Retro-Fit Denford Router

[ngwagwa]

Never done this before, logging progress onlie as well as the retro-fit.

So I have a Denford Router that has been converted to Mach3 by previous owner.Since I have had it I have already fitted a Chinese 2.2kw water cooled spindle so now it is time to upgrade the control which at the moment is Mach3 with a cheap BOB and the original Baldor drive board.

After getting some great advice off theis forum the new setup will be UCCNC with an AXBB-E Motion controller and Stepper Motor Driver 6.0A, 80V CNC Microstepping CW806 stepper drivers powered with a hoe made PSU using a Airlink 500VA 230v to 2x45v toroidal transformer. The intention is to use as much of the existing electronics where possible.

Here is the control cabinet just after I started:
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[ngwagwa]

Progress after day 1. I have identified the X,Y & Z stepper cables and will identify the home switches later. My plan of attack is to disconnect and remove everythng that isn't going to be needed like the old Danford spindle controller. Hopefully I will just be left with the original power/relay/fuses (I did say hopefully)

Things are going well with the cabinet looking a lot emptier.
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Bending down inside a cabnet is not as easy as it was (you'll know when you get older) so some work has been done on the new control gear to give my back a rest
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[Clive S]

The attachments are not working

[ngwagwa]

The attachments are not working

Bugger they were - try now.

[Clive S]

Bugger they were - try now.

They are now. but would be nice to have them rotated

[ngwagwa]

[QUOTE=Clive S;116028]They are now. but would be nice to have them rotated[/QUOTE
how do I do that, they are the right way up on the PC?

[ngwagwa]

Not a lot of progress, having to stay home awaiting deliveries doesn't help.

Cabinet fully stripped of all unwanted items
27857

And a little progress on the new lectrics
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Still can't get the pictures the right way round

Next step work out the new wiring.

[ngwagwa]

Flashing lights and no magic smoke.

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I need to source some bigger terminals for the transformer to rectifier connection and a twisted ethernet cable as going via a hub is having issues connecting.
The UCCNC software imported the Mach3 setting but although it let me set the E-stop and probe pins and port it doesn't save the home pin or port (looks like I will be googling tonight)

Lessons learned today.
You can lose a screwdriver several times in a small space.
DIN rail connectors are not the easiest thing to get the end of a wire in.
An electricl schematic is no substitute for a wiring diagram for an amateur.

[Neale]

DIN rail connectors are not the easiest thing to get the end of a wire in.


One good reason why some of us use crimp-on ferrules! They make putting wires into DIN connectors and other difficult-to-reach places a whole lot easier, and less chance of odd strands shorting out on adjacent terminals. I used them for the first time wiring my own control box and I'm a convert. Other people reckon they don't make as reliable a long-term connection but I'm not sure I could have managed to get wires into all the connectors in my box without them.

[ngwagwa]

One good reason why some of us use crimp-on ferrules! They make putting wires into DIN connectors and other difficult-to-reach places a whole lot easier, and less chance of odd strands shorting out on adjacent terminals. I used them for the first time wiring my own control box and I'm a convert. Other people reckon they don't make as reliable a long-term connection but I'm not sure I could have managed to get wires into all the connectors in my box without them.
I did tin the ends of all the new cables I used and the old cables used already had crimp-on ferrules. I guess there's a knack to it which obviously I don't have.

[Doddy]

It comes with geriatric knees.

[ngwagwa]

It comes with geriatric knees.
Knees weren't too bad, it was everything else as the only way I could the job done was to lie on the floor.

[ngwagwa]

More progress today, fired up the toroidal transformer and started playing with UCCNC

The labelling of the pins on the AZBB Port 2 were baffling me until I realised that l1 was L1 and not 11 (eleven)and yes I did have my glasses on.

Getting the PC to see the AXBB on the network was a mission, as I haven't got a crossover cable I ended up using a spare router as a hub which was working but then UCCNC reported the connection was lost. Restarting UCCNC and it couldn't connect to the AXBB. Looking at the network status and even though UCCNC had exited there was still a few processes tagged as UCCNC with active connections, turns out that after UCCNC has terminated it takes a few minutes for all it's processes to stop. After waiting for the processes to stop restarted UCCNC and it didn't see the license so exited and lo and behold the UCCNC process is talking to the AXBB but only at a network level (blue link light on AXBB was off). These errors were consistent using both my NC PC running Windows 7 and my laptop running Wndows10. New PCI network card and crossover cable on order.