Fanuc CNC Upgrade path

Gentlemen,
I have been trying to bring back a Fanuc PowerMate "H" back from the dead.

I am now wondering if there is a upgrade path that can skirt me around 19+ year old electronics. I am wondering if I can get rid of the PowerMates, the A03-xxxx-xxxx amplifiers in lieu of something better-newer-easier to use. I would like to keep the servomotors.

I am not "stuck" on Fanuc although keeping their motors might leave me with their controllers? As a matter of fact, I am a little perturbed at their customer service.

Shoot me all your advice, it is all appreciated.

As far as I know, if you plan to keep the motors you'll have to stay with Fanuc amplifiers and controllers.

Back when there was a joint venture between GE and Fanuc, the CNC side of GE Fanuc dealt almost exclusively with OEMs. They didn't want the extra overhead that would have been required to support end users. Based on your experience it sounds like that mind set hasn't changed since the divorce.

The only reason I know as little as I do about the Power Mate is because I worked for a GE Fanuc PLC distributor and a couple of my customers were machine tool OEMs. Those machines often had PLCs in addition to CNCs, so I got involved in several projects that included PLCs and CNCs. On top of that, GE had a motion control module for their PLCs that could work with Fanuc amps and motors. We were also briefly authorized to sell the Power Mate H, and I sold a grand total of one system with a Power Mate H before they decided to yank that product away from us. In fact, now that I'm self-employed I still support the machine. The application could have easily been handled by a PLC with the motion controller module, but the end user wanted his part programs to be written in G code and the PLC motion module couldn't handle that.

How many axes are the Power Mates controlling? GE Intelligent Platforms still sells a motion module for the RX3i PLC that works with Fanuc motors and amplifiers. It isn't a CNC controller, but if your application isn't too sophisticated you might be able to use it. Other than that, I don't know of a non Fanuc controller that works with Fanuc motors.

Russ still works for a GE PLC distributor, so his knowledge is more current than mine. Perhaps he'll have some alternative suggestions.

Steve, Thank You

Steve, the first PowerMate is controlling 6 axes with a single encoder feedback. The second PowerMate is controlling 3 axes and it has 3 Hi Speed Counters running back to it on the JD1A1 port. The third PowerMate is controlling 1 axes with no feedback on the PowerMate itself.