Emco PC Turn 55

[martyscncgarage]

I totally agree with what you’re saying...hopefully they see this and give it some consideration. I wanted to get some automated probe setup going as it seems super cool but I honestly don’t make much of anything and can live without it for now. I ended up buying a Haimer 3D Taster (Taster??? WTF? ) and it works great for what I need. Edge finders and all are just too much confusion for my lazy butt!

This is one of the biggest reason's I will not swap over with my mill. I have all those auto probe routines already setup (I use Screenset 2017 with UCCNC). I can click a button and do corner probing, angle edge finding, hole center, single edge (pretty much any probe routine you could ever need). Click another button and it will set the work Z zero and then move over to my touch off point on my table and set the offset for that tool. Then for each tool change during an Op, it prompts me to change tool, I click ok and it goes over and touches off with the new tool to the table and adds/subtracts the offset value automatically and continues on with the operation using the next tool. While I'd love to setup the Acorn on my mill and have consistency between my two major machines, no way I'm giving up all my probe routines for a Pro version that really isn't a Pro version. Funny part is UCCNC comes with everything the $400 package has for $50. So someone at Centroid needs to see they are missing out of a lot of potential customers by trying to push off the Digitizing bundle to people who just want the probe routines and macro abilities.

FYI, all I did was isolate my mill table by anodizing the work plate and T-nuts. So my spindle and work plate are electrically isolated. So one probe wire is hard wired to the work plate and another to the spindle via my mist/air nozzle mount. So i don't even have to clip on probe wires. If I can't use this on CNC12, then I see no point of upgrading, much as I'd love to ($400 isn't worth it when the $140 Pro should have it already).

I did contact technical support and voice my compliant about wanting probe routines and not digitizing. I've also requested several friends to do the same. The way I look at it, if enough people voice their issue with not wanting a digitizing bundle, just add the probe routines and macros, maybe they will get the message. If a company doesn't listen to customer feedback (within reason, which I think this is), then it really isn't a company I want to do future business with.

I think the point.was made long ago. Let's let this issue rest.
Marty

[Threedj16]

Yup, and I got my answer from customer service anyway. Looks like Lathe Pro is all I'll be using. So will continue my Emco lathe build.

[Threedj16]

I will add one more post to close this out and move back to my Emco build (which is nearing completion). After numerous email exchanges with CNCKeith, we both found out there was an error on the Acorn web page where you purchase the packages. He has since cleared that. The ability to write your own macros does come with every version including the free version. So I do appreciate him solving that problem and showing me the pages in the manual to create my own macros for probing. So that at least took care of half of my issue and I do appreciate the correspondence it took to explain that and the immediate updating of the website.

Now back to my build.

[Threedj16]

Well, all my in/outs seem to working fine, turret spinning, limits and estop......but my KL-5080H closed loop steppers from Automation Technologies are giving me fits. I wired them per Marty's video, 5+v jumpered to +pull/+dir and -step/-dir and I'm getting a 9031 drive fault on the Acorn. So I hooked up the Protuner to see if the drives would work there, the jump for a sec and fault out. Everything is wired per the manual, color code wires match up with the phase outputs. Manual states the pin configuration doesn't matter as they are not used. I also do not have enable wired, which the manual also states isn't required (and Marty didn't use it in his video). I've gone through everything several times, what am I over looking, as both drives are doing the same thing? LOL...seems like whenever I step up to something new (closed loop steppers), something always bites me. Probably something simple, but I am at a loss here. So any help would be greatly appreciated.

[martyscncgarage]

If you have nothing connected to input 5, go into the wizard and set it to unused.

Or do you have something connected to input 5? If so what? VFD?

[Threedj16]

Well, discovered it was a combination of things. Always best to start over and look at everything with fresh eyes after a break. Resetting to the default LeadShine after doing the benchtest setup made me realize a few setting were wrong between what I had and what is should have been. So I got some movement and the drives started faulting out. But how could one drive fault the other if only one was moving? D'oh, totally forgot I had swapped axis earlier and never swapped the encoder cables. Totally idiot mistake, but my space is very limited and tight. So hard to see and trace until you start pulling things out.

Now to finally start trying to get the calibration setup done for turns per mm.

[Threedj16]

If you have nothing connected to input 5, go into the wizard and set it to unused.

Or do you have something connected to input 5? If so what? VFD?

Input 1 and 2 are my NO homing switches (maybe I can find some replacement NC to fit the Emco). Inputs 3 and 4 are the hall effect sensors (NPN) that are mounted on the ball screw pulley (going to use for the dual homing). Inputs 5 and 6 are for my turret zero and each tool position and lastly input 8 is for my eStop. Only output I am using now is output 1 for the turret relay to move the tool forward.

Now I need to get those timing belts set correctly and figure out my steps per mm. Wish I had a better idea of the ball screw sized that came on the Emco PC55. Looks to be about a 2mm pitch. But I'll dial it in.

Then I can try out the homing routine one of your guys already wrote and the tool turret routines you'll have worked on too. For some reason I thought that the Lathe Pro comes with a Turret Wizard or something built in for it? Am I missing it (probably like I missed the encoder wires swapped...LOL).

BTW Marty, did you ever figure out which program to use and how to swap the alarm from NO to NC? I can't seem to find that option anywhere.

[martyscncgarage]

Open up wizard, look at your inputs. Which one is defined as drive fault?

You just change it from NO to NC or vice versa.
But I'm curious to know which input is defined as drive fault

[Threedj16]

Open up wizard, look at your inputs. Which one is defined as drive fault?

You just change it from NO to NC or vice versa.
But I'm curious to know which input is defined as drive fault

I had a typo in my last post. Input 7 is my drive fault. I had skipped over input 6.

I'd really rather swap them in the driver if I could. But guess it really doesn't matter.

Any word on the turret wizard or how I go about using that?

[Threedj16]

Well, I usually can't leave stuff well enough alone and wanted to find out how to swap alarm out from NO to NC. With a big WARNING....don't use the software from Automation Direct. Needless to say, I messed up the parameters of one of my drives using that crappy out dated software....ouch. Anyway, I remembered a Youtube video Franco did on important information about leadshine closed loop steppers and he was nice enough to have a dropbox with the new software (not sure, but think you have to install the Chinese and the English version for it to work....that's what happened to me). Anyway, simple factory reset and all is good again. Also, it was simple to swap from NO to NC with this software too. Of course earlier, I'd already wired it for NO and it was setup that way in the wizard. So I just left it alone. I know, a lot of trouble just to learn something....but hey, learning something new everyday is a great thing. Just glad it wasn't at the expense of having to buy another drive...LOL.

All axis working today, homing limits working, turret inputs working, output to move turret working....done for today. Tomorrow I need to adjust my hall effect inputs as they are no longer working (had to take off mounts today and didn't put them back correctly). Must have soldered up a lead wrong on my spindle encoder as it isn't working. Once I solve those two issues, then I can work on the dual homing setup. Hopefully by the next day I can finish building my back cover and get the fan installed. Then I guess it will be time to try and understand how to setup the turret file for auto changes.

Learned a lot today and OMG is there so much more I need to learn. Little by little.