Helios Zeus 3300 machine control swap with sanmotion servo drives

[jimbit22]

A few pictures of a controller swap i just made on a Helios Zeus 3300 cnc machine with sanmotion servo drives.

The original control run a custom win 95 operating system and it was a pain to use.

The swap was not intrusive to the factory wiring because the customer wanted the option to revert back to the original control.

3 days start to finish for the swap and one week for the h/w prep.
Day 1 reverse engineering the machine.
Day 2 installation and operation
Day 3 wiring cleanup, screen enclosure mounting and operator training.

[martyscncgarage]

Thanks for posting. I assume this was an OAK conversion? Could you post a picture of the control cabinet?

[jimbit22]

Surprisingly no, it was an acorn conversion.

When i looked at this job i thought oak, but the servos are like steppers configured in a position loop without the possibility of feedback from the drives and the i/o of the machine doesn't ask much.

I added an ether i/o board for the many outputs i need.

The only downside i can see so far is the 4096 dac on the acorn for the 0-10v output. If there is a way to add a better dac i will do it.

The pictures are before the conversion. When i go over i will take some new ones.

[cnckeith]

Nice! thanks for posting, how is the customer finding the Acorn controller?

[jimbit22]

Sorry for reviving a 5yo thread but I hadn't seen your post.

The operator likes it very much. Especially the wireless MPG option.
When running long carving programs he sits in the office playing CSGo
and runs the machine by ear, changing feeds and speed through the MPG.

They have not reported a single issue with the electronics.
(a few communication faults due to the marble dust and humidity that cleared by cleaning the cabinet)

Before the retrofit it was sitting rusting away.
After the retrofit it has been working non stop..

[cnckeith]

great news! thanks for reporting back, i'll include this in the next centroid email newsletter!

also AcornSix has the "better DAC" you were looking for!