Bridgeport Boss5 to Centroid Acorn retrofit

All things related to the Centroid Acorn CNC Controller

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Jr914
Posts: 50
Joined: Wed Dec 27, 2017 11:24 pm
Acorn CNC Controller: Yes
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DC3IOB: No
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CPU10 or CPU7: No
Location: HC Arizona

Re: Bridgeport Boss5 to Centroid Acorn retrofit

Post by Jr914 »

I did a Bridgeport series one about 12 years ago. I used all power supply components to provide the Gecko voltages stepper drives. Running from single phrase using a TECO VFD for the spindle motor control my Mod-Bus from Mach3 also made a added a four axis for my gear making. This old machine is still working fine. Good luck on your conversion. 👍
Tapburrbit
Posts: 24
Joined: Fri Jan 05, 2018 8:48 am
Acorn CNC Controller: Yes
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CNC Control System Serial Number: 429/9925 , first Boss 5 retro January 2018
5206, installed March 2022 second boss5 retro
DC3IOB: No
CNC12: Yes
CNC11: Yes
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Re: Bridgeport Boss5 to Centroid Acorn retrofit

Post by Tapburrbit »

Marty, Thank you for the suggestion and thank you for your excellent video's ! . I followed your links and the e510 is capable of having a braking resistor and it's about $50. more. When I'm at that stage and ready for it I'll give it try.
Tapburrbit
Posts: 24
Joined: Fri Jan 05, 2018 8:48 am
Acorn CNC Controller: Yes
Allin1DC CNC Controller: No
Oak CNC controller: No
CNC Control System Serial Number: 429/9925 , first Boss 5 retro January 2018
5206, installed March 2022 second boss5 retro
DC3IOB: No
CNC12: Yes
CNC11: Yes
CPU10 or CPU7: No

Re: Bridgeport Boss5 to Centroid Acorn retrofit

Post by Tapburrbit »

Jr914 wrote: Tue Jan 30, 2018 12:13 pm I did a Bridgeport series one about 12 years ago. I used all power supply components to provide the Gecko voltages stepper drives. Running from single phrase using a TECO VFD for the spindle motor control my Mod-Bus from Mach3 also made a added a four axis for my gear making. This old machine is still working fine. Good luck on your conversion. 👍
JR914, I think I've been thinking about doing this for more than 12 years. Thanks for the encouragement.
Tapburrbit
Posts: 24
Joined: Fri Jan 05, 2018 8:48 am
Acorn CNC Controller: Yes
Allin1DC CNC Controller: No
Oak CNC controller: No
CNC Control System Serial Number: 429/9925 , first Boss 5 retro January 2018
5206, installed March 2022 second boss5 retro
DC3IOB: No
CNC12: Yes
CNC11: Yes
CPU10 or CPU7: No

Re: Bridgeport Boss5 to Centroid Acorn retrofit

Post by Tapburrbit »

Saturday I Installed the DMA860E stepper drives . I followed the Leadshine DM schematic . It all went pretty well but, It did work at first. Green lights on the drives and no movement. CNC12 had a drive fault error . I figured out it was looking for NC signal from IN5 . I guess I could of changed it to not used but I thought I may need it in the future so I changed it to NO and the fault went away. But I still had no movement and I had no faults ???? . Turns out that the Drive ENA signal needs to be 0V to enable the drive not 5V. So I just disconnected it for now. I also routed the 5V power to the drives through relay 1 per the forum discussions of issues with multiple power supplies and acorn not running.

All three Axis are running. Also , In the right direction and homing properly after some tweaking. Using the default wizard setting of 2000 steps per/rev and the drive set to max output X-Axis will do 120 IPM , Y 100 IPM and Z 75 IPM before stalling .

Next up is Getting the spindle up and running again .
Side_Cab_stage_2.JPG
I meant to post the above on over the weekend and for some reason it didn't up load.

Since then I have run the machine all day yesterday ,observing it's accuracy running the sample boss panel program found in memory .
X and Y never missed a beat all day and would home to the to the axis registers ( the axis counters on the boss machines) . Z was another story. The program engraves lettering and does a lot of .100 rapid retracts. I couldn't see or hear it miss steps but the axis kept creeping down as the program ran and by the end it would be around an inch off. By mid day I started to decrease the max rate for the z axis to 60 IPM and I change the ACCEL/DECLL to .3 The X was already .3 and the Y and Z were set to .5 . After that the last two runs of the program seemed to be ok.

Question is , is ACELL/DECELL what' described as deadstart in the M400/M39 manual ? What is the value range and how does it correspond to the feed rate?

Another question I have about the Wizard is. In the advanced axis settings, What is the Inversion section ? I have and or need the step ,dir and enable checked for the axis's to operatate ?

I searched the forum and really couldn't find any explanations or discussions on these two topics. They probably deserve their own thread.
martyscncgarage
Posts: 9912
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Location: Mesa, AZ

Re: Bridgeport Boss5 to Centroid Acorn retrofit

Post by martyscncgarage »

Congratulations on your progress. You seemed to do the right thing with your Z axis. You may have to cut the max rate back a little more. Or get a bigger stepper. These days closed loop steppers are starting to become popular.

With respects to the inversion page. Some drives need to have their signals inverted. More particularly the enable signal. It's just a tool in the box.
Reminder, for support please follow this post: viewtopic.php?f=20&t=383
We can't "SEE" what you see...
Mesa, AZ
Tapburrbit
Posts: 24
Joined: Fri Jan 05, 2018 8:48 am
Acorn CNC Controller: Yes
Allin1DC CNC Controller: No
Oak CNC controller: No
CNC Control System Serial Number: 429/9925 , first Boss 5 retro January 2018
5206, installed March 2022 second boss5 retro
DC3IOB: No
CNC12: Yes
CNC11: Yes
CPU10 or CPU7: No

Re: Bridgeport Boss5 to Centroid Acorn retrofit

Post by Tapburrbit »

I cut The Z axis back a little more and ran it for two days last week. It repeated very accurately . If the gearing were 2:1 in stead of 1:1 I'm sure would run quicker and quitter . It' fine for what I do with the machine, usually just making face cuts. The Z rarely moves. Though , this centroid control is nice and I may want to use it more often for other jobs.

I ordered the Teco L510-202 the other day. I expect to get it some time next week. In the meantime today I powered up 2 larger relays. I guess they'll be my CR1 and CR2, with relay 1 on the acorn board and distributed power back CR3 and CR5 in the back cabinet. The spindle and the air speed changer work again And the emergency stop button shuts everything down. I guess I could actually use the machine this way. But I think it will be a whole lot better when the spindle is controlled by the acorn and VFD.
Tapburrbit
Posts: 24
Joined: Fri Jan 05, 2018 8:48 am
Acorn CNC Controller: Yes
Allin1DC CNC Controller: No
Oak CNC controller: No
CNC Control System Serial Number: 429/9925 , first Boss 5 retro January 2018
5206, installed March 2022 second boss5 retro
DC3IOB: No
CNC12: Yes
CNC11: Yes
CPU10 or CPU7: No

Re: Bridgeport Boss5 to Centroid Acorn retrofit

Post by Tapburrbit »

Just a quick update... Last weekend I installed the VFD . It hooked up an ran right out of the box without out any problems. Did't even have to change and of it's default parameters to get it running. Only parameter I changed as of now is stopping. I changed it from deceleration to coast. And Amazing enough is that the emergency stop button kills it and the air brake instantly stops it. I need to work on that happening on a normal spindle stop.
Then:
Next up when I get a chance is to get the coolant an lube pump running. Mount the monitor and keyboard on an arm . Get the control to some how know when the spindle gear is set to High or Low (I think that will require a proximity switch). Also need to check and make sure the machine will fault out and not feed if the spindle is not running.
martyscncgarage
Posts: 9912
Joined: Tue Mar 28, 2017 12:01 pm
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Location: Mesa, AZ

Re: Bridgeport Boss5 to Centroid Acorn retrofit

Post by martyscncgarage »

Sound great, moving forward is good!
Reminder, for support please follow this post: viewtopic.php?f=20&t=383
We can't "SEE" what you see...
Mesa, AZ
Tapburrbit
Posts: 24
Joined: Fri Jan 05, 2018 8:48 am
Acorn CNC Controller: Yes
Allin1DC CNC Controller: No
Oak CNC controller: No
CNC Control System Serial Number: 429/9925 , first Boss 5 retro January 2018
5206, installed March 2022 second boss5 retro
DC3IOB: No
CNC12: Yes
CNC11: Yes
CPU10 or CPU7: No

Re: Bridgeport Boss5 to Centroid Acorn retrofit

Post by Tapburrbit »

And moving still forward is even better.

At this point the machine is now ready to run a Job. Monitor is mounted. The air spindle brake if fully functional along with the coolant pump and lube pump. The lube pump seems to be running constantly though when the machine is cycling a job. I'm not sure if it's running time is set for a certain duration or not yet. Also I hooked up the float switch in the Bijur lube pump to an input that I designated (lube ok) and it seems to have no effect either open or closed. I guess these two issues require me to get into the software now ? Bridgeport originally wired the power to the lube pump through the float level switch which just made it shut off if the it ran out of oil. Should I re-wire it back that way and just keep my eye on the oil level ?

I'll post some more pictures when it runs it's first job.
ttlehto
Posts: 10
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Location: Tampere, Finland

Re: Bridgeport Boss5 to Centroid Acorn retrofit

Post by ttlehto »

On some other forum i read about this lube pump wiring and one option sounded reasonable. If there is a relay on VFD which is connected while the spindle is running, You could have automated lube pumping when the machine is really running. If the pump is always on, it might cause oli dripping from everywhere during a long setup job.
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