Very Exciting Boring Machine Conversion

[dustboy]

That worked, tried probing the DB25 and I got step/dir at the drive. Drive threw a following error with a jog command that resulted in no motion, but it's progress. I'll pick up a DB25 and go from there.

[martyscncgarage]

What worked? DB25
Following error is drive to motor tuning most likely, or you tried to rapid faster than the drive/motor might be capable of. Try to not slowly and work your way up. Were the drives and original motors kept paired?

[dustboy]

DB25 worked.

Old drives were Axor MiniSpeed 130s that had incompatible control inputs.

[martyscncgarage]

I still think you'll have less headaches with new drives and motors...

[dustboy]

Within 1 hour I had a response from Machdrive. Looks like I might have the step/dir active high/active low inverted. I had inverted it for testing then connected to the DB25 and didn't switch it back to normal. I thought the indicator lights were supposed to be lit, then flash when active, but they should be the opposite.

BRA to Acorn Centroid Connections.pdf

(282.71 KiB) Downloaded 132 times

I have to give major respect to both Machdrive and Centroid for their responsive support, I would highly recommend either product.

[dustboy]

Forgot I had this video of the Speedy 207 running flawlessly before I tore her apart. Gotta break an egg to make an omelette!



I am still having issues getting the x axis encoder to talk to the drive. Finally decided to hook up the Y axis for comparison, and it worked basically right away. Even got some decent motion using the wave generator in the drive’s tuning software.

So something is up with the x-drive or the encoder, or there’s just a bad connection.

[dustboy]

I ultimately gave up on the DC servos and went with Clearpaths on all 3 axes. They run beautifully, until I turn on the spindle, that is. I tried changing the VFD-spindle cable out for a fully shielded one. All 3 servos immediately shut down with a step timing error. I tried a different 24V power supply too. All signal lines are shielded.

I noticed there is continuity between the Acorn board COM and earth ground. I thought they were supposed to be isolated to prevent ground loops? I don’t have an AC neutral in the cabinet as it is 3 phase mains, so the Meanwell PS uses the ground bus for neutral.

As-built attached. The 1k resistors on the signal outputs are recommended by Teknic for longer signal runs. I wasn’t able to get the servos working consistently without them.

SPEEDY AS BUILT.pdf

(2.12 MiB) Downloaded 134 times

[martyscncgarage]

Please post pictures of your control cabinet...

[dustboy]

Still in the testing phase so it’s kind of a mess. Don’t judge.

[cncsnw]

The MeanWell RD-35B will run equally well on a 240VAC supply. If that is all you have available in the cabinet, then just hook two of your power legs. Do not use chassis ground as a power return path.