Centroid Community CNC Support Forum

So I have a 2010 Haas TL-1 lathe that I've decided to convert to Centroid control. Does anyone know if the Yaskawa AC servos and Haas branded "smart amplifiers" are usable for anything?

The servos appear to be a Sigma 1 and they don't appear to have a readily available driver outside of the Haas system (at least not that I've found).

I'm guessing the answer is try to sell them and replace them with servos and drivers that are easier to work with (and I'm open to suggestions there).

hello.
are you thinking using Oak? or Acorn?

That motor has a quadrature encoder with A, B (etc.) outputs. It is incompatible with Sigma 5 or Sigma 7, which work with serial encoders.

I think the drives only work with a proprietary protocol, but don't have any solid evidence to back that up.

eng199 wrote: ↑Wed Apr 19, 2023 8:48 am That motor has a quadrature encoder with A, B (etc.) outputs. It is incompatible with Sigma 5 or Sigma 7, which work with serial encoders.

I think the drives only work with a proprietary protocol, but don't have any solid evidence to back that up.

I believe you're correct. I did speak to a sales rep when I was considering Oak and he indicated that I likely couldn't use those servos with sigma drivers.

cnckeith wrote: ↑Wed Apr 19, 2023 1:17 am hello.
are you thinking using Oak? or Acorn?
i think a sigma 5 drive would run those motors but not 100% sure, maybe other that have done it could chime in.

I'm leaning towards Acorn. Initially I was thinking Oak since this is technically and industrial machine and I thought it might scale better, but then seeing that the axis servos are only 450w and the spindle motor is 3.7kw (just a Baldor 3ph motor) it really makes more sense for my uses (very hobby level) to go with Acorn.

Another question, would it make sense to adapt a serial encoder? It appears that these encoders are attached to the back of the servo with a separate(ish) housing, and I'm making some assumptions that it operates by spinning some sort of optical or hall effect sensor on the other end of the servo spindle?

This might be unreasonable to do and obtain any level of precision though, I don't know.

Okay then go for the acorn,
Sell the existing Haas axis motors and drives on eBay.
Purchase new axis motors and drives that are well documented in the acorn tech sphere and you will be much further ahead of the game. You will get to making parts much quicker rather than spending a lot of time working on a CNC machine.

cnckeith wrote: ↑Wed Apr 19, 2023 1:53 pm Okay then go for the acorn,
Sell the existing Haas axis motors and drives on eBay.
Purchase new axis motors and drives that are well documented in the acorn tech sphere and you will be much further ahead of the game. You will get to making parts much quicker rather than spending a lot of time working on a CNC machine.

Yeah, that seems like the wisdom of ages right there. My "cheap" side kicks in sometimes and I want to spend 4 hours to make something I could buy for $2.

Any recommendations in the 400-500 watt range to replace those 450w servos?

If the manuals are written in Chinglish, stay far away. You won't go wrong with name brands. Delta, Yaskawa, ABB, Glentek, Parker, etc.

I'd say if you are doing acorn just go with clearpath servos. simple, easy and reliable.

Im using these 1.5kw on my mazak lathe i converted. Manuals in english and work very well. Cant be them for the price. Prolly gonna order same ones for my 4020 mill conversion too.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/115013372472?var=415508845552