Bought an Acorn board already installed for a change, need a hand...

[AntsOftheSky]

Hey everybody,

I had the opportunity to buy a badass machine with Acorn already mounted up. It came as part of a deal with several other machines that need the control board mounted so this is my first order to get in service.

I can fire it up, get the machine to home, jog it around, get the spindle let go of the tool, rotate the tool carousel, even run basic MDI commands but barely. As I want to tune it up, I click into the Acorn Wizard and I get this error (screen shot below) about it running a program or being in MDI mode -- which it isn't. It asks me to update the program and I will but here the issues arise --

1) Optical probe stays on error mode -- anybody have experience here?
2) Spindle only spins to 16 RPM -- maybe because it believes it's in probe mode?
3) will run basic programs (glorified MDI commands) but kicks back or refuses to run even slightly complex ones.
4) Some erroneous wires -- not extremely concerned just if anybody recognizes them, that would be great.

My first thought is to update CNC Mill and maybe even replace the entire computer. However, I want to do this without doing damage to what already works and not need to put tons of work into getting this machine into service. Is there a way to make a backup that I'm just missing? Also, I don't have access to the licenses so this scares me to swap computers.

I've attached photos and uploaded the report. Any help is extremely appreciated as I don't want to be just stuck to installing Centroid boards into brand new machines or just retrofits with all the wires pulled...

[AntsOftheSky]

A few other shots to show that wouldnt go on the first post

[spikee]

You can do a quick check to see if it is in "probe mode" by going in the probing menu, pick a random probing mode and see in the bottom right if "probe detected, probe triggered) . You can also do it by going to Alt + i and see what the PLC inputs are doing.

[suntravel]

Did you use MDI while the Wizard is open?

Uwe

[AntsOftheSky]

Did you use MDI while the Wizard is open?

Uwe

Yes, I don't know why they didnt show up in the reports -- only a few erroneous commands did. I'm wondering if I generated the report first but I can't remember.

But I'm not currently issuing a command that would be a lengthy command THEN trying to open the Config Wizard... Not at all. As a matter of fact the first and only thing I did after firing the machine up was go into the wizard to see I/O's and tune steps.

You can do a quick check to see if it is in "probe mode" by going in the probing menu, pick a random probing mode and see in the bottom right if "probe detected, probe triggered) . You can also do it by going to Alt + i and see what the PLC inputs are doing.

I'm going to recharge the probe and do this today and will report back... Also, there is a "Probe App" button that doesn't do anything -- in the screen shot you can see the button between Mist and Reset Home

[centroid467]

This is on CNC12 V4.64 which is very old. It would be a good idea to upgrade to a newer version soon but I would first figure out why things aren't working. The Wizard error, if I am remembering correctly, is a bug in those older versions of software but also you can't run anything while the Wizard is open.

The report you uploaded is a suitable backup of the settings. You will need to manually enter the settings when you upgrade to 5.22 so I would look around in the report to get familiar with where the information will be.

It seems like this machine was being set up in 2021 and then not quite finished? We have a license on file for this Acorn from July of 2021.

1. I'm not the most familiar with the Drewtronics wireless probe but I would confirm that it is not putting out some kind of error signal or staying tripped when it is not. From the CNC12 main screen, press ALT + I and it will open up a PLC Diagnostics display. Your probe and tool touch inputs are inputs 2, 38, 39, and 40.

2. I would verify the settings on the VFD and go through the spindle bench test procedure as outlined in the Acorn manual. If the VFD settings seem correct and the Acorn analog output works with no load then there may be something else going on. Looking again, there is nothing connected to the Acorn's analog output header so the VFD is not getting any command frequency in the first place. Does the wire labelled A11 go to the VFD?

3. Does it give any kind of error message when trying to run a job? More details would be useful here.

4. It looks like the wires are all labelled on both ends so it should be possible to find out where they go.

[centroid467]

I'm going to recharge the probe and do this today and will report back... Also, there is a "Probe App" button that doesn't do anything -- in the screen shot you can see the button between Mist and Reset Home

Probe App is something @swissi made that was the precursor to C.H.I.P.S.. That button should be set to call the M58 macro which then opens up ProbeApp.exe which you will find in C:\cncm\probing.

[AntsOftheSky]

Probe App is something @swissi made that was the precursor to C.H.I.P.S.. That button should be set to call the M58 macro which then opens up ProbeApp.exe which you will find in C:\cncm\probing.

Noted on all points above, will tackle this today/tonight and get back

[AntsOftheSky]

Ok, Spindle is going, not sure of the belt ratio in the wizard and figuring out what's up top belt wise now through disassembly

[ShawnM]

The license file you mention is attached to the Acorn board not the PC. Your Acorn license file, license.dat, is in any report you generate.

A note about the PC, it does not meet the Centroid "minimum requirements" to run CNC12. When you install the latest 5.22 version it might be a good idea to get a new PC that meets those requirements to run the software. Could save you a lot of headaches down the road.