Hi to all! I'm new here and also new to CNC and related stuff. I have just recently bought Bridgeport series 1 mill which is equipped with old slo-syn stepper motors on x-axis and y-axis. It also has a huge controler which is not in working condition. I would however like to take advantage of motors and make use of the motors. The motors are 4.2VDC, 4.3Amps. Slo-syn HS400B-1001. So, my question is what kind of driver would you recomend? Have in mind that I don't need anything professional and expensive. Thank you in advance
If your doing a real mill i would go with pokeys all day long PoStep60-256 - Stepper Motor Driver - Polabs PoKeys57CNC - USB and Ethernet CNC controller - Polabs this should allow you to do alot of stuff and should drive those np assuming there 4 6 or 8 wire.
Some talented person may be able to tell how to fix your old controller and run it from a breakout board but not me. Less grief would be to get stronger modern motors and a power supply from China. The motors need to be fitted to the mill but I think that would be simpler. If you have five wire motors there is a problem. I have three HS 400-1001 from an old Excelo mill similar to a Bridgeport. The control box was about as big as the mill. I converted it to a manual mill. I can run the old motors with Mach3 on a 2006 sony laptop with a printer port, a breakout board and SS200D6 drivers. The problem was that they were five wire motors which regular controllers can't operate. The power drive is simpler for a five wire motor so that is why they built it that way. I was able to get them to work with normal controllers by cutting an internal trace to make them run as four wire motors. This involves taking the terminal end bell off but not removing the armature or getting dirt inside. Unsolder the wires from the screw terminals and lift the outer board, end bell, with bearings off. There is a trace on the inner board that joins the center tap of each of the two windings to the fifth wire. I removed a chunk of the trace with a dremel cutting wheel. You can remove the fifth wire or add another wire to the other winding to make a six wire motor. Now you have a working 400 oz in motor. Ball screw kits are available for Bridgeports if you have plain screws. Good luck with your project, Charles Lessig
