Orac lathe to Mach3 conversion advice/direction please

[Hunter]

Hi every one,

I'm soon to be in the process of converting a denford orac to mach3.

now i'm pretty illiterate when it comes to the electronics side of things and get a bit lost to be honest.

I was hoping for a few pointers and advice on a british based forum,

the lathe has been servicing my needs as standard up untill the last few weeks when my troubles started, first the original vfd going down and now a driver is down.

to be fair the machine is 30 years old, it had never done a days work before i got my hands on it 18 months ago and so is mechanically sound.

I'd always planned to do a conversion as i run my mikini mills from mach3, and so fairly familiar with mach.

the plan is to rip all existing electronics out, and start afresh.
I already have spindle motor and a new vfd, pc with mach ect.

I've eyed up this little kit that is within budget and was hoping to get advice to see if it was a good starting point
http://www.diycnc.co.uk/html/cnc_systems.html

SYSTEM4C Complete enclosed unit kit. All parts to build up unit shown. Available as 2, 3 or 4 axis, with or without motors. Kit parts as follows System4CE board, DRV30 driver boards as required, 27V 350 watt PSU, Case, full fitting kit including ready wired XLR connectors and auxiliary connector.

I figured this would be more capable than the current standard set-up which runs 150oz/in steppers.


it also has a modular spindle module that will supply the inputs that my inverter needs for speed and run command. 0-10v and switch for a 24v signal taken from the inverters coms.

it appeals to me as should be relatively straight forward for a first build but i don't really know what limitations it may have, or if there is a better out there within similar price range.


one of my main issues and where i get totally lost would be how to run the ATC turret, as standard it runs from a small dc motor driving a worm that has a constant 12vdc reversing on to the paw, and 24vdc is applied forward to index, i have no idea what i'd need hardware wise
there are some sort of optical sensors inside the turret but how i would get mach to read these is beyond me.

hope some some kind gents can gve me some direction or reassurance.

some pics of the turret



back plate off


close up sensors


back plate for sensors