Hi,

I am interested in seeing photos of various layouts that other retrofitters have used for milling machines. This would include the inside details of the positioning of your drives, relay board, interconnect module, computer, etc.

Did you leave the PC assembled in its tower, or take it apart and put the pieces inside of a cabinet?

Also, a pic of whatever kind of operator station you have created to stand beside the machine, with the monitor, keyboard and mouse placement, and type.

Hoping to benefit from your experience.

Thanks.

Operator station

Here is my computer cabinet; behind the bottom doors are the CPU in its original tower along with the tangle of wires and the surge-protector. The top doors hide papers and disks.
After this image was taken I installed a small shelf behind the mouse pad as a catch-all to place whatever I was holding so I could use both hands to type.
The mouse pad is tiny because I prefer keyboard shortcuts but still use the mouse occasionally; the mouse is configured so that the cursor travels far with the tiniest mouse-move.
There is an intake cooling fan through the back wall with a small AC/furnace filter between it and the outside.
The only wires out of the back are the power cord and parallel cable.
The cabinet is on quality casters so it rolls easily.
I tried to cover the top with clear acrylic but the glare was a bother so now I just place a piece of cardboard over the works when done.
Hope this helps!

I haven't begun my mill retro just yet, but I have posted a pic of my lathe Camsoft retro. This was a small manual Graziano lathe originally with a Bandit1 controller. This brand of lathe has an 8-speed electric shift gearbox for driving the spindle, which is really a nice feature for a cnc lathe. I can always run the machine in the optimum torque range without having to go to a 20 hp motor :D

Anyways, you can see the cabinet I used. This was the existing controller cabinet, I simply hacked out a hole and mounted a 17" monitor inside. I used the original set of manual buttons, shown in a row below the monitor. I mounted the keyboard above the monitor, which is not handy for extended typing, but is fine for running the machine. I purchased a keyboard with a built in touchpad, which I find quite convenient for mousing about with simply a fingertip. You can see the little touchpad as the dark rectangle in the keyboard.

I mounted a glass cover in a boxed in area over the keyboard, about 6 inches above it. This keeps random chips from flying into the keyboard. Access to the keyboard is from the bottom side. Fortunately, my arms also approach from the same direction :D

I am thinking of something a bit fancier for the mill. I was dreaming of a clear acrylic "hutch", suspended from a swinging pendant arm. Using extended cables, I would mount an LCD monitor, keyboard and mouse on this arm, and leave my computer in a large cabinet affixed to the machine, some distance away and out of the road. This other large cabinet would contain the servo amps, Galil interconnect module, etc.

I have also purchased one of Camsoft's neat little "operator pendants", which will contain the most oft used I/O functions needed for running the machine. This will eliminate the need for me to make a new operator panel of my own. The machine currently has a Shadow controller on it, and when I remove that, all the existing operator panel goes with it.

See that purplish band across the face of the monitor? That means the machine has been sanitized for the optimum health of the next operator who uses it :D

Actually, it is just a reflection of the overhead lamps. I also found screen glare to be a problem, so I mounted a polarized anti-glare screen over my monitor, at such an angle that glare and reflections were eliminated when you stand in front of it as the operator.

For group,

Here are some other links to various CamSoft machine retrofit photos, movies and enclosures.

View photos of real machines and operator interfaces
Click Here>: www.cnccontrols.com/pgallery.htm

CNC control enclosures Click here> www.cnccontrols.com/products2.asp

Real CNC machine tool digital video movies using CamSoft software
Click Here > www.cnccontrols.com/custreg.asp?MENU=demos

Tech Support
CamSoft Corp.
909-674-8100
support@camsoftcorp.com

This is the original controller. After it was removed the PC took its place and all the wires connecting to it were routed to the back side of the cabinet. This is where I mounted the ICM1900
and the 48/OUT - 48/IN terminating boards.

For anybody who does not know who I am, my name is Darek Ashburn. I do not have a Company. I work by myself for myself. All comments I have made on CNC
Zone are based on my actual experience using these products.

Sincerely DAREK ASHBURN.
(HillBilly)

Picture 2

This is some photo's of a Camsoft retrofit I am doing on an Excello mill. The PC was built into an operator panel made by a local tin shop, the front legend plate was made from reverse engraved Lamacoid by a local engraver from a AutoCad DWG I supplied.
The LCD & Touch screen were obtained from EarthLCD and the Keyboard from Input Technolgies, it is made for industrial applications as it is completely covered by rubber membrane.
The original Vari-speed drive pulley was replaced by a timing belt and a Mitsubishi VFD was used to control the spindle via the CNC 'S' command. The original three phase motor is now running up to 3600 (120Hz) rpm
from the the original 1750 rpm.
The original servo motors were retained, but Westamp drives were replaced by (new on eBay) Copley Controls.
The completed mill is actually a Acroloop Acromill version Dos based S/W.
I will have to probabally post the photos on separate posts. due to size.
Al

This is the Camsoft version
Al

More camsoft ver

This is the PC built into the cabinet, The floppy access is through the side, The floppy door can just be seen on the rh side.

Electrical Cabinet note VFD bottom rh.

This is the Home made HW box, a fanuc HW again from ebay.
A source of Handwheels and portable pendants like this is Sumtak. They also have the components separately including the mult-conductor curly cord.

Thanks, Al. Interesting. So do you have this machine producing chips yet?

Hu, The first one Acromill(see 1stPic) is.
In fact I made the panel cutout on this one for the Camsoft one I have yet to finish.
Will post a pic when done. One thing I prefer is to keep things like feedrate & spindle o/r as hard wired switches as I do not think they lend themselves well to touch screen or mouse applications.
Also I like to use cycle start, feed hold and spindle stop as h/w buttons. I also want to integrate a measuring touch probe I picked up for this machine, I am looking for measuring probe macro's I can adapt (hole center, material edge etc,etc) rather than re-inventing the wheel.
Al

I made this interface board to accept the original ribbon cables and wires going to the control panel. I converted them to the DB25 output, just like the CamSoft pendant, and used the HandHeld I/O logic.

HillBilly

This is the control panel.

HillBilly