I posted a while back about getting a machine I bought up and running. I wasn't able to get anything going but the homing, the table wouldn't move in manual or rapid and the spindle has a fault.

I was able to get some guidance from Heidenhan and was able to make contact with Bridgeport in the UK. I have lots of new information now but being electrical in nature most of it is ion a foreign language to me. I was able to get some different parameter codes to enter and now I have both hand wheel and rapid traverse. I also found that the fan was running back wards and switched the power wires around and its running in the correct direction now.
I am still having a power interrupt fault when starting the machine and while I was able to get the spindle to "kick" on momentarily before when pressing the reset button I can not get it to do even that now. I did notice one of the LED's that was on before is now out and one that flashed on(LED3) when pressing the reset is now on, also LED2 use to flash on when hitting the reset and it doesn't do that now.

My BIG concern right now has to do with the air supply, I mentioned before that there were 2 air nipples on the left cabinet beside the column and didn't know where the went. Well I got to looking at the air intake and where it went, well I have 2 lines leading out from regulator/filter/oiler in the back of the machine and guess what, they lead to the 2 nipples I was referring to. There is no place I can see( I took the left side housing cover off) for the air to hook up to, if I understand things correctly I need air for the spindle brake and speed changer. I assume that is what the nipple are for, to hook up the air to these, but for the life of me I can not see where they would hook up to, this may be the cause of the spindle not working(?). Any ideas please???

Also can someone please post a simple MDI program to move the table without turning on the spindle, I've tried and either I am making a mistake or I have other problems.

Thanks VERY MUCH for any help, Brian

Brian,

Can you manually push the brake up to release it. If you can the spindle should be able to kick on. I've been running mine with no air for months now it is a pain but you can do it as long as you can manually release the brake I have a bridgeport series II interact with a Heidenhain 151 I know that those original solenoids are known to go bad and are expensive and complexed to rebuild. I received my machine with no air solenoids just dead ended hoses two for the speed and two for the brake. The original solenoid valves are complexed and expensive to rebuild but A friend of mine retrofitted some common 24vdc solenoids to work for him so I'm doing the same I piped all the lines up to my new solenoids that I got from www.surpluscenter.com tonight my brother in law and I are working to electrically hook them up. If this seems like something you might need to do as well let me know and I'll post some pics of our hookup.(that is if we get going ourselves)

There is no spindle brake on, the spindle turns freely. The fact that the air lines go nowhere may be part of the reason the machine does not appear to have been used even though it is around 18 years old. As I said, the air goes into the regulator/filter/oiler then 2 lines go to the front of the machine and they go no place. There is nowhere I can see where air lines from these nipples would hook up to, I have the upper housing off and there is nothing I can see that would take air.

I am completely stumped as to why the machine needs air hooked up if there is no place for it to go, does anyone have one they can take picture of as to where the air goes once it hooks up to the machine.

Thanks Brian

Brian,as Bigtoad says you don`t need air to run the spindle,unless yours has an air pressure switch.Mine does not have one and we only put air on it to adjust the speed then the air is disconnected again.We do it that way as the machine is used mainly for second opping and we just pick it up with the crane and drop it wherever it`s needed and don`t want airlines trailing about.

What I am saying is there is ABSOLUTELY NO PLACE for any air to attach to anything on the machine other than the hookup in the back and those lines go nowhere, no air speed changer or brake. From what I can tell there is no need to even have air available for any function of the machine. This is contrary from what I am reading in the service manual and has me baffled.

I did notice that when I cut the power the spindle locks in place, when power is turned on the spindle turns freely but when I switch the brake on nothing happens. This is making me think that maybe both the brake and speed control are electrically controlled, any thoughts, anyone have anything like this?

Any ideas on the other items in my post?

All help is greatly appreciated, Brian

A Interact 1 MK 2 has a spindle drive. (not the vari drive). It has an electric brake.
The air could have been used for a mist lube unit or possibly an indexer.

George

well that explains a lot, the machine never had an indexer on it, I think I was the first one to even try and hook up the air(nuts). Now on to try and find out what is causing the power interupt message on start up:confused:, thanks and please let me know if you have any ideas.

the power interupt is a default message for the heidenhain it will come on every time you start the machine it will do a memory test then will say power interupt then you push clear then will prompt you to pass over the referance marks then push power enable (yellow button) cycle start after each axis has passed

Thanks, I just got this message from Bridgeport

Brian,

When powering up the int 1 mk2 you always get POWER INTERUPTED but if you are getting it at other times it maybe a power problem.

I have attached docs to do with the KTK drive you may already have them.

Don’t worry about contacting us we will try and help if we can.

Regards Kevin

and this one:


Brian,

Further info---The MTI-1 board is a separate board not in KTK drive—this is an area you should be checking—a board we have had issues with when spindle does not run

Kevin


Hardinge Machine Tools Limited
Registered in England 323828
Registered office :-
Unit 7 Cranmere Court, Matford Business Park, Exeter. EX2 8PW

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anyone know where to find the MTI-1 card?

Thanks

It supplies the field voltage for the spindle motor. The board is labeled, has a small transformer on it and one red LED.
If I had a manual, I could look where it is.

George

Not knowing how famliar you are with this machine but are you going through the correct start up procedure .Power interupted comes up when machine is first started then push clear button then axis alighnment will come up on screen xyz push yellow button 1 time for each axis thats 3 in total when axises have alighned you should be good to go.Brake will not opperate unless m6 or m25 is programed or big red emergancy stop button is pushed,that little transformer that george talks about on the mt1 board ,gave me hassles with a spindel fault error when we first got our machine ,i was told it is a common fault with these machines after usage they cook.George is extreamly helpfull when it comes to bridgeports and is right on the money with diognostics.regards greg

I found the board, it has a red LED lit on it, I am going through the start up procedure as you describe, I have table movement although I am either doing something wrong or there is a problem when trying to move the table by a MdI input, I get nothing. What is the proper sequence to move the table with the spindle off be MDI.

I was also looking through some manuals that were emailed to me from Bridgeport UK, it says it is the ETS 218, Electrical test and set up procedure for series 1MK2 TNC 2500 B&C with Mentor II spindle drive. On page 6 it mentions setting the spindle drive parameters, it starts with MP2.02 - MP7.20, there are 21 of them. The thing is I have only found parameters that start at MP10, I can't locate these spindle parameters. I am guessing that since I lost all the other parameters due to being unhooked with dead batteries and had to re enter them I will probably need to enter these as well, any ideas? it explains it it to some degree in the manual but I guess I am unable to follow what it's saying, maybe someone can put it in lay terms for me.

Thanks again, Brian

I didn`t know that Bridgeport had fitted Mentors.The Mentor manual takes a bit of understanding but a couple of reads and things start to make sense.
I also don`t think the Mentor loses it`s parameters when the control batteries go flat.
It`s easy to power the drive up and read through the params using the buttons on the front of it.
It also seems strange that you have a seperate field control board as this is usually in the Mentor.
What LED`s do you have on the Mentor when you power up.Remember red is good.

well that's the thing, I don't know if this information applies or not. How do I tell which drive I have? I am going by the manuals that were sent to me by the guy at Bridgeport UK, I gave him the serial number and this is the information I received, it may or may not be accurate but it sure gets confusing when trying to check things out and having the wrong information to go by, thanks.

Brian,if you definitely have a Mentor 11 it`s a good thing.Have you had a look for the spindle drive.It`s either a green or grey box depending upon how old it is.Has about six leds down the right hand top corner and a digital display at the top centre.If you can find it and post what leds are on and what the display says it is quite easy to tell if it`s ok or not.
Heidenhain generic parameters from their website will give you the min/max settings for each spindle parameter so it`s quite easy to figure them out.

the only Spindle drives that I remember this side of the pond in this machine were the KTK. The KTK has a seperate board MTI-1 that is in question. The KTK drive is large about a foot square in the left cabinet when looking at the machine. A blue in color.
If you specify a rapid move in MDI, I believe it should move without the spindle on. Other wise a feed rate movement requires on all new machines that the spindle be turning. A safety issue.

George

To use mdi in heidenhain enter axis you wish to move and a feed rate, and enter everything then push green cycle button and the axis should move to position you selected. In g code use mode button to scroll through top of screen to find iso then push enter then mdi button then push g7 g40 g90 then whatever axis then feed rate then push end then cycle button.,if alls good the axis should move to where you programed. It also sounds like your drive is probably a ktk. good luck greg

George,I have never seen an Interact with a Mentor drive either,but the Mentor is a common retrofit over here for all dc spindles.What I`m wondering is how the machine ended up out there if it was built in England,didn`t they also build them out there?
Mark.

Thanks to all the help here I am making progress:banana:, I got the table to move using the MDI commands, now for that darn spindle. I am betting that I have the KTK drive, here are some pictures to confirm it. When I try to turn the spindle on I enter the speed and M03, when I press the green button it stays on(solid) for a few seconds then it starts flashing, a "Astrix" also flashes on the screen. Now what is the fix, do I get the board repaired, replace it or what:drowning:? If I need it repaired where should I send it, if it isn't the board and there is another idea out there please let me know.

Another question on the spindle brake/clamp, if it only works when Brake will not operate unless m6 or m25 is programed or big red emergency stop button is pushed then what is the purpose of the switch on the front of the machine?

Thanks again everyone, Brian

It is a KTK drive,so that`s that question answered.