Also this: http://www.mmsonline.com/articles/a-closer-look-at-look-ahead
Max.

Excellent article (and an old one at that... it's from 96!) ... thanks Max

 

Thanks for the link, Max. Sure brings back a lot of memories about the old days. The first machine I worked on used Friden tape readers and cross-bar data storage. It did have two storage registers for a very basic look-ahead feature. It reduced dwell marks in the finished part. One of the things about this machine that amazed me the most was watching it pick a 4-40 tap from the tool drum and tap 4 pre-drilled holes in a camera body. Watching it feed in, tap, reverse the, and feed out was amazing,

 

I have retrofitted a few M/C's with control cabinets that size, now the MCU is about the size of a shoe box!
Max.

 

I was going to create a new "CNC" thread but then remembered this one. The title and OP seem pretty wide open so I decided to post here instead. If I need to make a new thread, let me know.

Anyway, I am starting on my first in-depth CNC project. I have retrofitted the 50HP DC spindle drive on an old Fanuc machining center (and programmed a PLC for it to communicate with Fanuc system) but that is the extent of my CNC experience.

A few months ago I got a bonus and promptly went out looking for a CNC mill. I had debated buying a manual mill and putting servos on it, but instead chose to get an original CNC with old controls and retrofit to PC control. I happened upon this Lagunmatic 110 with Dynapath Delta 20 controls. The mill actually wasn't for sale; I was actually at the guy's shop to look at a Fanuc Robodrill he had for sale and spotted this one. He said he hadn't considered selling it, but since I was interested he said "how much you offering?" I said I had no idea what it was worth and for him to name a price. He said $3200 (a bit more than my bonus money). That is not a bad deal at all in my area (dry state for machine tools). He had previously upgraded the DC servos to Fanuc AC servos and installed Allen Bradley servo drives. Even the spindle drive he upgraded to a 2.2kW AC servo. That gear alone is worth more than $3200. I bought it and had no money left, so it has been sitting in my garage unloved for months.

Now that I've recovered from that spend I am ready to upgrade the controls. The Delta 20 system actually still works, but I don't want to work with it. (I will be selling it soon if anyone is interested). I am currently installing LinuxCNC on an old desktop as I type this. I have Mesa 7i77 and 5i25 cards in the mail should be here next week. This is going to be fun!

 

Well.. I've done several automated measuring machines, the last one was a $200K project. Right now I'm finishing a $120k CNC dual-head drilling machine that's destined to an automotive harness assembly facility in south america that has a work area of 4' x 25'. The machine is 33 feet long and 5-1/2 foot wide. I designed every single part of it, except for the servos and spindles of course... and several linear motion components. I also designed and programmed its motion control circuitry and software.

Hi,

Congrats!

I was building one several years ago but got tired of working on it. It's a lot of work really. It's a home made job where i used parts from old ink jet printers plus controllers i designed myself and some other hardware.

Dont know if i will ever finish it, but i do know the work that goes into it and it takes a long time if you do everything yourself.

Mine is also much smaller, about 3 feet by 3 feet by maybe 2 feet high.

 

I have retrofitted the 50HP DC spindle drive on an old Fanuc machining center (and programmed a PLC for it to communicate with Fanuc system) but that is the extent of my CNC experience.

This is the problem with Fanuc, the PLC (Fanuc PMC) is built in, as in just about all CNC controllers, But with Fanuc you need the eprom programming unit, One advantage to many others such as Mitsubishi etc, the PLC is available to be programmed/modified, on screen if necessary.
Max.

 

This is the problem with Fanuc, the PLC (Fanuc PMC) is built in, as in just about all CNC controllers, But with Fanuc you need the eprom programming unit, One advantage to many others such as Mitsubishi etc, the PLC is available to be programmed/modified, on screen if necessary.
Max.

It was a simple problem. The spindle speed signal from Fanuc system to the old drive (Hitachi? IIRC) was a 12 bit digital signal. As in 12 separate digital I/O. The new Bardac drive wanted a +/-10v signal. The plc program was the simplest one I ever wrote. 1 rung. Treated the whole DI card as a channel, with a MOV command to an analog output. Then scaled the input signal in the drive (6v full scale I believe). Putting a full-fledged PLC in there just as a signal conditioner was a bit overkill but was the only thing I could make work on-the-spot and the customer gladly paid to have the machine back up and running with no downtime waiting for parts.

 

On the dinner table last night I got my Mesa boards connected and communicating with LinuxCNC.

This morning I gave a final farewell to the old 1988 Dynapath system.

One last peak at the rat's nest old system.

And then comes the purge.


Anyone interested in buying this old fossil system?

 

Ok, all done!

(Except for the wiring, tuning, and programming LOL)

 

Ok, all done!
View attachment 133311
(Except for the wiring, tuning, and programming LOL)

So you'd say you got the 80/20 ?
'Cause that last stage you've just mentioned will probably cost you dearly...

 

So you'd say you got the 80/20 ?
'Cause that last stage you've just mentioned will probably cost you dearly...

80% of visible observable change accomplished in the first 20% of the project? Yeah that's about right LOL.