Anilam Crusader ML problems?

According to Roger_N :

This sounds like too little voltage present at the power supply for the Crusader ML. The horizontal oscillator for the monitor is not running properly, thus the narrow bar.

What is your power source for the machine? Does it want three phase? Do you have *real* three phase? If not, what are you running it from? A rotary converter? A VFD? A "solid-state converter" like a Phase-O-Matic? If the latter, it will only supply the third phase (generated through a temporary capacitor) during the moments of starting. If you aren't running the spindle motor, you probably aren't drawing enough to make a Phase-O-Matic turn on.

It was quite a few years ago (15 or so I think) when I worked with a Crusader II at work. IIRC, the mill (and the servo amplifiers) ran from three phase, but the controller box simply plugged into the wall separately. Yours may be getting single phase power from a transformer inside the lathe somewhere, and if is on the wrong phase, it may be getting too little voltage. Your choices there are to rewire it so you plug the controller into a separate 115 VAC outlet, or to make sure that the 115 VAC is derived by a transformer from the proper two of the three phase wires coming in. Or to make sure that you have real three phase. Or to go with a rotary converter. A Phase-O-Matic is a very bad idea for this -- and I don't think that a VFD would work very well either, as its waveform could seriously confuse the switching power supply used in the controller -- thus leading to the strange behavior of the CRT display.

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I have no direct experience with your lathe controller, but you have my ideas as to what to check. The electronics *should* work when cold, though the mechanicals may not.

Good Luck, DoN.

Some pretty good thinking. Matches what Ive found a time or two.

Gunner, who finally walked away from a machine today for the the very first time in his career, totally unable to repair it. After 25 hours of (unpaid) head thumping..he gave up in utter disgust.

Hardinge DSM-A

I can probably get it for free..as they are likely to scrap it soon, if anyone wants it. It would make a Marvelous OmniTurn retrofit..but the #$%#~!! wont do it... "Deep in her heart, every moslem woman yearns to show us her t*ts" John Griffin

This has a 115V plug for the control cabinet and a 220V 3phase plug for the lathe. I haven't traced the 220V in the lathe yet but I think it goes to the spindle motor contactors, coolant, spindle oil pump, and perhaps a transformer at the M function relay board. My mill with a Crusader II will run all the servos from 115V and just needs 3 phase to power the spindle. I'm hoping this lathe with a Crusader ML will do the same. In the control console, the reset button is wired to a board with cube relays and a solid state relay. The 115V goes from this board to the servo power transformer, I figure a relay is supposed to enable the servo power when "reset" if all other conditions are right. Without the monitor working, and with no beeps when I press buttons, I can't tell if the computer is trying to function or not. I'll check the voltage supplied to the monitor, could be a weak supply or poor connection there.

Thanks!

Roger N

transformer,

Your problem sounds similar to what mine did. It's been a few years, and I'm electronically ignorant, but I think I had to change out a transformer. It was in the bottom of the cabinet. Sorry that I can't remember any more than that.

According to Dave Lyon :

O.K. That *should* eliminate the problem of input voltage to the control cabinet -- but check whether there are switches for 120 or 240 VAC as input. Many newer switching power supplies can sense what they get and change over automatically. But older ones will often have a switch somewhere -- either on the back panel near the power cord (connector) and the fuse, or perhaps requiring opening it to gain access. Some older switching mode power supplies require moving a jumper on the board to select the proper input voltage. If so, it

*should* be marked on the board somewhere -- usually silk-screen stenciling.

Obviously -- manuals from the maker would help greatly. If the CRT is a small B&W one, it is quite likely to expect 12VDC to power it, so check for that at the cable feeding the CRT. Color is more likely to be powered by the straight AC line. And the monitor itself (if powered separately) may have its own input voltage switch. But if you get no beeps, I would check for voltage to the whole electronics package.

That could be jumpering on the transformer to select the proper input voltage to get 120 VAC out for the electronics. And it could be set for anything from 120 VAC input to 480 VAC input, depending. And it

*might* be set up to provide power for the electronics -- but if the electronics have their own power plug, I would look for switches or jumpers in or on the back of the electronics box. Especially likely to be so if the power cord plugs into the box, instead of being permanently wired in.

Enjoy, DoN.

The monitor is green screen and I have manuals and wiring diagrams. The only manual I have is a programming manual and the wiring diagrams are somewhat difficult to figure out, the labels are non-descriptive. I'll try pulling the video signal from the monitor and see what happenes with only the power supply connected. I'm not sure if the video problem is "no signal" or something else. Since I get no beeps, I'm thinking the computer board may not be running (or the beeper could be disconnected/bad).

The way it came, it already had the lathe with the 220V 3PH plug and the control with the 115V plug, so I assumed (perhaps incorrectly) that the control was jumpered for 115V. The diagrams I have do show the jumper locations for selecting 115V or 230V, I can check that but so far my power supply voltages have not measured low. I do not have the 220V side connected yet. I don't have 3 phase and will either run the spindle from a home brew rotary phase converter or perhaps a variable frequency drive if the 3 phase is only used to power the spindle (it may be powering the spindle oil cooler and coolant pump).

Thanks for ideas on what to look for!

Roger N

According to Roger_N :

O.K. Monochrome with a somewhat slow decay phosphor. That is quite likely to be powered by 12 VDC coming into the board. (If it is like those which I have dealt with, the board will have an edge connector with some fairly small number of pins. Ten or fifteen, I think -- with only a few of them actually used.

It will probably go dark. It needs the horizontal sync signal to run the horizontal oscillator which also produces the high voltage.

Look at the wires connecting to the edge connector in the monitor. There will be ground, video, horizontal sync, vertical sync (all low voltages), and DC power, which is most likely 12 VDC. And that

12 VDC wire is probably red, with the ground likely to be black.

No LEDs lighting in the panel? No numeric displays? (Or is all of that supposed to be on the CRT in this system?) The Anilam Crusader II which I used had no CRT, and a touch sensitive panel with LEDs and numeric readouts behind it. It would be very obvious if it had no power, or even too low a voltage.

The system just *might* be stuck against one of the safety stops. Do you have hand cranks to allow you to move the carriage or the cross-feed? If so -- you might try cranking them towards the center of their range. (And a broken switch package would be likely to be a cause of shutdown as well -- just like it being against a safety stop.

I presume that it has a panic switch which you rotate and pull to reset?

O.K. Does that include power supplies inside the computer? I guess that it runs from a standard PC power supply of the period?

Good Luck, DoN.

I did some checking with the oscilloscope and it looks like I've probably been barking up the wrong tree. The "Video" signals going to the monitor are garbage. No TTL horizontal or vertical sync, just some noisy looking garbage. So, it's quite likely a problem in the computer part of the Crusader ML. Anyone here familiar with this equipment (Anilam Crusader ML)? Thanks!

Roger N.