And
the button placement on the control pendant. The Z- button used for
jogging is right above the Cycle Start button. And when jogging it was
easy to hit the Start button. At the time there was no way to disable
the Cycle Start button when jogging so an accidental button press was
easy to do. And I've done it more than once.
Eric

On Thu, 21 Jun 2018 23:06:55 -0500, Jon Elson
wrote:

Stephen B. wrote:

I remember there was discussion here about replacing CNC controls, but
could not find it, and what controls were liked.

We have an old Bridgeport in reasonably good condition that has an
ancient CNC system that needs to be replaced. What systems should we
look at?
In the hobby-level arena there is LinuxCNC and Mach(x). There have been
lots of flame wars over this.

In the professional level, there are things like Centroid, Ajax and Acorn.
(All these are apparently by the same company.) The Acorn uses a Beagle
Bone type computer, and is amazingly inexpensive for a commercial control.

I have 2 mills running LinuxCNC here.

Jon
Boy Jon, that Acorn really is cheap. If I had to replace the servo
amps in a machine I would for sure look at the Acorn option.
For Stephen: The Acorn puts out step and direction signals. Stepper
motor drivers accept step and direction commands. But there are also
several servo amps available for not much money, Gecko Drive being one
I am familiar with and use, that also use step and direction commands
for controlling the servo amp. This means that the less expensive
step and direction control can be used to control servo motors. If
your mill has stepper motors then i suggest you look into upgrading to
a closed loop servo system. The servo system will allow much faster
rapids as well as faster and more accurate machining of contours. I
messed around with stepper motors when I first built CNC positioners
but quickly swtiched to servo motors when step and direction input
servo amps became available for such little money. I think you can get
one now for about $120.00 that will drive servo motors at 80 volts and
20 amps. It may even be to your advantage to get an Acorn and replace
the existing servo amps if your machine has servo motors.
Eric

On Fri, 22 Jun 2018 09:35:55 -0700, etpm wrote:


Boy Jon, that Acorn really is cheap. If I had to replace the servo
amps in a machine I would for sure look at the Acorn option.

The Acorn does NOT contain the motor drives! It is only a step/direction
control. But, yes, even considering that, it is a very good looking
option. A guy here has one that he is just setting up on a mini-lathe,
so i can report how it works out for him.

But, you also have Mach(x) for Windows, and LinuxCNC, for Linux. LinuxCNC
supports a wide range of machine types (mills, routers and lathes, but
also robots and hexapods) and can operate step/direction drives, digital
servos and analog servos. LinuxCNC also has a built-in ladder logic
system to handle tool changers and such.

The Gecko 320 works, but it makes the CNC control blind, like a stepper.
Mesa and Pico Systems (my company) have cost-competitive controllers and
drives for various types of motors that allow LinuxCNC to be aware of the
status of the motors in real time.

Jon

On Fri, 22 Jun 2018 13:34:03 -0500, Jon Elson
wrote:

On Fri, 22 Jun 2018 09:35:55 -0700, etpm wrote:


Boy Jon, that Acorn really is cheap. If I had to replace the servo
amps in a machine I would for sure look at the Acorn option.

The Acorn does NOT contain the motor drives! It is only a step/direction
control. But, yes, even considering that, it is a very good looking
option. A guy here has one that he is just setting up on a mini-lathe,
so i can report how it works out for him.

But, you also have Mach(x) for Windows, and LinuxCNC, for Linux. LinuxCNC
supports a wide range of machine types (mills, routers and lathes, but
also robots and hexapods) and can operate step/direction drives, digital
servos and analog servos. LinuxCNC also has a built-in ladder logic
system to handle tool changers and such.

The Gecko 320 works, but it makes the CNC control blind, like a stepper.
Mesa and Pico Systems (my company) have cost-competitive controllers and
drives for various types of motors that allow LinuxCNC to be aware of the
status of the motors in real time.

Jon
That is a problem with the Gecko, the only feedback to the control
being a fault signal when the amp shuts down for whatever reason. The
next time I need to build another CNC machine I'll take a look at your
Pico Systems stuff. Having the control aware of the actual position at
all times is really much better than a control that just stops when
it gets an error signal.
Eric

On Fri, 22 Jun 2018 11:51:14 -0700, wrote:

On Fri, 22 Jun 2018 13:34:03 -0500, Jon Elson
wrote:

On Fri, 22 Jun 2018 09:35:55 -0700, etpm wrote:


Boy Jon, that Acorn really is cheap. If I had to replace the servo
amps in a machine I would for sure look at the Acorn option.

The Acorn does NOT contain the motor drives! It is only a step/direction
control. But, yes, even considering that, it is a very good looking
option. A guy here has one that he is just setting up on a mini-lathe,
so i can report how it works out for him.

But, you also have Mach(x) for Windows, and LinuxCNC, for Linux. LinuxCNC
supports a wide range of machine types (mills, routers and lathes, but
also robots and hexapods) and can operate step/direction drives, digital
servos and analog servos. LinuxCNC also has a built-in ladder logic
system to handle tool changers and such.

The Gecko 320 works, but it makes the CNC control blind, like a stepper.
Mesa and Pico Systems (my company) have cost-competitive controllers and
drives for various types of motors that allow LinuxCNC to be aware of the
status of the motors in real time.

Jon
That is a problem with the Gecko, the only feedback to the control
being a fault signal when the amp shuts down for whatever reason. The
next time I need to build another CNC machine I'll take a look at your
Pico Systems stuff. Having the control aware of the actual position at
all times is really much better than a control that just stops when
it gets an error signal.
Eric

Having the control aware of where/what/why the servos are doing..is
mandatory. I wasn't aware that the Gecko didn't do this. I cant
imagine anyone using it. Brrrrrr.

Gunner

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On 2018-06-22, Stephen B. wrote:
I remember there was discussion here about replacing CNC controls, but
could not find it, and what controls were liked.

We have an old Bridgeport in reasonably good condition that has an
ancient CNC system that needs to be replaced. What systems should we
look at?

Thank in advance.

Stephen


I own a Bridgeport Interact. I replaced the broken Heidenhain control
with Linux EMC2 using hardware that I bought from our member Jon
Elson. Everything works great.

i

In article ,
"Stephen B." wrote:

I remember there was discussion here about replacing CNC controls, but
could not find it, and what controls were liked.

We have an old Bridgeport in reasonably good condition that has an
ancient CNC system that needs to be replaced. What systems should we
look at?

Depending what it's got when you've ripped out the old, GRBL can be a
remarkably affordable new control system for steppers or stepper-like
drives. Or you can rip all the way to replacing motors, and still come
out pretty affordable - but if the old drive is steppers, they are often
just fine.

No parallel port / old style serial port required.

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