The manual is a bit of a pain but seems like your motors are AC Servos  200v with incrmental encoders  so if thats the case then you should be able to get other industrial type drives for them. As you have already mentioned that they are actually Yaskawas have a look on eBay and see if you can find any.

Wouldnt even consider dealing with PLC Center, I often have a look around USA eBay at servo drives and I just laugh at the prices they are looking for.

You could use some of the options I mentioned above, there is a section on this forum for the Galil and also the VitalSystems so check them out.

Hood

Hi,
 if its a cheap servo retro fit you want then use electric DC scooter motors,with cheap heds quad encoders screwed
to them,and the excelent Gecho G340 drives.
  No doubt there will be peaple who say it wont be any good,but I have built three milling machines using this method and each machine has worked perfectly.
   

Interesting idea.  If things don't work out I might talk to you about it further.  I found this link last night, http://homanndesigns.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=21  That board is supposed to do what I am looking for and at 30 bucks per servo drive that's a nice cheap fix if it works.  I emailed them this morning but don't expect to get a reply till sometime late tonight.

I'll let you all know what I find out.

Hi,
   sorry but thats not what you need! what that does is interface the main spindle motor (cutting head) to the computer.

Think the DigiSpeed is for spindle control only, dont think it will have close enough control of the voltage for an axis.
CNC Teknix sell Tek10 drives and the top part of the drive has analogue output from Step/Dir. I sort of tried it a while back, I put encoder pulses in  and watched the voltage out and it certainly acted properly as if it was seeing the motor turning without Mach telling it to move and trying to correct it. I came upon step/dir drives that were suitable before I could get it all hooked up properly so didnt test any further.
 I heard that Teknix were thinking of producing a converter board but dont know if it was true and if they have done so if it was. Might be worth emailing them, they may even sell the top board from the Tek10 drives seperately.
 I have a couple of the top boards here (Scotland) and could loan you one to test if you pay for the shipping. I would need it back though as I may have a use for it in a future project.
Hood

Hood

I should have known that was too inexpensive to be right.  I did talk to somebody else just a short while ago.  The man at Rutex said that this setup would do exactly what I wanted.  http://www.rutex.com/aus/index.php  I need pretty much exactly what you see in the picture, the three converter boards and the motherboard/breakout board.  The boards run 98.00 dollars U.S. apiece which is a bit more than I wanted to pay, but if it does what they say it does it will be more than worth it.

Is anyone familiar with them or with their products?

Not heard anything about them at all and dont know of anyone who has them. Ask Rutex if they can put you in touch with users.

Hood

I would ask them for a sugested wiring diagram,buy one and try it,probably your only option.
If it works you will save a lot of money,if not you just put it up on ebay and sell it on.

I'm debating just pulling the motors and the drives and selling all of them and going back with all different equipment.

Can't help with the drivers but I can help with the philosophy. [grin] I suggest you take some time, like a week or two before the "pull it all out" thing. As you say, you have something that might work as it is. The voice of experience here.

Dave

I tend to agree with you, I'm hoping to avoid the rip it out option if at all possible. 

I've done a bunch of looking around this evening and I could buy all 3 of the same servo drives I have except they are step input instead of analog for around 600.00 total on Ebay.  This would be a direct swap out without having to change wiring or anything.  I could then sell the drives I have now to recoup some of that expense. 

The other option is to buy the boards from Rutex and wire them in between my PC and the drives I have now.  That puts me out over 300.00 with nothing to sell.  Also it adds another layer of complexity to this system, something else to go wrong, as it were.   I liked the idea Hood had with the Dynomotion board, but it doesn't work with Mach3.

The first option is the one I'm leaning towards at the moment, it's the easiest, and depending on how much I could sell my drives for, could be the cheapest.  I'm not going to make a concrete decision till next week though.  I'm still waiting to get this thing to my house.  It's still on a truck somewhere driving across the U.S.    I just garnered all the information on the drives and the motors from the gent I bought it from before it was picked up.