I am fairly happy with the performance of the motors I have the only
major change I want to make is to my Z axis which tends to miss steps
due to the poor performance of the quasi linear bearing system
employed by Shopbot on this particualar machine. I already have a set
of bearing rods & a frame to replace the current axis (screen door
roller, pipe, & unistrut). I will be using the ballscrew & related
componenst of the stock Z. I have put a lot of miles on the motors
that came with the machine, and for what Im' doing I have no
complaints. So I guess the main thing is to figure out what point in
the controller box gets the step & direction and elimanate the...Uh I
donno I guess you would call it the interpereter?
Gavin
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Your theory is correct. Ted Hall explained to me that there is a
point on the controller board that can be used to attach to step and
direction software. Not being technical myself, I can't remember
where that point is. Nor can I remember if he said I can use the
original drivers or would have to replace the drivers.
The original ShopBot drivers are 1/4 step and induce considerable
low speed resonance. In addition to the much more efficient Mach2
interface, you should get better overall performance with 10
microstep drivers like Gecko 201. The cost to replace the control
box with Gecko 201s and Mach2 should be not more than USD $850.00.
The real time tool path display and the ability to start a program
from any line are worth the price of Mach2 on their own.
Steve
