Shopsabre pro3636 converted to ethercat + Oak

[DannyB]

This was originally a WinCNC machine, with an old mitsubishi PLC controlling the spindle and some relay boards controlling the pneumatics.
I got amazingly tired of WinCNC and the limitations it has. I also wanted more Z-axis travel, so i rebuilt the Z-axis.

Everything (pneumatics, VFDs for pump/spindle, I/O) is now ethercat, except for the servos, and the spindle (the interface is on order).
The ethercat I/O is mirrored to the right OAK inputs, but come from elsewhere - the VFDs are mounted far away with nothing but power and ethernet
The pneumatic actuators are not on random parts of the Z axis with wires running in the e-chain.

I hear someday in the future i may be able to use ethercat servos with centroid , and maybe use ethercat I/O

It would remove 90% of the wires you see here.

[cnckeith]

right on! thanks for posting!
yeah..rumors are true! we are working on the "Hickory" CNC controller that uses Ethercat communication!
what axis servo drives/motors are you using?

[DannyB]

These are yaskawa sigma-7 with motors that have the new batteryless absolute encoders.
They are being run in incremental encoder mode.

I actually have a bunch of sigma-7 ethercat versions lying around, just waiting for hickory

[cnckeith]

killer.. great drives!