I have a 1995 Roland PNC-2500. As you can guess this became a orphan in about 2000. It last ran on windows 95 on artcam. It is a very stoutly built machine with a cast aluminum frame and ball screws to drive all the travelers. It also has a 110 volt brushless spindle with nema 24 stepper motors. The the controller ran on a proprietary Roland driver that they would not update. So we ended up with a 150 pound paper weight . What I would like to do is use the Blackbox to replace the Roland controller. I'm in Tigard Or if there are any people interested in communicating with us with any suggestions, or if you are just interested in refurbishing your own unit, let's talk. Good making and have a great day.
The Blackbox would be a real simple solution if your power supply is 24V. Or buy a 24 V Meanwell power supply along with the BlackBox. Do you have any stepper motor specs?
I don't have the specs for the stepper motors with me. I will be back at the shop in a month. I will dive in then. The unit was a special build at the time so there aren't many out there . I'm sure it will need a new power supply. I would like to keep the spindle motor but specs on how the power supply are not available at this time. I will know more as I tear it down. Thanks for the reply
When you look at the steppers make sure they are able to be wired as '4 wire bipolar'. Some rare steppers have only 3 coils, and some have 5, and those will not work with the BB.
Thanks swarfer for the steppers information i will check the wiring. I believe the bolt mounting pattern will be the same if I need to buy new steppers. If i remember correctly i did look them up and thay needed 24 volts and 4 amps. Silly of not to record all his information last time I had the power supply apart. At that time there wasn't a simple solution to replace the main board. I will post pictures once I'm back at the shop. This was a very nicely over built machine. It will be nice to get it running again. I really appreciate the information everyone is giving me.
I agree with you. I was just comparing the build I saw come out on the next generation that Roland built. The Roland 3000 was small mill that people have bought and refurbished. It is well built but suffers from the same software problems that the 2500. Thanks for the info. If you have suggestions on other threads please forward them to me. Greg
