Denford Software & Machines

I have the below machine in the pics and i do not know anything about it. My boss at the company i work at bought this on Ebay or somewhere like that and it came with everything seen here.

When i first powered the machine up Win98 would boot and appear to be fine. I was able to double-click CNC Turn and it too seemingly worked fine. I could not jog the X or Z nor could i jog the spindle. I could however jog the spindle by pressing the manual button on the spindle relay. Both OMRON drives(tool changer and spindle) look to be functioning correctly, the displays have numbers. the EUROSTEP Controller has an "L" and flashing period. According to the manual for the EUROSTEP the "L" means open limit switch and when i emailed Denford they told me it meant a communication problem. according to the 1996 electrical prints(found on this forum), if the limit sitches are activated the e-stop circuit will de-energize the ESR(e-stop relay). i checked the ESR and it functions correctly. then i tried and get the machine link in the CNC Turn software to "link" with the controller to check for communication and shortly after trying that a few times i got the below error message. Now everytime i start CNC Turn i get the message no matter what i do! after pressing "ok" on the error message CNC Turn shuts itself down. i have tried this numerous times with same result.

Now im dead in the water. im going to take the PC out of the machine and have my IT guy check everything out(serial ports) and make sure the computer works correctly. i will also check all communication cables to see if continuity exsists where it should according to the 1996 electrical prints.


Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated. From Admin or anyone. Thank you.

I don't know if we have a copy of CNC Turn at Denfords but it may be worth reinstalling it. The Denstep card will show a "L" until communication is esablished.

Sorry, i forgot to mention that during the emails to and from denford i asked for a copy of CNC Turn and i was told that it is not a denford product and that CNCTRAIN is the people to see. so i emailed them and they just told me that i should download Workbenchv5 from the baldor support website and try that. they also said to check CNCzone to see if anyone has got Mach3 to work with a denford machine.

Mach3 is mentioned alot in many forums, is this somthing to consider?

My software is dead, so im trying the workbench, since its free, and go from there. I will post back shortly with results.

I feel like a bone head!!!!! i just got the machine to work!!! YAY!!!!!

Where do i start....

1) i tested the serial port and its functioning fine. i also tested the cable and its fine.
2) i installed workbenchv5 and could not got it to communicate with the EUROSTEP.
3) i clicked start then all programs then saw VR Turning and clicked on that.

works now! i feel like such an idiot! heheheheheheh the machine can jog X and Z and home the axis's. i can mdi the spindle and it works. theres only two more things i need to figure out... the tool changer doesnt change and the Tutor Keyboard doesnt work. but ill figure those out later. now its time to build a bench with wheels for it. i will eventually make an automatic clamping collet chuck with 36" capability.

oh yeah, does anyone know where i can get a copy/download of VR Turning Manual? im not sure what version the software is, machine is a 2001.

thanks again to everyone for all help

Ooopppss...

i meant 36" length capacity. ill probably use 5C collets which goes up to 1-1/8". i might redesign the spindle and use 3J collets to go up to 1-3/4". havent decided that part yet.

and i found the VR Turning Manual posted by bradder in the software forums.

Glad you got it working !
The machine must have been supplied with CNC turn (a 3rd party product) and VR Turning (Denford's own machine software)
The VR Turning software can be updated from here:
https://www.website.denford.ltd.uk/suppo ... -downloads

I really recommend you backup the \program files\denford folder first - just in case there is something in the newer software which may not work on an older machine.

PS, Thanks for keeping us informed.

I'm really glad too!

I dont know if im going to try and update the software to the newer version of VR Turn. Im happy that it works, so if i dont have any trouble making parts then i wont bother with the upgrade. i downloaded the software anyways. but for now im keeping the old version.

I've built a stand for it. Now all we need to do is set it up and start making parts (see attached pics).



But now I have a new problem... I wanted to view the parameters so that I can make adjustments to many different things and it asked for a password. So all i can do is just look at the parameters and not adjust.

Does anyone know the password to the parameters?

Thanks

Martin, Thank you very much for your help with the last post's problem.



If anyone else reads this it has been answered.