Getting up to speed with a 1986 Triac cnc

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

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jonnydeen
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Hardware/Software: 1996 Novamill, linuxcnc
1986 Triac PNC, linuxcnc
1989 Senior 3c, Heidenhain TNC155

Getting up to speed with a 1986 Triac cnc

Post by jonnydeen » Wed 30 Sep , 2020 16:27 pm

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After roughly 10 years I finally have myself a second denford mill, having managed alright so far with a novamill it's nice to get my hands on somthing slightly more substantial. I have considered drip feeding or dnc to the original control but frankly I think it's still too limiting for what I want to do. I'm sure these early machines have be converted to mach3 or linuxcnc plenty of times. I was wondering if the stepper drives a worth using or should I just forget it and pick up some new ones. I will be replacing them long term anyway but would like to be able to get the machine working before investing more into it. I know it's easy done on the novamill with the 96 pin header but what about these relics?

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Lone_Ranger
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Re: Getting up to speed with a 1986 Triac cnc

Post by Lone_Ranger » Fri 02 Oct , 2020 12:28 pm

First questioin, have you plugged it in and does it "light up" :) :)
Does it have an RS232 connection?

jonnydeen
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Posts: 47
Joined: Tue 09 Jul , 2013 20:45 pm
Hardware/Software: 1996 Novamill, linuxcnc
1986 Triac PNC, linuxcnc
1989 Senior 3c, Heidenhain TNC155

Re: Getting up to speed with a 1986 Triac cnc

Post by jonnydeen » Fri 02 Oct , 2020 21:03 pm

It powered on as far as the the power indicator on the front. Monitor wouldn't display anything and couldnt hear any relays so I pulled the electronics tray out and started checking the harness' found 5 broken pins in connectors so rather than trying to repair the old control I pulled the main card out. So now I have the task of wiring a breakout board to the triac drive card and the brown pastell vfd. That and sorting the power supplies. Especially since there is no main pcb there now. I know it's not optimum but i need the machine running before I can justify further investment

Does anyone have a wiring diagram for this machine?

I have the GSM maintenance manual (not sure if it's the same machine but seems like it) and it has the step & direction wires and colours but no schematic.
I could really do with knowing the power requirements for the triac drive board/ digiplan sd2 & sd3 drives is there any documentation on the triac drive card specifically?

Found a manual online for the vfd so that shouldn't be to dificult to sort.

Long term I'll fit it with a new vfd and bigger 3 phase motor anyway 😁

jonnydeen
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Posts: 47
Joined: Tue 09 Jul , 2013 20:45 pm
Hardware/Software: 1996 Novamill, linuxcnc
1986 Triac PNC, linuxcnc
1989 Senior 3c, Heidenhain TNC155

Re: Getting up to speed with a 1986 Triac cnc

Post by jonnydeen » Sat 03 Oct , 2020 20:01 pm

Does anyone happen to know what the primary taps are on the drives toroidal transformer?
I have a purple, red and white to the primary, with red jumpered to a second terminal. Trying to get power to this without releasing any magic smoke. Also, what role does the contactor play? E-stop?
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It's an issue 2 system btw.

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Lone_Ranger
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Re: Getting up to speed with a 1986 Triac cnc

Post by Lone_Ranger » Sat 03 Oct , 2020 22:07 pm

Just a daft thought, did you try pressing the two "Reset" buttons underneath the front panel ????

jonnydeen
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Posts: 47
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Hardware/Software: 1996 Novamill, linuxcnc
1986 Triac PNC, linuxcnc
1989 Senior 3c, Heidenhain TNC155

Re: Getting up to speed with a 1986 Triac cnc

Post by jonnydeen » Sat 03 Oct , 2020 23:29 pm

Nope, and frankly it's a bit late for that.
Got the spindle and stepper drive power sussed and fitted a mesa 7i98 card, breakout board, 5v and 12v power supplies and now it's just getting control signals sorted and linuxcnc configured.

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