Need help with Triac VMC

All info relating to the Denford Triac series of CNC milling machines

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acephalia
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Joined: Tue 10 Apr , 2007 1:55 am
Location: USA

Need help with Triac VMC

Post by acephalia » Tue 10 Apr , 2007 2:08 am

Hi, I just got a triac VMC (2001) with ATC at a liquidation sale. I have some trouble operating the machine. The built-in PC powers up, and Windows loads fine. Pressing any buttons at this time on the control panel, doesn't do anything. I figured I needed to launch the control sotware. There are a few desktop icons: CNC-mill, CNC-tutor, and VR milling. I tried each one of those and no luck. I get "RS232 timeout" message that flashes once a second. I opened up the controller box, and the motion controller's LED display has "S" on it. Any suggestions, thoughts, or general help will be greatly appreciated!

UPDATE: I just tried powering it up again, and cheking the controller LED without launching the software. First the LED reads: ".L", with "." flashing, then it settles to "S" - which I suppose means "Stop". Now, I know for sure the emergency stop is NOT enagaged (i checked and rechecked, and then checked some more). I noticed that the spindle drive board's LED is not lit. Farther investigation showed however that if the white square button "ignore limit switch" is pressed the driver board does light up. My hunch is that the controller sences "E- Stop" and disables the spindle drive, among other things. Thanks again for any info you can pass on!

Mike.

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Mr Magoo
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Post by Mr Magoo » Tue 10 Apr , 2007 11:17 am

You're right about the "S" indicating E-Stop. All the axis limit switches are wired in the E-Stop circuit in series and so one of the axis is at its extreme travel and sat on a limit switch.

Solution: Either
a) wind the axes ballscrews by hand away from the limits or
b) keep your finger on the axis limit override push button whilst you power up the software, select "machine control" mode and ask the machine to go Home.

BTW, I suggest you use the VR Milling software - You'll get more support for it here as it's better known and generally more reliable

acephalia
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Joined: Tue 10 Apr , 2007 1:55 am
Location: USA

Post by acephalia » Tue 10 Apr , 2007 21:02 pm

Great! that worked! while pressing "axis limit override" button, I clicked the "Home All Axis" button, and sure enough the table pulled away from the closed limit switch on the Y-axis. Thanks a lot for the help!

Playing with the mill farther, I noticed that none of the pneumatic devices (ATC, guard cylinder, draw bar...) seem to work. I tried the correspondng M-codes from VR to no avail. I do have a 120 psi source connected. Also, while looking inside the main control box, I noticed that one of the wires, is dosconnected and just hanging there. The wire has "57" tag on it and it comes from the main umbellical. I can sort of guess it connects to a big relay switch near by. But, why is it disconnected and what does it control? Is there an electrical diagram anywhere available for download? Searching the support site and googling for one got me nothing. Thanks again!

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Mr Magoo
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Post by Mr Magoo » Tue 10 Apr , 2007 21:34 pm

When you tried the M codes in VR Milling, did the s/ware lock up, or did it just ignore the command and you could still carry on doing stuff?

acephalia
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Location: USA

Post by acephalia » Wed 11 Apr , 2007 17:18 pm

It pretty much just ignored the commands. I could still move the table and turn the spindle on/off. While poking around I tried MintMan proggy, and there were two mint files in its directory with "triac" name. I tried both files. One of them (when MintMan downloaded the file and ran it) made the mill perform all the M-codes in rapid succession. It would open/close the guard, move/rotate ATC, do other wacky things. It was pretty scary. Still, no luck with any pneumatic M-codes from VR.

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Post by Denford Admin » Thu 12 Apr , 2007 9:11 am

I think you should:
  • Download the latest version of VR Milling 2

    Run Mintman again, and download Triac.mnt to the control. Once the mint is in there, it stays in flash so you won't need to run this again.
Re the mcodes, they will all work from MDI (if you have the appropriate options fitted), but you may not see them all in the MCODE button list (if they aren't enabled in parameters)....
[M3]
Description=Spindle Forward

[M4]
Description=Spindle Reverse

[M5]
Description=Spindle Stop

[M8]
Description=Coolant On

[M9]
Description=Coolant Off

[M10]
Description=Vice Open

[M11]
Description=Vice Close

[M13]
Description=Coolant on and Spindle Fwd

[M14]
Description=Coolant on and Spindle Rev

[M20]
Description=ATC Arm In

[M21]
Description=ATC Arm Out

[M22]
Description=ATC Arm Down

[M23]
Description=ATC Arm Up

[M24]
Description=Release Draw Bar

[M25]
Description=Clamp Draw Bar

[M27]
Description=Reset Carousel

[M32]
Description=Carousel CW

[M33]
Description=Carousel CCW

[M34]
Description=Rotate Carousel Half Turn

[M38]
Description=Guard open

[M39]
Description=Guard Close

[M62]
Description=Aux output 1 ON

[M64]
Description=Aux output 1 OFF

[M63]
Description=Aux output 2 ON

[M65]
Description=Aux output 2 OFF

[M66]
Description=Wait Aux input 1 ON

[M76]
Description=Wait Aux input 1 OFF

[M67]
Description=Wait Aux input 2 ON

[M77]
Description=Wait Aux input 2 OFF
I'll see about the drawings, but we would normally charge administration costs for them :(

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