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Need CNC Mill help

I have recently aquired a D&M 4 machining center cnc mill made by D&M computing out of fargo, nd. it is an older machine, but it appears to be in mint condition. the problem is that when i powere it up, it just sits there. there is no conectivity, movement, nothing. the power indicator comes on, the indicator on the driver board comes on, and the heatsinks get hot, but other than that, nothing. to top it all off i have not even been able to find any information about this machine whatsoever. this is my first venture into cnc and i would really like to get this machine working if at all possible. if there is anybody out there who knows anything about this piece of equipment, any help at all would be greatly appreciated!

Reply to
d_haggerty
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How new are you to cnc? Do you know G ,M, S codes ? Power the machine up Press the mpg key (manual pulse generator) press x axis key , press one of the resolution keys you should have 3 x.01,x.001,x0001 then turn the mpg wheel and the x axis shold move.

Reply to
TLKALLAM8

i dont believe this machine is that sophisticated. it has two toggles, one for on/off and one for computer/manual, two push-buttons, one labeled "shift" and one "enter", two flip switches, x+/x- and z+/z- (no y?), and a big emergency stop button. on the back of the machine there is a serial port, ttl/io and large one labeled solonoid driver. aside from the serial cable and power cable, i do not have any other connections.

a second question, in the event that is a problem with the circuitry, where would one go to replace the boards? inside the back of the machine there are 5 boards: motor driver, x,y,z drivers, and the connection board. where would one go to replace these boards and how would i know which one was at fault? all of the axis boards connect to a huge capacitor, i wonder if that is the problem... hmmmmmm

Reply to
d_haggerty

Me thinks you got a great candidate machine for a new retrofit pc CNC control. There's a great how-to series running in HSM magazine on this topic right now.

Also TONS of info on this on the web. Start with a look at the yahoo group:

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You might get this antique control to run, but you still won't have much.

Karl

Reply to
Karl Townsend

There's another very active group worth checking for CNC retros. Try:

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Ron Moore

Reply to
Ron Moore

This wouldn't happen to be a McDonnell Douglas control, would it?

Reply to
Jon Grimm

no, this machine was manufactured by D&M Computing, out of fargo,nd or moorhead, mn. actually, that is about as much as i know about the origin of the machine or the company. they also had another product i discovered called the "armbot" which was a robotic arm which i guess was used for training purposes in schools. stylewise, it looks very similar to this machine. pictures of this machine can be found at

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which is the mill itself sitting on my desk after cleaning, and
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is the control unit before cleaning. if it will be any help to anyone, i can also post some pictures of the boards.

Reply to
d_haggerty

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