Starmill

[Phil Gravett]

Anbody know what steppers are fitted to a Denford Starmill? I am having dfficulty accessing all but X axis and that has no plate on it. Cheers Phil.

[Jonathan]

Just done a bit of googling, does this help:

http://www.denfordata.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=2531

Maybe post on that forum?

[Phil Gravett]

Just done a bit of googling, does this help:

http://www.denfordata.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=2531

Maybe post on that forum?

Yes this may be of some help. I am trying to identify motors so I can get new control 'board/box. I have already posted on Denford site and am getting help there but all is much appreciated. Thanks and happy New Year ( unless you have other Plans) Phil. (Philcraft Steam)

[i2i]

do you have the old or new starmill, control panel on the front and electronics underneath, or electronics in a seperate box.

[i2i]

on the newer starmill it's a cetronics dynamics HY-200-2220-210-A8 on the x and y axis, and a cetronics dynamics HY 200-3424-310-A8 on the z axis. They may be the same on the older one.

[i2i]

Yes this may be of some help. I am trying to identify motors so I can get new control 'board/box. I have already posted on Denford site and am getting help there but all is much appreciated. Thanks and happy New Year ( unless you have other Plans) Phil. (Philcraft Steam)

What's up with the original board?

[Phil Gravett]

do you have the old or new starmill, control panel on the front and electronics underneath, or electronics in a seperate box.

Control panel on front with jog wheel mini data screen stop button ect. Big box at back with main controls as pic one. pic 2 is side of machine with tool changer. Phil.

[Phil Gravett]

What's up with the original board?

I was running it quite happily on a BBC. Slow and rather frustrating at times, especially when trying to go between machine control and editing. Then one day I switched it on and it would not establish link to computor. I spent some time checking leads connections etc. I tried several desktops using win98 to XP. and software from Denford forum site all to no avail. I have just assumed that the main board was gone but no way to check. To cap it it all, I converted an emco 5 cnc to Welturn and it worked brilliantly with very little problem and just £300. I wish there was an equivalent board for Starmill. I was hoping to use existing motors' drives and PSU with perhaps Gecko 540. I have been advised that to get Toolchanger and Spindle control working with Mach 3 is hard, and I really wanted machine at least as useful as it was before. I have been putting this off for some time but using my old Victoria for some of the small componants used on my engines is def' a Walnut job! Thank you for your time. Regards Phil.

[i2i]

converting to mach3 isn't that hard and you can still use the original drives and psu's. The toolchanger is going to be the awkward bit, but it can be done. Have you tried another bbc.

[Phil Gravett]

converting to mach3 isn't that hard and you can still use the original drives and psu's. The toolchanger is going to be the awkward bit, but it can be done. Have you tried another bbc.

No I haven't tried another BBC although I do have one.

To be honest, I think the time has come to bite the bullet and make it a better machine. As I said, the Beeb was frustrating and the software left a lot to be desired. Just two examples were that it always went back to original datum point each run, regardless of where it stopped. And you couldn't edit programs without coming out of machine control and re datuming each time. Regards Phil.