2 speed spindles

I do not want to muck up Tommys thread on his BMC retrofit.....

Up till now I really have never run my machine less than 500rpm unless it was something real light and quick.  There is possibly a project coming in that will require low rpm and time.  My Hurco BMC30 has the Yaskawa spindle drive with that has a low and high range that is changed by changing the winding configuration. 

I found "gearchange" in the manual and have found some other ways that people have done the multispeed spindles and or gear boxes.  I have not run across one like this one that changes the winding configuration. 

There is an output to drive the contactor coil, and there is a input to confirm it is in low.  There is no change in speed feedback as that comes off the spindle motor shaft encoder.  I am going to fall on the safe side and say the spindle must not be energized during the changing from low to high and back.  I can live with the couple extra seconds there.

I have thought of a M3 remap possibly ( what is below is a rough idea)

If S3<500 RPM
          low range output = true
          low range input = true

if S3 > 500 RPM
          low range output = false   
          low range input = false

Or just using gearchange which I need to look more into. 

Thanks everyone!

    

I have a "gearchoice" component that energises one of two clutches in my lathe gearbox (and, also, a brake)

This is the old and simple version, the new version does on-the-fly shifts during rapids (but not feeds) but you probably don't want that. 

Are you running from real three-phase or from a VFD? 

I am running real three phase well kinda (Phase Perfect solid state phase converter). Having real 3phase here is retarded unless you are a dedicated shop running all the time.

My spindle drive has the contactor on the motor side to change the winding configuration. I just need to tell the spindle drive to close the contact when M3 < 500 RPM and confirm that it is closed.

There is an input on the spindle drive which will energize the contactor coil, and there is a switch on the contactor to confirm that the contactor has closed. I have my control wired up and ready for it. I just need to decide which way to attack this, I rarely ever needed to run below 500RPM so it was always a back burner issue.

I had also thought about a M3 remap. I do not know if this machine did it on the fly in the past, I am going to go conservative on this and say that the spindle should not be energized during the winding change.

I will go check out "gearchoice"

Thanks Andy!