I just purchased a used 1992 Partner 4 D (maybe S as I get conflicting info from Milltronics) with supposedly a Centurion V control. It has been without power for a while, and hopefully won't be a huge issue to bring back to life. I won't have my hands on the machine until the end of next week, so maybe most of this wll be answered when I can delve into the guts of things.
Little of my history, used to own and run an Aerospace machine shop with a multitude of CNC equipment from Hardinge Conquests with Fanuc controls, mills with Fanuc's, a Fadal, and even some old Shizuoka's with Bandits and Hardinge CHNC's with Allen Bradley controls. Was in a car accident back in '91 that put me in a wheelchair and sold off all the machine shop. About 10 years ago, picked up a Deckel manual milling machine, FP1, to putter around with and now wanted to get another CNC to produce a few ideas I have.
This machine is stored where I can't get around it to see the electrical panel in the back, is this where the "computer" resides, along with a floppy drive? And hopefully a secondary keyboard access point? I have gotten the hardcopy build sheet from Milltronics (awfully nice people by the way, very helpful and knowledgeable) that lists the parameters, so from previous messages on this forum it would appear I can install them (if necessary because of length of time with no power) either using the control key pad or a secondary keyboard (if I am understanding this correctly). What format of a file are the parameters on floppy, is this something I could sit and type in a text file and put it on floppy?
Regarding the power, don't have three phase, this machine has no variable speed dial, so I'm assuming that the spindle is VFD driven and from what Milltronics is saying, that VFD can be powered by single phase, anybody done this? Also, what's involved separating out the 110V requirements for the computer, and are the drives powered by 110V or 220V single phase? Or is it even necessary if the VFD will run single phase, just hook up two leads and I'm off?
I have no idea on the conversational programming, I know g-code inside out, but would like to try the conversational aspect, from what I've seen posted, it's well liked and useable. Is there any place to find out about this programming shy of buying the programming manual from Milltronics at $150? Is the conversational something I should be able to pick up just fooling with it, or would the manual be worth it?
I'm sure I'll have lots of other questions, but that should be enough for now. Oh a couple of pictures... if I do this right....