retrofit Boxford vmc mill 260 Info needed on Yaskawa contactor relay and VFD choices

[JAZZCNC]

Nathaniel I'm not sure your fully understanding some things.?

First what your calling a controller is actually just a Breakout board and does nothing but provide an interface to the Motion control device or Parallel port.
Also The Gemini speed controller is for controlling spindle speed so you don't need a VFD. I'm not familiar with these machines but I'd take a guess that it's also using a DC motor for spindle and the Gemini is a DC speed controller.
VFD is Three phase motor speed control and often used to convert single phase input to three phase output.

I'd also take an educated guess and say the Contactor is 24V but it could be AC or DC. I recently stripped a Boxford Lathe and that used Yaskawa 24Vac contactor with power taken from the transformer which provided multiple outputs.

[Roboteernat]

Nathaniel I'm not sure your fully understanding some things.?

First what your calling a controller is actually just a Breakout board and does nothing but provide an interface to the Motion control device or Parallel port.
Also The Gemini speed controller is for controlling spindle speed so you don't need a VFD. I'm not familiar with these machines but I'd take a guess that it's also using a DC motor for spindle and the Gemini is a DC speed controller.
VFD is Three phase motor speed control and often used to convert single phase input to three phase output.

I'd also take an educated guess and say the Contactor is 24V but it could be AC or DC. I recently stripped a Boxford Lathe and that used Yaskawa 24Vac contactor with power taken from the transformer which provided multiple outputs.

Thank you for replying, yes I know it's a BoB boar, not the controller, sorry I got a bit confused with words there.

the spindle is dc and does receive an ac input for power direct from mains, so there is ac going through the yaskawa relay. I guess what I'm needing is a, a dictionary to confirm the terms I'm using, b a spindle controller which outputs 0-10v (although 8v is max speed )
i will look into the 24v ac contractors online and see if it matches anything in the wiring diagrams I have.

[cropwell]

If you wanted to use Mach3 to control spindle speed with 0-10v you would need a different BoB like this one -
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-2-3x-5-A...item462f035560

[JAZZCNC]

Ok well please don't think I'm being OFF or clever with you but getting the terms correct is very important when trying to help.

Regards the Spindle then you need either a BOB with analog or PWM 0-10v speed control OUTPUT built into it. Or a separate Analog 0-10v speed control that uses an Axis Output like DIYCNC SpindleV4 board. The term VFD refers to Variable frequency drive and is differant animal.

The Gemini is converting AC into DC and doing the controlling so you just need to feed it a reference voltage for the speed, eithier thru Analog 0-10v control or manual Rotary Pot.(potentiometer)
Yaskawa Contactor is just a switch in affect controlled with a lower voltage from another source, most likely an output from the motion control board or BOB which again will most likely control a 24v source which turns the contactor ON/OFF.?

[Roboteernat]

Ok well please don't think I'm being OFF or clever with you but getting the terms correct is very important when trying to help.

Regards the Spindle then you need either a BOB with analog or PWM 0-10v speed control OUTPUT built into it. Or a separate Analog 0-10v speed control that uses an Axis Output like DIYCNC SpindleV4 board. The term VFD refers to Variable frequency drive and is differant animal.

The Gemini is converting AC into DC and doing the controlling so you just need to feed it a reference voltage for the speed, eithier thru Analog 0-10v control or manual Rotary Pot.(potentiometer)
Yaskawa Contactor is just a switch in affect controlled with a lower voltage from another source, most likely an output from the motion control board or BOB which again will most likely control a 24v source which t

thank you, no I don't think that, It is very helpful if in get the right terms.
sounds like it is the spindle v4 I need, so will order one of them, just wanted to confirm if that was what other people thought.

the yaskawa contractor switches poles to give forward and reverse direction on the spindle, so I can just use the relay on the BoB to switch the contactor into the on standard direction drive, all my controls will be done that way as I don't have reverse cutting tools nor the software side to specify direction change unless mach3 does this and I havnt seen it, but cambam wouldn't output the code anyway.

a little background on me, I have 2 cnc mills and several 3d printers, and studied masters in robotics so I am looking at this from a ground of understanding. And a mechanical a ginger as a job.

the original electronics did have a series of 4 relays which is wired into the contactor and is used to select forward or reverse in the contactor so I will investigate the power lines. And try to draw the diagram.

sadly that's at work and I'm home suffering a bout of food poisoning so I guess it will have to wait! But for now spindlev4 is going on order!

thank you

nat

[JAZZCNC]

all my controls will be done that way as I don't have reverse cutting tools nor the software side to specify direction change unless mach3 does this and I havnt seen it, but cambam wouldn't output the code anyway.

You obviously Don't control spindle thru software with your other 2 Cnc machines then.? . . . To reverse spindle direction thru software use M4 G-code command, M3 is Clockwise M4 Anti Clockwise M5 spindle Stop.

When you get your V4 spindle board you'll need to set Mach3 up in (ports&pins/spindle Setup) for turning ON/OFF Output for Direction in relation to each Commnand. Ie M3= Output #1
You'll Also have to set up the Output # to a Output pin on your BOB. This is done in (ports&pins/Output signals). Often this is relay on the BOB which is assigned an Output Pin.

[Roboteernat]

I don't that's true, I have a small aluminium cnc mill with seperate spindle on off, and a converted Bridgeport mill with cnc retrofit.
the pin setup will be easy for me as I have done that before, but with reverse I'm not going to be doing any climbing so direction is something I can add later if needs. Thanks for the info on the spindle control tho

[JAZZCNC]

but with reverse I'm not going to be doing any climbing so direction is something I can add later if needs.

If your talking about Climb milling then you don't reverse spindle anyway. Reverse is mostly used for things like tapping etc or special use cutters.