Someone is offering me a Bridgeport Series II Interact CNC mill. He says that it worked but the Heidenhein controller is no longer operational. Whether this is true or not, as always is questionable.
The price is $500.
My question is, can this somehow be fixed or a newer control installed. Does this require supernatural qualifications, or do you think that I could do it with some diagnostic and part swapping skills.
Also could I run this as a regular manual mill.
I need the answer ASAP
Thanks
Clarification, he says that the monitor is not working. Assuming it is true and so on
i
:
Heidenhein uses an etched bar and optical components to watch the etching. Pretty straight forward and failure proof. We had two different pick-and-place machines made in England that used that system. The oldest was 20+ years and the system had never given a moment's problem. I suspect the owner is correct and the monitor is the problem. Should be pretty easy to find another RS-170 monitor.
Paul
Pete and Paul, I agreed to buy this mill and will meet the guy tonight and pay, and get some pieces, pickup to occur in 1-2 weeks. He seems to be good.
i
pix are here (tooling was extra)
Iggy,
Refitting CNC machines has become my real hobby. I also make a few bucks on the side consulting on Camsoft refit installs.
$500 is a fair price. The machine is only sutiable for a refit. Don't beat a dead horse trying to make the old control run.
I assume you're just buying on speculation. But, if you're going into the refit biz, email me offline.
Karl
Karl, since Heidenhein switched to PC-architecture controls around ten years ago (or offered them as an option), what is the chance that they could supply the necessary bits to convert Iggy's machine into one that's PC-controlled?
To put this bluntly, if I can convert this mill to something I can control with a (preferably Linux) PC, I will keep this mill.
I do not know even the basics of CNC, so I do not know what interfaces with what and what can be replaced.
Is that a 2 dimensional CNC machine? (I know that it is a dumb idea to ask at this point in the game).
i
If you're asking about the two systems that Heidenhein offered as options (one was based on their proprietary controller; the other was based on a "hardened," industrial PC), then the answer is that they both were multi-axis systems. I don't know how many axes they could control, but they both were at least 3-axis.
I spent a half-day with them and wrote about both systems around 8 years ago. Too bad my memory is volatile.
There should be a parameter sheet that goes with the control. Make sure you get it. IF the battery in the control memory goes dead you have to punch in all the parameters manually to get the control up and running. If its only the monitor bad that is an easy fix.
John
Looks like you're interested in EMC2. Pretty steep learning curve but very capable software. I'm pretty sure this machine has servos with glass encoder scales for position feedback. It may (probably has) have encoders on the motor also. Dual loop control is an advanced subject.
Long story short, don't go in to this thinking its a quick easy job. You'll also spend a fair bit of bucks on servo drivers that work with EMC and run your servos.
Karl
Karl, if you can give me a rundown of what I would need/how much time it will take/how much it will cost, it would be greatly appreciated.
i
More pictures found
It depends on what is already there. I replaced my Anilam control with EMC2, it closes the loop twice, once between the servo motors and tachometer feedback, the second with the encoder position feedback. I was able to use the original servos, drives, encoders, etc. A $200 board for the PC was able to read the encoders and an additional $69 board converted the PWM output to +/-10V for the servo drive command signal. It took a little time to read through the configuration files but the setup was fairly straight forward. There is a lot of good help available for EMC2 and I don't think you'd have a lot of problem.
RogerN
That machine was British made judging by some of the parts.
John
Looks like a 3 axis mill, the control upgrade isn't too difficult but you have to take it one step at a time. If you want to later you can put an encoder and VFD on the spindle and you can do rigid tapping by synchronizing the up/down feed with the spindle position. And later you could put a motor on a dividing head and do 4 axis milling, lots of possibilities, EMC2 is very configurable.
I remember your programs that you did CNC type motion by hand cranking on a manual mill, you can write similar programs to produce CNC code if you want. Anyway, for CNC the controller tells the motors to make the motions you were doing by hand, but at high speed and in smaller steps.
RogerN
:
te:
IS that a Philips screwdriver I see in the collet in the machine?
I will be happy with three axis as a start, if I can make it to work. I would love to chat with you on the phone for a few minutes just to get started a bit.
i
Heck if if the CNC is totally dead you can completely retrofit it to run with Mach 3 for 500 with new motors even and add a cheap PC.
$500 for a big mill sounds pretty cheap whether any of the CNC is good or not.
I need to do a lot of reading about CNC in short order so that I can understand all the terminology, such as double loop, etc.
If anyone can suggest an intro book into this, I would greatly appreciate and buy it immediately.
Here's a guy who converted the same exact mill to EMC2
The repair mostly will take good schematic diagrams and good troubleshooting information in the manuals, and good test equipment (logic probes, oscilloscopes, and other such things.)
As for fitting a newer control -- look into the EMC package running on a modified linux kernel with a real-time sub-kernel which runs the normal kernel as one task. The software is free. It runs on boxen which used to be Windows boxen. If the mill in question has servo motors instead of stepper motors, you will probably need something like the Servo-2-Go board (which can handle eight axes at need. Three for X, Y, and Z, another for spindle speed, and two more for something like a two rotary tables at right angles to each other. :-)
Well ... my Bridgeport Series I (BOSS-3) CNC mill has the X-axis leadscrew (ball screw) locked stationary, and the nut is rotated around it in the saddle. This suggests that there is no practical way to fit handwheels to the existing leadscrews. The Y-axis one does rotate, but there is no exposed way to rotate it unless you take the cover off the belt guard and fit a handwheel.
I don't know the Series II -- other than that it is larger. And the Heidenhein controller is newer than what my Series-I came with, which was a Bridgeport home brewed one built around a LSI-11 CPU and some custom wire wrap boards (which were later replaced with printed circuit boards).
The price sounds good, if you can move it and have room for it, and with your familiarity with linux, the EMC package is probably the way to go.
Good Luck, DoN.
Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.
Ask the community — no account required