[LandCruiserLuke]

First off, sorry for testing everyones patience.

background: I apprenticed for two years in a Tool & Die shop, learned probably just enough to be dangerous. I have a pretty good understanding of electrical circuits, not as much with electronics. I trouble shoot heating and cooling equipment for a living. I know how to use a DMM, etc.

I know so little about the machine I just bought that I don't even know what terms to search to begin learning.

What I know is that I have a Bridgeport 2J head, (208, 3 phase) with a Boss XT control system, was upgraded from stepper motors to servos. It came out of a mold shop and it has trouble in the Z axis. Twice in 8 months the Z ran wild. Once (March of 2007) it ran up so hard that the quill jammed itself up into the head and required substantial disassembly to free it. Then it ran everyday for production use until October 2007, when it ran down and buried the tool into a $70,000 mold. The mold was salvaged, but the tool shop lost confidence in the machine. They figured they could have a new mill for $25K, and be done worrying about when this one was going to cost them more than that in damage.

The information I have is that it has been upgraded several times with Bridgeport upgrades, it now has a CRT with a keyboard, a new mother board and recently had $600 worth of software upgrades.

They, and I suspect, that the Z axis encoder is failing. They didn't have the time or the inclination to troubleshoot it at all, so I got it for $600! I figure I can make it work somehow, even if it requires retrofitting on a new control system.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. And again, sorry for such newb questions. I'm a moderator on one of the LandCruiser forums and I sometimes get annoyed by this type of clueless initial post. (Maybe now I can understand that some guys who want to know, just don't have the information yet.)

Thanks, Luke

[dewme5]

I'd say you got a good deal.

If the machine has had 2 problems in the last year, how worried are you about those two problems right off the bat? Converting a system can cost a good deal depending on what equipment you use.

Encoders aren't all that expensive to replace, especially just one.

Are you sure it was the machines fault, and not a bad code?

I would assume the system has a good portion of what you need for the conversion already. But some of it is proprietary, and getting to work with 3rd party applications or hardware could be an issue. That part, I have no way of knowing.

Software to run it, there are lots of options. EMC is linux based, and free. Mach3 is windows based, and doesn't cost too much.

Power supply, you should have that already.

Motor drivers. I like Gecko's, but what you have just might be able to work.

Motors and encoders. You have those now, but suspect one might be bad. If you had a way of replicating the problem, testing the encoder would be as easy as swapping z for x or y, and trying to make it happen again.

The problem could possibly have been a noise issue from some other equipment, or power variance that you won't be able to reproduce at home. I would say you run it like it is until you personally find it to be a great problem.

For the nuts and bolts side. A complete conversion on a smaller machine, building my own power supply cost right at $1000.

[LandCruiserLuke]

I guess I'm not that interested in converting it- I'd rather try to troubleshoot it and unless the parts are prohibitively expensive (or not available) repair it. I guess converting would be a distant second choice for me at this point.

Probably I need to get it wired, and begin to play with it. I have no tool holders for it (I think they are BT #30) and I only have a cheap Taiwanese vice for it. Maybe just make some simple routines and "run" them above the table with a lot of clearance, in case it wants to run the quill into the deck. I suppose if it failed twice in 8 months of regular use, it would fail for me about once every 10 years at the rate I intend to use it.

Anyone have any tips and tricks for troubleshooting? Or better yet, a guide to troubleshooting?

Thanks again, Luke

[dewme5]

I'd first look for obvious "wrong" things. loose wires, bad connections, cold solder joints, loose cards etc.

I'm still thinking that it was probably operator error somewhere. Decimal point are wicked things.
G0 Z15 instead of G0 Z1.5 would certainly result in a bad motion, especially with heavier equipment and quick rapids.

[LandCruiserLuke]

I have all the original manuals. It is a Series 1 V2 XT. I also have a repair bill from CNC Service Group from Sharon Center OH. It got a new mother board at that time. Several errors were noted by the technician that suggested that the FMDC3 and RSRS cards be sent to Electro-Mechanical Integrators for evaluation. This report is dated June of 2007.

Can someone explain some of the above to me? Thanks, Luke

[LandCruiserLuke]

Alright- update time... I got it wired today and turned it on for the first time.
First thing on the screen said. Machine Check FAILED

The screen is really blurry, so it'll have to be replaced probably.

I tried to home the axes, by enabling axis drives (7), then home axes (8). Nothing. The sound coming from the control box does change pitch when I do this.
I also get a message that says "MSG Z OVERFLOW". (I'm guessing that has nothing to do with Monosodium Glutamate )

Is there anything obvious (to you, not to me) that I should be doing?

Thanks, Luke

[LandCruiserLuke]

Not to turn this thread into a stream of Lukes consciousness blog- but a thought just occurred to me...

I don't think I had the valve open for air pressure to the machine when I started this process this evening. Does that explain some of the above?

[5S Dude]

Not to turn this thread into a stream of Lukes consciousness blog- but a thought just occurred to me...

I don't think I had the valve open for air pressure to the machine when I started this process this evening. Does that explain some of the above?

Hi Luke, we have a V2XT too and before I can fire her up our air compressor has to build pressure before I can send her home. I think you can utilize a standard RGB 13" monitor and plug it right in if your's starts to die as well. Good Luck with your new project and keep us updated.