Denford Novaturn Conversion to Mach3

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teserve
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Denford Novaturn Conversion to Mach3

Post by teserve » Fri 21 Oct , 2022 19:26 pm

Hi everyone,

I wonder in anyone can help me. I purchased a Denford Novaturn lathe and the black control box but no computer.It seems that someone has converted the machine to Mach3. I have traced the wires to the step and control pins and connected a computer and mach3 and got the X and Z axis working. There is also a relay board which has been added to control the spindle with several wires coming off it but I have no idea which what to connect to where. There is also a seperate parallel cable coming out of the big black box which only has 3 wires connected in the black box and these appear to go to some relays or something which look like they may control the auto toolchanger. Again, I have no idea how to connect these and configure the tool turret. I need to find someone who can figure out how to connect this to Mach3 or some other system like LinuxCNC so as the spindle and tool changer also work. Is there anyone around the north of England who can do this is if I deliver tha lathe and black box to them and if so, what sort of price.

Thanks in advance,
Bob Swindells.

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Re: Denford Novaturn Conversion to Mach3

Post by TDIPower » Fri 21 Oct , 2022 22:58 pm

Hi, not sure you will find anyone on here to sort it. there are various other CNC/mach 3 sites that might be better out there.
It would help if you posted up pics of what has been done to the machine with as much detail as possible. There have been people on here who have used elements of the denford control and married them to boards that will function with mach3.
This kind of job will cost a fair bit in time I would imagine, as they will need to work out what has been done to the machine and then work out how to achieve what you want. In some cases it could be easier/cheaper to start from scratch and do the full job.

Keep us posted what ever happens.

Pete

teserve
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Joined: Wed 12 Dec , 2007 12:30 pm

Re: Denford Novaturn Conversion to Mach3

Post by teserve » Fri 21 Oct , 2022 23:45 pm

Hi,
The person who has converted the machine has used all the original denford hardware as far as I can see. It has had what look like two relays boards fitted which go to the spindle drive and as I said anothe parallel cable fitted with only 3 wire being used going to what I think is the elecs for the toolchanger. The problem I have is knowing which settings in Mach 3 to assign thos pins to. I am not into electronics but canunderstand a bit. Basically I just need some who can work out ho to et up the pindle and toolchanger. Do yo know of any companies in the North West. I live in Liverpoool.
Regards,
Bob

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Re: Denford Novaturn Conversion to Mach3

Post by TDIPower » Mon 24 Oct , 2022 22:50 pm

never done anything with Mach3 and it is a long time since i did anything with parallel port coms, I thought it used more than 3 wires. Are you assuming it is parallel due to it using a 25way D type? Denford originally used a 25way D type on the chassis for RS232 coms, TX, RX & Gnd. So could it actually be RS232 coms rather than parallel. Even if it was parallel the install might have just utilised the connector that denford installed.

RS232 is normally pins 2 3 for tx rx data and pin5 for gnd on a 9way or 7 on a 25way

teserve
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Re: Denford Novaturn Conversion to Mach3

Post by teserve » Mon 24 Oct , 2022 23:24 pm

Hi,
Yes I am familiar with RS232. I used to wrire communications software using RS232. This is not the original 25 way RS232 connector as fitted by Denford. As you say RS232 only needs a few wires. The standard Denford black box has it's own motion controller in it. As far as I know this is the MINT card which has a RS232 connection on it (the same as on my Denford Mirac which is RS232). On this machine the MINT card which has the RS232 connector on it has been removed. I sent a photo showing the inside of black box to Martin at Denford. He told me the the card with the RS232 connector had been removed and it looked like it had been tewired for Mach3 or something. The connector on the side of the cabinate now has a male 25 way connector on it and it is definately not RS232. I have traced the wires coming off it and as I said previously I have traced the wires going to the step and direction pins on the control card. After setting up a PC with Mach3 on it I configured Mach 3 using the pin connections I had traced and the X and Z axis worked perfectly. The same cable has the wires for the spindle drive but it is not clear from the relay boards what the particular connections go to in Mach3. As well as this 25 way cable there has been another 25 way cables added to the system which as I said only uses 3 wires which are connected to what appears to be the connections for the tool changer. So. I have 2 x 25 way cables coming from the black box and Mach3 often uses 2 parallel ports if there are not enough IO pins on one port. Also Mach3 can't work on serial RS232 so even if all the original denford boards where in it, mach3 coukd not drive the axis as it does now.
Regards,
Bob

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