Update V2XT

[Riverside192]

I noticed that EMI offers a BMDC card and a computer upgrade for the V2XT . Does anyone know if this will work in place of the old FMDC card and the Western Digital computer that has died on me. My friend(and computer guru)and I tried unsuccessfully to install a P4 motherboard that he had lying around his workbench. It lit up and went to Machine check where it faulted out.After several different trys to get it to talk to the mill it appears to have died also.I'm trying to do this on a tight budget and really can't afford a full blown upgrade to the latest and greatest.We had also added a hard drive and it seems to have crashed with the mother board. The Idea was that if we had a hard drive we wouldn't need to boot off the floppy. Sounded good to me at the time. Hasn't worked out too well so far. Any thoughts or suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks D.

[machintek]

Our office has installed such kits. They do work. You may also need CRT.
The P4 was a buss speed way too fast for the FMDC board. You would be better off to find an old 386 or 486. The slower the better. Remember the software is written around communication using the serial port and either DOS 5.0 or Dos 6.20.

George

[Riverside192]

Thanks George, I'm still trying to figure out why the computer and hard drive crashed. Would a short in the RSRS have caused it to die or should we be looking elsewhere. The FMDC lit up and appears to be ok.We had another old 386 hooked up to the rs232 at the time and it quit also. Thanks for your help D.

[machintek]

Remember the KISS principle. First see if the mother board boots with nothing attached except the CRT. Then add the floppy. Then the hard drive. Check your power supply. It may be out of spec from age. If all this works, now start adding the machine side of the control.

George

[Riverside192]

YOU WERE RIGHT AGAIN. Been working on machinery all my adult life and I still have a tendency to try and rush the job.Unplugged it all and started from scratch.Put it all back together again piece by piece and didn't find a thing but now it all works. All I have to do is figure out the Baud rate and parity. I seem to remember somewhere in this forum someone else had the same problem.4800 baud and even parity seems to ring a bell . Thanks again George I think we're on the right track .

[machintek]

For External Rs232 use:
matching baud rate BUT EZLINK is fixed at 4800.
8 data bits
2 stop bits
no parity.

George

[zcases]

We just installed the EMI SX software upgrade. We opted to supply our own pentium motherboard and a new flatscreen monitor.

Would you be able to show a picture of wiring to your spindle enable switch? If you can show me that......I can tell you how well the upgrade works!

[machintek]

I do NOT have a V2XT. I just happen to work on them. Just Monday at a steel mill, I had one that burnt up a BMDC because a encoder cable shorted. The new cable had a wrong pin out. Fixed that. The Y axis had a broken tach wire. Fixed that. The x axis had a bad encoder. Replaced the motor, and had to adjust the Z home switch. Talk about a puzzle!
I can take a picture of the next one I work on or someone else can supply a picture.
Sorry. I will see if I pass by close to one. The facility must also allow cameras.

George