Denford Triac VMC mill 2000 - 2001

[Ade Taplin]

Hi all,

I have just obtained from a training school the above machine, which has been stood disconnected for a period of time. At first when I powered it up only the 2 fans ran in the control cabinet nothing at the monitor so it was recommended that I try a boot disk only to find the floppy drive had packed up. I purchased a new floppy drive which seems to be working but im still not getting anything at the monitor, I tried a different monitor and it was receiving NO SIGNAL. not sure what else I can do now it has the integral PC not a tower unit. Can anyone please help as I have no idea where to go now. It also appears to have 2 batteries on separate boards if these have gone flat would that stop the PC from working.

[Martin]

The battery on the computer would just be for the bios so it would not stop the computer powering up.

Can you check the computer power supply is powered up.

[Ade Taplin]

Hi Martin

thanks for the advise I will check that out later today, I have attached a couple of pics.

[Ade Taplin]

Hi again I have checked out the supply to the board that I believe is the pc all I can say is that the fan on the board is running. I have tried to attach a pic that ive pointed to in red these are the 2 boards i believe are the brains.

Cheers Ade

[Martin]

The DSP computer is the board on the left.

I did not realise that you have a servo machine. It may be worth connecting a qwerty keyboard & powering it up to see if lights up. To get in to the bios you need to press Ctrl + Alt + s at the same time.

[Ade Taplin]

Hi Martin thanks again for the advice i tried a qwerty keyboard but still nothing, i know i keep on about the batteries but they are only reading 0.02 volts. Do you think changing these might help or have I got a large paper weight.

Cheers Ade

[Martin]

I don't think either battery will be stopping the PC turning on. You could try reseating the computer.

Remove the retaining strip from the front of the rack.
Slide the DSP computer forward until it disconnects from the back card.
push the PC back in.

[Ade Taplin]

Hi Martin

I have tried reseating the board. If the board is faulty do you know if I can get a replacement.

Cheers Ade

[Ade Taplin]

I have now soldered in a new battery to the DSP board and now the monitor has come to life I inserted a MS DOS start up floppy in the drive but im still seeing the text in the photo, not sure where to go now. any ideas

cheers Ade

[Martin]

That's great.

You need to set the computer bios to enable the floppy disc drive.

You will need to connect a computer keyboard to the computer. If you then let it boot up & leave it for a minute you can then enter the Bios by pressing CTR+ALT+S at the same time.

Floppy Drive A should be set to 3 1/2" 1.44MB

[Ade Taplin]

Hi should it boot from drive C or A

[Martin]

I don't think you have a C drive looking at the pictures.

The Floppy drive is the A drive but its probally set to a 5 1/4" drive

[Ade Taplin]

Hi Martin

Looking at the first picture in this thread, would you say it is Fanuc or Hedinhaine?

[Martin]

The overlays slide in and out & are interchangeable. The overlay in the picture is a Heidenhain. Have you got any others?

[Ade Taplin]

Hi thanks for the advice but I only have the one that came with the mill. I am still battling to get the os loaded.

[Martin]

Have you managed to change the Bios settings for the Floppy Disc Drive?

[Ade Taplin]

Hi yes I've managed to change that do I need to download .Opt and .goon 1 disc or is there something else i need to download.

[Martin]

You will nned to download Drivers.zip,Drivers2 & Heiden.zip & load it on a system boot disc.

https://website.denford.ltd.uk/dos-vinta ... formation/

[Ade Taplin]

Really appreciate the advice I will try tomorrow

[Ade Taplin]

Hi Martin
I had our IT department make me up a disc with all the drivers that you recommended, when I load this up the monitor is displaying 'No system on disk'  do you have any ideas what I can do now.