shoptask turnado lathe to acorn

[KevinTaylor]

I purchased an acorn board, all in one acorn pc and lathe pro license some time ago specifically for a shoptask turnado cnc lathe conversion. I just received my lathe and feel a little overwhelmed with what I had planned here.

The shoptask lathe came with all the steppers a vfd and a gecko g540 running mach 3 and a dro. My plan is to convert it over to acorn (That was my plan before I even purchased the lathe).

The way its set up as of now, the 220 power line powers everything, the computer, the dro, motor, vfd... everything.

I have looked through the various acorn schematics offered. Before I got the lathe and could look at things I decided the ones that would work best are the ACORN_rev4, Generic VFD schematic and ACORN_rev4, GECKO G540 AS STEPPER DRIVE ONLY WITH ACORN INPUTS AND OUTPUTS. With this setup I am assuming I have everything I need and dont need to purchase anything else.

Today as I was looking at everything, I became pretty overwhelmed with the project. I have taken a couple of hours to take a few steps back and think about it all and how to proceed.

I think maybe I am little overwhelmed by it all is because it is currently all set up to run a certain way with mach 3 (plug and play). And if I just gutted everything and started fresh with the schematics offered by centroid things might not be so bad?? So I have decided I may need help from this board to get up and running. I plan on seeing this project through. So here are my first questions:

1. Should I try and keep the 220 power in powering everything, or just have a 220 for the motor, another 110 for the pc etc??

2. Am I correct with the schematics I have chosen (ACORN_rev4, Generic VFD schematic and ACORN_rev4, GECKO G540 AS STEPPER DRIVE ONLY WITH ACORN INPUTS AND OUTPUTS), or is there a better way? Which schematics should I be looking at if the ones I chose are not good for my application?

3. Should I just gut it all out and start fresh? Is that how you would approach this?

If you just read all that, thank you very much for your time and any help you can give.

[Dan M]

Post some pictures of the electronics in the cabinet as well as the VFD.

[rangerboy347]

Once you get into it's pretty simple best way to use terminal boards and distribute power and grounds there is some videos also to help ya. But since vfd uses 220v brat to just keep it that way and just use one leg to get 110v. I have a g540 running one of my CNC mills works good for me. There are plenty of people here to help ya get it going.
Joe

[tblough]

PC should be able to run on 220V so probably simpler just to have one voltage in the cabinet. The generic VFD schematic is a good start, but will probably need to be changed to match your particular VFD. You should be able to reuse the disconnect, terminal strips, and fuses within the cabinet, but photos will let us give you a much better idea of what to keep and what to toss.

[brittfussel]

May 31, 2019

Kevin

I'm in the process of converting a Shoptask Mill-Turn to use the Centroid Acorn board so I may be able to help you. From the pictures on the Shoptask website the Turnado appears to be a decapitated Mill-Turn. Unfortunately, I'm out of town and not near my machine until Monday afternoon so I'm writing this from memory.

A couple general thoughts. Your choice of schematics is correct as that is what I used. You will probably need to re-wire the e-stop switch. On my machine the e-stop cut the power to the entire machine rather than providing an e-stop function to the Gecko 540. Wire the e-stop as identified in the Centroid schematic only controlling the e-stop function to the Gecko 540 and the Acorn board as shown on the schematic. If the Turnado includes a stepper enable switch like the Mill-Turn you'll need to wire this in series with the e-stop switch.

You will only be using positions 10, 11, and 12 on the Gecko 540 (I need to confirm this but from looking at the Gecko 540 diagram that sounds correct).

I'm assuming Shoptask is still using the Nowforever VFD. The Acorn board will provide the analog 10 volt signal to the VFD. Don't use the VFD 12 volt voltage out connection. Use inputs COM and AIN1 on the Nowforever VFD for analog in from the analog out on the Acorn Board. You'll need to make a connection from one of the Acorn outputs to the X1 terminal on the VFD to control the forward direction of the motor. The spindle will not run without this connection (ask me how I know). Use another Acorn output to X2 for reverse if you want to. Connect a DB25 cable from the Acorn board to the Gecko 540. That should be all the connections you need from the Acorn board to the Turnado to make it work.

Power up the Acorn board, start CNC12, set up CNC12 with the wizard and you should be able to control the functions of the lathe.

Something you might need to consider is adding an encoder replacing what is basically a tachometer on the Trunado. You will need to do this to use constant surface speed turning and threading functions. I'm in the process of installing Omron encoders on my mill-turn. Then again, maybe they already started providing real encoders on the Shoptask product.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions.


Britt

[KevinTaylor]

Thanks for the replys so far.

Dan M, rangerboy347, tblough, It seems I need some pics up. Here goes.

brittfussel , The vfd I have is labeled as "veko". Although the shopmaster site still says the machines come with a now forever vfd. Not sure if they are the same or not. Any "google" attempts I make bring me no real clear results for a veko vfd. Also I have an omron encoder and the db9 connector for it. And yes you are 100% correct that the turnado is a "decapitated Mill-Turn". Its the same unit with the mill portion taken off. "Your choice of schematics is correct as that is what I used"... thats good to hear!

Based on what you are saying, if I am correct is, re-wire the estop and and vfd and connect the acorn and its all good?? This is kinda what I was hoping for and not having to gut all the electronics out and redo it all. But that wouldnt be a problem either. Maybe more time consuming but thats fine with me.

I will review your post again once I can get back in the shop tomorrow. Thanks for your help!

[brittfussel]

May 31, 2019

Kevin

The Veko may also be known as a Ronos. I found this link https://www.aliexpress.com/item/0-75KW- ... 97011.html Although it says the item is no longer available. Scroll down and you will see an image of the wiring connections. If you have not seen this it may help you with the wiring.

The Veko/Ronos inverter is physically much larger than the Nowforever inverter. In my case the VFD and contractor locations are swapped. They may have gone to the Veko inverter because of the 12 volt signal issues.

I'm in the process of replacing the Nowforever inverter with a Hitachi inverter. Just ordered it today. I was not able to get the Nowforever inverter to correctly set the speed of the spindle. I do not know if the Acorn board has the ability to control the spindle speed by closed loop once an encoder is installed. It would be cool if it did.


Britt

[tblough]

None of Centroid's controllers provide closed loop spindle speed control. They do use actual spindle speed to synchronize movement, but if you want exact spindle speed, you will need to use a spindle drive that incorporates its own feedback.

[brittfussel]

June 1, 2019

Tom

Thank you for the response. I was aware that the Acorn board did not have that capability but I was not sure about the other boards offered by Centroid CNC. I may be wrong on this but I thought that Mach3 had that capability. I never tested it during the brief period I had Mach3 running on my machine so I'm not real sure. At the time it only had what I would term a tachometer - it only measured once per revolution to obtain the rotational speed.

I'm having problems with the spindle running at the commanded speed. I think it's a VFD issue. My machine has the Nowforever inverter installed on it. I just ordered a Hitachi inverter. I'm hoping with the new inverter the actual speed will more closely correlate to the commanded speed.


Britt

[martyscncgarage]

I purchased an acorn board, all in one acorn pc and lathe pro license some time ago specifically for a shoptask turnado cnc lathe conversion. I just received my lathe and feel a little overwhelmed with what I had planned here.

The shoptask lathe came with all the steppers a vfd and a gecko g540 running mach 3 and a dro. My plan is to convert it over to acorn (That was my plan before I even purchased the lathe).

The way its set up as of now, the 220 power line powers everything, the computer, the dro, motor, vfd... everything.

I have looked through the various acorn schematics offered. Before I got the lathe and could look at things I decided the ones that would work best are the ACORN_rev4, Generic VFD schematic and ACORN_rev4, GECKO G540 AS STEPPER DRIVE ONLY WITH ACORN INPUTS AND OUTPUTS. With this setup I am assuming I have everything I need and dont need to purchase anything else.

Today as I was looking at everything, I became pretty overwhelmed with the project. I have taken a couple of hours to take a few steps back and think about it all and how to proceed.

I think maybe I am little overwhelmed by it all is because it is currently all set up to run a certain way with mach 3 (plug and play). And if I just gutted everything and started fresh with the schematics offered by centroid things might not be so bad?? So I have decided I may need help from this board to get up and running. I plan on seeing this project through. So here are my first questions:

1. Should I try and keep the 220 power in powering everything, or just have a 220 for the motor, another 110 for the pc etc??

2. Am I correct with the schematics I have chosen (ACORN_rev4, Generic VFD schematic and ACORN_rev4, GECKO G540 AS STEPPER DRIVE ONLY WITH ACORN INPUTS AND OUTPUTS), or is there a better way? Which schematics should I be looking at if the ones I chose are not good for my application?

3. Should I just gut it all out and start fresh? Is that how you would approach this?

If you just read all that, thank you very much for your time and any help you can give.

Late to the party....I've been pretty busy.
You are on the right track. Break the conversion down into subsystems. Work on each one, then move on to the next.
Simply taking a straight through cable and plugging directly into Acorn's DB25 without doing any DB25 remapping in the Wizard, should get you half way there with Z/X movement. Work on those, Set your Z/X steps per rev to 2000 and set up your Overall turns ratio and get those dialed in.

Then start working on the spindle system, figure out that VFD. Hopefully you find docs for it.
Keep us posted and remember, if you have any questions, post a report and screen shots of your Wizard screens
Marty