Upgrading a Prototrak Mill to Allin1DC

[apm]

I finally got together the budget, time and resolve to retrofit a dead a prototrak knee mill after thinking about it for years now. The old DC servos check out ok, and I am leaning towards changing out the encoders to usdigital E6 with 10000CPR which should be overkill, though I am still open to other recommendations.

My plan for the machine is to upgrade to the Allin1DC and then more or less use it as a prototrack 2 axis mill in a hybrid CNC/manual mode. My thoughts are crank the table to a position and use conversational programming to do bolt circles, radius, slots etc...Most of my parts are rather simple geometry. I build model steam engines and all the prototypes predate CNC so geometries were simpler back then. I may down the road try to add a 3rd axis but for now I am excited to get 2. One of the first parts I want to make that would actually require something beyond conversational programming would be the following;

Would a part like the one above be covered on the CNC12 Free v5.0+ version or require upgrade to the millpro.

In evaluating the table of options I am having a hard time imagining beyond the line limitations in the free version software ever needing 1/10th the features covered by the pro version.

Next question, Southwest never equipped the machine with limit switches for how I want to use the machine, I am ok with finding 0 off a vise corner for example am I going to find I want them? If so any recommendations for the correct ones to use that will stand up to service on a milling machine? What happens without limit switches if somehow I had a crash? I would hope things would be limited to over currenting and that would be it?

This may turn into a build log, however it is going to be somewhat of a slow one, as I am going to be working on it with my father who has limited time until late March but is also an electronics engineer with 40yrs experience to help me along.

[cnckeith]

count on ordering the Mill Pro license. the free version of software is really only intended for schools and for integrators to be able to setup and get a system running without a license file.

there are alot of good choices for limit switches out there. depends on your budget. there are some cheap prox switches that alot of users are using that work quite well.

you don't need to install limit switches with the allin1dc , you can use "home to marks" which is pretty cool,
to home the machine you jog it to a set of marks you make (could be metal tags or dogs align to marks etc.) and then CNC12 will back the motor up slowly and look for the marker pulse (special encoder pulse that happens only once per revolution) on the axis servo motor. this results in very nice accurate homing without limit switches. since you don't i use this method on my allin1dc machine.

[polaraligned]

Yeah, I would put limit switches on the machine. Not worth the risk of destroying a ballscrew.

[lavrgs]

you don't need to install limit switches with the allin1dc , you can use "home to marks" which is pretty cool,
to home the machine you jog it to a set of marks you make (could be metal tags or dogs align to marks etc.) and then CNC12 will back the motor up slowly and look for the marker pulse (special encoder pulse that happens only once per revolution) on the axis servo motor. this results in very nice accurate homing without limit switches. since you don't i use this method on my allin1dc machine.

Is this covered in the manual - first I've heard of it

[cnckeith]

you don't need to install limit switches with the allin1dc , you can use "home to marks" which is pretty cool,
to home the machine you jog it to a set of marks you make (could be metal tags or dogs align to marks etc.) and then CNC12 will back the motor up slowly and look for the marker pulse (special encoder pulse that happens only once per revolution) on the axis servo motor. this results in very nice accurate homing without limit switches. since you don't i use this method on my allin1dc machine.

Is this covered in the manual - first I've heard of it

it is in the cnc12 operator manual, but not very well explained.

and machine home at power up is covered in the allin1dc manual (which is in the middle of an update) as well

[cnckeith]

Machine home at powerup selections:

Jog = User manually jogs the machine to a home position and presses cycle start to set home at that position. No automatic motion.

Home Switch = User presses cycle start and CNC12 runs the homing g code program (cncm.hom) to seek home switches for each axis, once tripped cnc12 clears the switch then if so equipped seeks the axis motor encoder marker pulse or ZRi and sets Machine Home at that position.

Ref Mark-HS = User jogs the machine and visually aligns physical reference marks on the axes and them presses cycle start. If the machine is equipped with axis motor encoder marker pulse CNC12 will seek out the marker pulse and set home at the marker pulse location. If not, CNC12 sets home at the marks.

Notes:

- While Hard Stop homing does work for certain Allin1DC systems it is not recommended and is being deprecated.

- Be sure to set the CNC12 home and/or limit switch inputs and software travel limits that work in conjunction with the homing method above.

- Refer to individual CNC controller Installation manuals for more information (Acorn, AcornSix, Hickory, Allin1DC, Oak etc)