Boxford TCL 160

[m_c]

Are you sure those tools are the correct way up to be on centre?
.
Normally rear mounted tools are upside down, so they still cut the spindle rotating clockwise, and I would of thought something aimed at training would follow that convention.

[Saracen]

Yup. All the Tutorials in the programming manual talk about running the spindle in reverse for turning and forwards for drilling.

Adrian.

[Saracen]

It turns out I was over-thinking this, as usual.

The inverter direction is controlled by two relays on the old Boxford driver board, one for each direction.
One end of the coil is connected to +12V. Shorting the other end to Ground activates the relay.

Using the Planet-CNC Output Board, I have connected the NC connection of Relay2 to the Boxford CW direction relay, and the NO connection to the Boxford CCW direction relay.

The common connection on Relay2 is connected to the NO connection on Relay1.

The common connection of Relay1 is connected to Ground.

When the Spindle enable signal is active on Output1, Relay1 connects Relay2 to Ground, activating the spindle.

The Spindle direction signal on Output2 determines whether the NC or NO connection on Relay2 is connected to Ground through Relay1, and hence which way the spindle turns.

No other wiring required :D

Adrian.

[Saracen]

Not much movement on the conversion front due to other, more pressing projects, though I do now have the old control panel jogging buttons wired up, so I can move things from the panel, rather than the PC.

Next task is to wire the turret motor control to an Arduino, so that I can use the old control panel "Turret Index" button to rotate and lock the turret once for each press.

Adrian.

[Saracen]

Arduino connected to the turret driver tonight and a quick hack of a program put together.

Three buttons have been programmed; the first moves the turret CW whilst pressed, the second moves the turret CCW whilst pressed and the third moves the turret round 45 degrees and backs it into the pawl.

Seems to work, but a few stutters in the rotation and the locking isn't even amongst the different tool positions.

Adrian.

[Saracen]

Wired up the index opto slot sensor on the spindle shaft to the Mk2/4 board. 12V power comes from the opto isolation board I'm using on the homing switches.

Spindle speed is now displayed, alongside the demanded speed, and they seem to be reasonably close over most of the range.

Adrian.

[Saracen]

I've decided to drop the Arduino method and just use gcode to change the tools. Much simpler wiring and seems quite straightforward.

However, this lead onto some problems with the turret. Sometimes it would turn and others it wouldn't, either backwards or forwards.

I've stripped it down tonight and found a number of things.

First is that you have to remove the X axis stepper to gain access to the hole through which you release the shaft of the turret stepper.

Having removed the turret and gained access to the cam and pawl, the seemed to be an excessive amount of force required for the cam to push back the pawl.

The pawl tension is adjusted by the screw which passes through a stack of disc springs. Backing that off just a little eased the pressure to the point where the turret rotated freely.

With it all apart, I've taken the opportunity to lubricate all the sliding surfaces.

Whilst putting it all back together again, I found that there should be two alignment dowels between the turret itself and the shaft which powers it. These are missing, so the only thing holding it in place are the four fixing screws. As there is some clearance in their holes, the slop I could feel when manually handling the turret were caused by it slipping on the shaft. Two 5x15 dowels are required to keep the turret true.

Adrian.

[keith wainwright]

Hello .I have just purchased to very same machine exactly like yours and it work very well.I have a Planet-CNC Mk3 board and hope to use this to connect to a pc with the planet software Could you help with wiring diagrams , plans or any info at all as i am an engineer and not very experienced at all with electronics. I don't mind purchasing whats needed but don't see the sense in scraping things that work so well. Please help thanks