New Build King Rich KRV-3000 Knee Mill with GSK AC Servos DA98B driver

[dmbgo]

I got back to the mill today. I had an issue with the belt between my spindle and encoder running off, because the toothed pulleys that I used weren't perfectly lined up. In the end I put some 0.75mm thick washers under one side of the encoder, which had the effect of making the belt run up intead of down, it hits the top of the housing now, and can't come off. Not a perfect solution, but it will do until I find, or make, some 0.5mm washers.
I also had an issue getting the Spindle FWD relay on the Acorn relay board to close, I'd forgotten that you had to tell the Acorn what was on which output with the wizard.
There must be an Acorn installation manual somewhere that discusses these things?
Anyway, in the end, I copied tthe settings that I was using on the lathe and everything worked.
Knock off time now

[dmbgo]

Today, I upgraded the Acorn software on the mill to the latest version. I didn't do any screenshots etc, because I thought that at worst I could just restore a backup if I lost my settings. After all, it isn't a production machine yet. The upgrade did remove all settings, including the servo drives and spindle config that I had created. I haven't tried restoring a backup yet, but I am worried now that I will have to start from scratch.
Tomorrow will tell......

[ShawnM]

You CANNOT restore a backup from a different/older version to 5.06. When you installed 5.06 it automatically saved your old version. You can rename two folders and launch your previous version and create screen shots of all your settings. It takes less than a minute to rename the folders and run the old version. Then simply rename them back to what they are now to launch 5.06 and input all your old settings. Here’s a link to a post by Keith that explains how.

https://centroidcncforum.com/viewtopic. ... 304#p79304

[Gary Campbell]

You can restore a report, but only to the version that the report was created with. This will allow you to take screenshots of the wizard pages so that you dont have to lose your settings.

This is a bit out of the box, but its all in the upgrade instructions.

[dmbgo]

Thanks Shawn and Gary, I'm not usually this "gung ho" about cnc machines. I will do as you suggest and move on.
Cheers
Dave

[dmbgo]

Right, I've downgraded and restored a backup. Everything seems as it was before I went AWOL. Now to do the upgrade properly....

[dmbgo]

I've now got the spindle working well, under Acorn control, with the encoder readout matching the rpm value returned by an electronic laser speed measuring device.

This is where I need some advice:
The Acorn can now turn the AC servo motors.
Ditto the spindle, but before I start to bring it all together and start to adjust things like steps per mm etc, I suspect that I have to address things like coolant and other things that I probably haven't thought of.
So far I have just been getting things working with Acorn, but I'm wondering, is there a plan somewhere that details the steps to get a mill fully under Acorn control?
Here's a photo of the electrical cabinet on the mill, full of contactors etc, which I suspect can be reused?

[tblough]

Each one of those solenoids can potentially be controlled by Acorn. Figure out what each one does and then decide if you want Acorn to control it.

[dmbgo]

I'm not experienced at all with machine control electronics Tom, but I do know what a relay or contactor is. I assume that these are various implementations of these?
I know that the red device at the top is a Minotaur relay (mainly because it has it written somewhere), the others, the white ones, I think are electrical contactors that turn on various parts of the machine.
To give you a bit of history, I ordered the mill set up for a different cnc controller, because it already came with ball screws etc in that configuration, and it was a better way to go, than to buy the basic machine and start from scratch. I was confident that I would be able to set it up with the CNC controller of my choosing, because when I ordered it, I was "at the top of my game" so to speak. The day it arrived, I collected it from the freight depot and after it was unloaded I took off on an overnight camping trip with a friend. I woke up in hospital a couple of months later. I had been involved in a serious car accident, and had suffered a head injury a well as a few physical injuries. Anyway, that's all ancient history, but it might help you to understand why some of the questions I ask seem a bit naive etc. I've still got most of my memories from pre accident times, but I fell a bit "slowed down".

[tblough]

Sorry, didn't mean to come across as condescending. My point was that everything connect to those relays/contactors was something that was automated by the previous control. If you can trace the wiring to see what those were hooked up to, you'll have a good idea if you want, or need, to control them with the Acorn.

Once you decide what to control, we're here to help you figure out how to do it