Centroid Community CNC Support Forum

Greetings!
Recently finished this retrofit of a 90's vintage Bridgeport EZTRAK DX milling machine.
My uncle was contemplating an upgrade, but was in no hurry as the existing system was working well enough.
Then it started throwing errors that we couldn't recover from--the hardware finally died.
We settled on Hickory+Leadshine EL7.

We don't have many electrically operated components, but we wanted to be able to continue using the machine on spur of the moment in case the controller dies.
So, that's what many of the chained relays do for us.
If the hickory is live and operational, it can control the functions. If the hickory is dead, or otherwise malfunctioning, the functions revert to their manual control mode, or by disconnecting a relay board or removing power from the hickory, manual mode can be restored.
I used the base mill PLC program with a couple of tweaks: Outputs 17-24 are tied to the SoftwareNotReady_M bit, and the mist and the hand coolant controls override the software control.

Photo album here:

Where did you get the Elrod Z- axis kit now that he's closed down?

nice! thanks for posting, great to see these old bports still running.

tblough wrote: ↑Mon Aug 19, 2024 7:38 pm Where did you get the Elrod Z- axis kit now that he's closed down?

Servo Products Company makes the kit. One can buy one through there reps. I got a quote through Mac Mastercar it had a one month lead time. Ended up getting one ftom BP parts

Very interesting to see and will study the pics a bit closer.

I have the same Bridgeport EZTrak DX, Quill kit and an Allin1DC to install. It looks like you have a powered tool changer fitted which I'd like to add to mine. Have you the details of this? How well does it work?

I'm using the original X,Y servos but fitting new encoders, otherwise, more or less exactly as you've done. I also have a Maho MH600W I'll be upgrading shortly with a Centroid controller, just not sure which one yet, a job for next year.

Cheers,
Daniel