# Parker TQ10 Servo Drive.  Would it be useful for home cnc setup?



## 7milesup (Apr 19, 2021)

I thought about posting this on CNCZone but since I love you guys over here so much I thought I would try HM first.

I have a number of Parker TQ10 motor servo drives.  Bought them on an auction and slowly selling them off in order to buy shoes for the kids.

I have a Precision Matthews 833T mill that I would really like to convert to CNC at some point.  I know very little about CNC other than somewhat rudimentary concepts.  I know the difference between servos and steppers for example and am somewhat familiar with the software side of it.

My question is this.  Do I continue to sell these or should I keep 3 or 4 of them for myself.  I also have Kollmorgen PSR and Kollmorgen BDS5 sitting here.  Not sure if they would help my cause or not.


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## ahazi (Apr 20, 2021)

7milesup said:


> I thought about posting this on CNCZone but since I love you guys over here so much I thought I would try HM first.
> 
> I have a number of Parker TQ10 motor servo drives.  Bought them on an auction and slowly selling them off in order to buy shoes for the kids.
> 
> ...


My $0.02 - sell them. When you need buy a motor and driver buy a combination that will meet your needs.

Explanation - these were relatively high end drivers for when they were introduced. The technology moved forward and today you can get state of the art drivers at low cost. Some people might need these for some reason and are willing to pay a price so sell it as long as there is demand.

I designed and built industrial high power YAG laser machines with CNC motion system for cutting diamonds 30+ years ago. The technologies now are night and day compared to what was used then. I have a hard time throwing away some parts for nostalgic reasons but there is absolutely no value in these old technologies.

I hope this helps.

Ariel


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## 7milesup (Apr 20, 2021)

Yes it does Ariel.  Thank you!


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## macardoso (Apr 20, 2021)

I agree. You would need to match the motor and encoder to this drive. I have not dug into the details but I'd imagine based on the age that it might have run resolvers or basic optical encoders. Most higher end stuff nowadays uses digital serial encoders - typically magnetic.

For them to be useful to you, you'd need the method of programming the drive (possibly proprietary cables and software) and a method of providing a command to the drive (possibly proprietary network hardware and protocols).

To people running old equipment, having original spares is worth a fortune to keep the machine running. To you, modern servos will run laps around these in terms of features, power density, and performance.

If it were me, I would sell them for the most I could get, and then buy a low cost AC servo kit (DMM tech, Teknic Clearpath, etc.) typically ~$300 per axis to start. These are compatible with most modern CNC controls or can be controlled by network command. 

If you already have motors and cables, I can recommend some used drives that offer the capability to configure custom motor profiles (eg. Allen Bradley Ultra 3000). 

Most servo systems are designed to match a particular series of motor and do not allow you to use 3rd party motors - this is very different from VFDs.


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## spumco (Apr 21, 2021)

Yep, sell the TQ10's and get something new.  Ditto to everything above.

According to the Parker datasheet, those are torque-mode only drives that can only use differential analog (+/-10V) command signals and regular quad encoders for feedback.  They look pretty flexible as far as compatibility with a wide range of motors.  They've got 5A continuous and 10A peak output, which doesn't give much overhead for moving a Bridgport around at a decent speed.

However... the differential analog input is a killer.  The only easily-accessible CNC controllers that can control analog servos are LinuxCNC (with Mesa/Pico boards), Centroid (the expensive one, not Acorn), and probably Kflop & Galil.

If you had the TQ10SD version, which is step & direction...  then they might be worth thinking about.

The BDS5 is a full-blown motion controller servo drive; you can program it as a stand-alone thing, or control it with encoder (quad A/B) inputs.  Only takes resolver inputs, and has 6A/12A current limits.  Could be useful for some project as resolver servos are all over ebay.  But like the TQ10's it's not suitable for a DIY CNC application when you only have one.  And besides... can you get the programming software and have a PC old enough to run said software?  And the other thing is just a braking resistor for the BDS5.  Sell it to someone who actually needs it to keep their industrial dingus alive.

Unless you're willing to dive down a deep rabbit hole, they're at the fussy/fiddly end of the DIY CNC scale.  Sell them and get some used Ultra3k's and your choice of servos.


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