Started thinking about this FP3-NC Dialog 3 here for the first time in about 8 months, when I first bought it. I got it from a government lab locally, partially on impulse, partially because I have a 1960's FP3 and thought the two would make a nice pair, partially because I like the type 2038 rotary table, and a lot on the dreams of retrofitting it with a different control. Did I also mention impulsive buy?
The good things about it are the rotary table and the fact it's not been heavily used.
The bad. Well, the CRT had obviously been dead for a while, an external one was wired it, which I did not receive. There is likely 2 bad Bosch servo drives in it. At first I could get two axes to move without a drive faulting, however a second axis quit working later. Oh, and I happen to not be a huge fan of older Dialog controls. Somehow, a newer Makino KE-55 with a Fanuc or a newer ProtoTrak seem much more appealing to me.
First question.... Anyone interested in control parts off this? Or the whole machine? The Bosch servo drive rack has one known good amp and probably two bad ones. I suppose our favorite auction site will be the ultimate destination for the control boards eventually, but thought I'd offer them here first.
Second question... What control to retrofit it with? For a while I was thinking Fagor 8055i, because:
It's supposedly a good g-code and a decent conversational control.
I've always thought of Fagor as being a bit Heidenhein-inspired historically (they have made very similar scales and encoders to Heidenhein) and have a board to directly receive the signals from Heidenhein analog scales.
Newer controls pop up on ebay fairly often and could be pieced together fairly cheaply (1/3 of new cost if one spent enough time looking)
It has a very capable PLC programming language that is supposed to be pretty nice to use. And this would need a lot of PLC programming, considering the gear shifting, all the other goofy stuff, etc.
I have limited experience with Fagor 8055i controls as far as operating them, and honestly, was always frustrated by them. Too many different screens that are not intuitive to juggle though. Always had a hard time getting to where I wanted to go. I keep telling myself if I sent enough time with one, I'd get good at it. On one occasion I did a bit of PLC troubleshooting on one, had a Fagor guy on the phone guiding me though it, and after an hour or two it started to make sense and I was almost starting to feel comfortable with it. Buy yeah, not 100% sold on the Fagor. Over the years a number of people i know using Fagor controls complained to me about them and said they didn't like them. I've spoke to a few Fagor employees and they said they love them and mentioned all the positives.
Another idea is a newer Prototrak control. That is a likable control for a toolroom type of CNC. No worries there, simple, intuitive and capable enough with g-code. However, I never though of those controls are being very friendly towards serious retrofit projects... Getting a Heidenhein EXE interpolation box to convert to quadrature signals would be a start, but will the ProtoTrak like the resolution? I'm assuming it has parameters for that. And the PLC part of it, I don't know. Pretty sure they have an I/O module. And I could go VFD and manually shift between two gear ranges or something like that. Availability of controls on the used market is not nearly as good from what I'm seeing. Paying for a retrofit kit new would be kinda pricey for this project.
Any other ideas? Of course there's a slew of PC based low budget controls out there, and that maybe the best way to go just because of cost and easy availability.
Yes, I know, the overall concept of retrofitting this machine has sub-optimal effort and cost vs what it will be when it's done metrics.
Long rant lol... just bouncing ideas around.... what should I do with this thing? And anyone want to sell me a newer Makino KE-55 by chance?
Anyone have electrical schematics for this? That would be very helpful for this project.
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Thanks,
Alex.
The good things about it are the rotary table and the fact it's not been heavily used.
The bad. Well, the CRT had obviously been dead for a while, an external one was wired it, which I did not receive. There is likely 2 bad Bosch servo drives in it. At first I could get two axes to move without a drive faulting, however a second axis quit working later. Oh, and I happen to not be a huge fan of older Dialog controls. Somehow, a newer Makino KE-55 with a Fanuc or a newer ProtoTrak seem much more appealing to me.
First question.... Anyone interested in control parts off this? Or the whole machine? The Bosch servo drive rack has one known good amp and probably two bad ones. I suppose our favorite auction site will be the ultimate destination for the control boards eventually, but thought I'd offer them here first.
Second question... What control to retrofit it with? For a while I was thinking Fagor 8055i, because:
It's supposedly a good g-code and a decent conversational control.
I've always thought of Fagor as being a bit Heidenhein-inspired historically (they have made very similar scales and encoders to Heidenhein) and have a board to directly receive the signals from Heidenhein analog scales.
Newer controls pop up on ebay fairly often and could be pieced together fairly cheaply (1/3 of new cost if one spent enough time looking)
It has a very capable PLC programming language that is supposed to be pretty nice to use. And this would need a lot of PLC programming, considering the gear shifting, all the other goofy stuff, etc.
I have limited experience with Fagor 8055i controls as far as operating them, and honestly, was always frustrated by them. Too many different screens that are not intuitive to juggle though. Always had a hard time getting to where I wanted to go. I keep telling myself if I sent enough time with one, I'd get good at it. On one occasion I did a bit of PLC troubleshooting on one, had a Fagor guy on the phone guiding me though it, and after an hour or two it started to make sense and I was almost starting to feel comfortable with it. Buy yeah, not 100% sold on the Fagor. Over the years a number of people i know using Fagor controls complained to me about them and said they didn't like them. I've spoke to a few Fagor employees and they said they love them and mentioned all the positives.
Another idea is a newer Prototrak control. That is a likable control for a toolroom type of CNC. No worries there, simple, intuitive and capable enough with g-code. However, I never though of those controls are being very friendly towards serious retrofit projects... Getting a Heidenhein EXE interpolation box to convert to quadrature signals would be a start, but will the ProtoTrak like the resolution? I'm assuming it has parameters for that. And the PLC part of it, I don't know. Pretty sure they have an I/O module. And I could go VFD and manually shift between two gear ranges or something like that. Availability of controls on the used market is not nearly as good from what I'm seeing. Paying for a retrofit kit new would be kinda pricey for this project.
Any other ideas? Of course there's a slew of PC based low budget controls out there, and that maybe the best way to go just because of cost and easy availability.
Yes, I know, the overall concept of retrofitting this machine has sub-optimal effort and cost vs what it will be when it's done metrics.
Long rant lol... just bouncing ideas around.... what should I do with this thing? And anyone want to sell me a newer Makino KE-55 by chance?
Anyone have electrical schematics for this? That would be very helpful for this project.
Thanks,
Alex.