Controller-only (not motors/drivers) upgrade for PRS Alpha

[ReactiveLight]

Gary also builds to order and he has lots of experience with shopbot.

For a perfect running system with minimum downtime maybe the best choice.

Uwe

Did you see the discussion that I've had with Gary in this thread?

[Gary Campbell]

Thanks, Gary. I just read that post, and I see your point. However, it seems to me that overall it should be more practical with the 2020 hardware since the motor/driver issues you mentioned have presumably been addressed.

You may have missed the line where I stated that the more modern drive (AR) have even more convoluted programming logic in them than Gene's old AS drives from 2006. I also need to add that those 7.2 gearmotors, with a ~1.528 revs per inch ratio are in the sweet spot, vs what Gene has on his direct drive model.

But, if this is not a configuration that you wish to support then I'll give up on the idea, since I don't want to spend a huge amount of time working out all of the details on my own. Cheers!

I tried for a number of years, (since 2013) working with Brady Watson, testing many variations of the Oriental drives, to develop a controller that would run the motors well. We always ran into the headwall of SB's drive programming. If you can source some drives with the OEM Oriental programming you can get them to run well.

SB is well within their rights to not want to remove or customize their proprietary programming. If there was a "magic 2 button press" to revert them back to OEM Oriental settings, I would sell a LOT of systems as the cost savings would be substantial.

(However, I may still look into creating a swappable replacement for the ShopBot controller board that supports the very specialized functions I want to experiment with and doesn't need all of the optimized motion paths, etc.)

I cant imagine what you would attempt to do that an Acorn wont. I just wouldn't recommend trying to run it through the SB system IO board. Use a generic BOB board. Most importantly: Good luck with your build

[ReactiveLight]

Thanks, Gary! All good advice, and a time may come when I get so frustrated with the current system that I'll want to spring for one of your complete packages. For me, this is a hobby machine (like the car you keep in your garage to tinker with) rather than part of a commercial venture, and so ShopBot's very proprietary approach has been *super* annoying. For example, I recently asked them for the specs on the gears they use because I wanted to temporarily swap in a different motor for one of my experiments. Not only did they not answer, they haughtily replied that "we are not here to help you construct a custom CNC tool"—which is not AT ALL what I was asking for! The real irony is that I then ordered a spare set of gears from them for my machine, and *all* of the info I was requesting (and more!) was right there on the quotation, proving that it was not something proprietary. If I ever buy another CNC router, it will not be a ShopBot.

[Gary Campbell]

Hey man, I'm not trying to sell you a controller package, just trying to save you some wasted time and frustration. There are a good number of SB guys here that have built their own systems, and they, along with myself try to assist the next guys that come along

[ReactiveLight]

I appreciate that! I didn't in any way mean to suggest otherwise, and I really, truly understand your position about complete systems. All of my criticisms above are directed at unhelpful ShopBot, not at you.

In any case, if you thought my idea of plugging one of your controllers into the ShopBot's control board connector was doable without insane effort, then I'd like to discuss hiring you to help with the project.

But, from what you've said, using the existing motors & drivers could be challenging. I suppose the one thing I might add is that I don't feel dependent on the way ShopBot has custom-programmed the motor drivers, and resetting them to factory configuration and losing ShopBot's configuration wouldn't break my heart. I mean, that's just off-the-shelf equipment from Oriental Motor, obviously designed to work together, and without ShopBot's customization it would then just be like any other generic CNC machine and could work with a non-proprietary controller and software. Fine by me—that's precisely what I want, a generic machine.

I should have researched ShopBot more before buying my machine, but at the time it seemed like a company that supported hobbyists. Very expensive mistake...

I don't even need peak CNC performance, just a machine that I can tinker with and cut reasonably-complex parts designed using common apps like Fusion 360 and others. My projects are almost all decorative, and generally don't require high precision. I certainly don't need speed!

So, the bottom line is that it seems to me that I could achieve my goals by just ditching ALL of ShopBot's proprietary stuff and never again being dependent on their tech support. If a third-party replacement controller would help, then I would very cheerfully purchase it. But I would, if possible, like to keep using my extremely-expensive, and presumably high-quality, collection of Oriental Motor gear (six pairs of motors and drivers), along with the very conventional wiring in the control cabinet that ties it all together and just needs proper control signals to function.

[Gary Campbell]

If you're diligent you can probably find a way to reprogram the drives online. It used to take usb to rj45 adapter cable and M$ hyper terminal

[ReactiveLight]

Thanks, Gary. I assume Oriental Motor would also be helpful, and the documentation I have from them seems very good.

Cheers!

[Gary Campbell]

Yes, Oriental's docs are thorough, if not close to overwhelming! If you can simply reset to factory defaults, they will work just fine with most controllers. If you do succeed, there may be a cottage industry there for you!

[ReactiveLight]

Heh! But I'll leave the industry to someone more industrious. I'm happily retired, and just want to have fun with my own machines. And it seems that completely kicking ShopBot out of my machine is going to be the only way to achieve that, since they obviously have no interest in helping. My experience with their customer support over that gears question was just nuts.