Swapping out old AB 8400 for new China Fanuc control.

[Pennsy fan]

This is for Bill Shields.

My poor mill finally lost one of its amps for the Y axes, and was going to fix the board but it's just time to bring my mill up to the new world order...ha.

So I've ordered this, Milling Machine CNC Controller 980MDc from CNC maker. They seem to have a nice package, Servo corp. here in the U.S. is carrying their stuff.

The question is in all your travels in controls have you worked on or know much about this one?

It's all going to be new, control, 3- A/C 1.5kw servos, power supply, breakout board for M functions, and all the rest of the wires ect. My ball screws are fine. It's going my YCM 40 mill.

thx David.

[Bill Shields]

no experience with this control - sorry.

I personally avoid controls etc from china.

you have no idea if they will be around next year when you need support.

unfortunately (realistically) you get what you pay for and with a new dealer / product....

[Pennsy fan]

Ok thanks, Bummer I thought with your vast experience with all sorts of controls you might have crossed paths with this one.
Servo products is willing to sell it I guess I'll give it a shot. I have seen this control at Westec on some imports and it seem to run ok. Plus either I was going to look for a Toolroom mill from Haas or retro fit. I just just wanted to avoid spending 25k....

[Bill Shields]

generally, we don't see this control on a lot of commercial grade industrial machines that I work with.

There is one control from China, that is a clone of the Mitsubishi control that we are starting to see regularly, but beyond that the only opinion that I have is that tend to steer toward known manufacturers with established support networks.

this does not say that this isn't good control...just unknown.

[JimGlass]

You can build your own control from scratch then run your machine from a laptop computer.

http://outbackmachineshop.com/CNC.html

I bought the Bridgeport for $1500. A retrofit using Gecko driver boards cost another $1000. Been running the machine for almost 10 year.

Let us know how your retrofit kit works out.

I use 3 amp Chinese driver boards for my single axis projects and they seem to work fine. A few years ago Chinese driver boards were on Ebay for $13 each. I bought some last week for $6 each. For that kind of money who cares if they burn up.

I used Gecko Driver boards in my Bridgeport but they can put out 8 amps per axis. My Gecko boards are set
to around 5 amps. In the Bridgeport 5 amps easily can snap off 1/2" endmills at the shank.
Jim

[Pennsy fan]

Hi Jim,
Yes I am aware of all the PC based controls, I just prefer a PLC. And I'm getting all a/c servos, which is a upgrade from my DC ones. I'm trained on Haas controls and Fanuc, so I feel this has a better result for what I'm wanting out the retrofit.
I was thinking to photo and do a write up, this will be a bit of work but interesting.
If this turns out to be a good deal I might do some importing of these to sell here in the U.S. , don't know yet. Just a thought.
David.