Bridgeport Series II Interact 4 & Heidenhein Problems

[UKRobotics]

I recently purchased a bridgeport series 2 interact 4 with a TNC 150 at auction. At the time I knew it didnt work but this didnt bother me as I had, and still have every intention of doing a pc based retrofit with rutex drives.

Before hacking apppart the old system I thought i'd have a look and see if I could see what was wrong. Followed the trails of smoke to the back of the heidenhein unit and upon closer inspection found that the main transformer for the psu which sticks out the back of the unit was fried. The rest of the board looks fine so i could be lucky and have it running after replacing the transformer.

Unfortuantly, obtaining a transformer has proven to me a nighmare so far. First of all, let me express my utter discust of heidenheins customer support. Spoke to their technical/service guy and got nowhere at all. They refused point blank to sell me the transformer I needed, or any other parts for that matter. I have never come accross such a bad, incondiserate and unhelpful attitude from a company in my life.

The only option they gave me was to send it in for a 'service' costing £1,600 regardless of the fault, and that price doesnt even include the screen - that would be an additional fee.

So basically they want to charge me £1,600 ($2,800 for those of you on the other side of the pond) for a £30 transformer. Natrually I was not impressed and terminated the phone call shortly afterwards.

I tried contacting the transformer manufacturer in germany and they werent able to sell me one because of an agreement with heidenhien, their solution ? Buy it from heidenhein. Of course i already know that i'm not going to get any joy either.

so yes, heidenhien customer service sucks, avoid these people like the plauge. Ok, so the controlls may be good when they work, but want a little help when things go wrong and you get left in the dark. (w**k*rs)

**rant over**

So, if anyone has a transformer for a TNC 150 they would like to sell me, know somone who does, knows of an alternative product, or simply has a wiring diagram with the output voltages specified so I could make up my own transformer then i'd liketo hear from you very much.

Also, if anyone has any info on the spindle motor used in the interact 4 that would be very handy as there doesnt seem to be a spec plate stamped on it.

[machintek]

I can help with the spindle motor when I get back to the office (which might be in 2 weeks as I am installing a CNC horizontal boring mill).
I remember that there were 2 different spindle motors. One was Italian, the other I am unsure. It could have a Contraves or a KTK spindle drive. Both are DC, the motor has brushes (remove the fan on the bottom of the motor to have a look at them). Phasing is critical as I had a customer move his machine and get thermal errors. He reversed the direction of flow of this fan.

George

[gus]

I have a spare 145 control that may include the transformer you need, I think a digital pic of the board/transformer might be the most efficient way to start

I am sorry that heidenhain uk is so miserable, heidenhain in the us is absolutely the best service/customer service from any company I have ever dealt with. Do understand that for a busy shop to have such a thing available is great on a control pushing 20 years old.

So, post a pic, and get as many numbers as you can off the card. Some of the parts do follow on these controls

[UKRobotics]

That would be great, thanks a lot

Its still dark here and I dont have the best of lighting in the shop - I'll wait for th e sun to rise and then go take some pics.

I do realise that to have such a repair/replacement service on such an old control is fine for a busy shop, and a shop that is using a cnc milling machine every day has little problem affording £1600 to get it fixed, with the downtime of the machine costing them more than anything else. But for a student hobbyist where the entire machine didnt cost that much it's a little excessive.

I would have thought and hoped that heidenhein would have realised this and taken the oppertunity to help as much as they can so a few years down the line when i'm bulk purchaseing VMC's I will want to go for a heidenhein. Instead they have left a very bitter taste in my mouth and thus i If i ever was in a position to be buying new machines, fanuc or another brand would be much higher on my list of prioritys when It came to choosing the controls.

Still it is their loss at the end of the day. If you are able to help me find the parts I need then I would be very greatful.

[RMARCH]

Hi , Check this website out. Maybe they will have what you need.

http://www.cncspares.co.uk/heidenhain.htm

[UKRobotics]

Thanks for the link, sadly I already found that company a few days ago after searching on google but they were not able to help.

For those of you in the UK, if you are having problems with an old bridgeport or any cnc for that matter, whether it be electical or mechanical its worth giving Precision Associates a call (07900 220757). I found them to be very helpful and I was given loads of useful advise which has guided me in the right direction of what to do next with regard to getting my machine running.

[UKRobotics]

Another day, a load more research, and still no more success but at least I have found somthing that others on here may find relevant.

I have come accross a company called Machine Tool Services near Sutton Coldfield (UK) and they will repair heidenhein units for £450 for exchange for £650. Compared to Heidenheins £1600 for a like for like exchange its a bargain.

[Al_The_Man]

Its too bad you cannot find out the specs on the transformer as I would guess you could pick one up for under £100?
If you want to spend the time, one way is to reverse engineer it, this way.
Usually, although the winding is fried, they seldom open, so you check with a meter for the secondary connections, i.e. how many and if any are centre tapped.
They are usually wound on top of the primary which is wound first.
Unwind the secondarys, counting the turns as you go, make a note of taps etc, if any.
The next is to detect the turns per/volt.
You know what the primary voltage is, e.g. 240ac. So you need to count the primary turns, unfortually they are wound with many turns of fine wire.
So you can do this two ways.
Either peel off and count as you go, or at this point, after the secondaries are off, use a hack saw with a very fine blade and section the primary winding. This makes it SLIGHTLY easier to count the turns.
One you have this you can calculate the secondary voltages they will be directly proportional to the turns/volt, the Physical size of the transformer indicates the VA.
If it is an odd ball spec, I would buy a Toroid type that was close and modify or wind the secondaries you want, it is easier to do with a toroid.
The fact it is mounted on the back of the unit makes it a bit more flexible.
Test any Bridge rectifiers or power diodes in case this was the original cause.
Al.

[UKRobotics]

Al,

It is a very oddball spec. off the top of my head it has somthing like 5 inputs and 6 outputs. The inputs are connected to a voltage selector switch, so I assume there is a different primary coil for each different input voltage, then the outputs would be probably somthing not too different to a pc, 12v, 5v, and what ever other voltages needed to drive the relevant logic.

Somthing I forgot to mention was that after speaking to Gerrard at precision associates, he explained that this is a fairly common problem with the TNC's and from his experience it is rarely the transformer at fault. The real problem is caused by some other faulty components in the switched-mode psu which start drawing too much current which then puts an excessive load on the transformer causing it to melt.

Without access to the kind of facilities that heidenhien have, it is incredibly difficult to track down the exact cause so it is somthing that they dont get involved with. There are electronics repair specialists out there that deal almost exclusively with switched mode power supplies who would be able to repair such things, and again probably for much less than heidenhein would charge, though they will still be charging more money than the average hobbyiest is going to want to spend out.

The size amd weight of the transformer is decieving. The thickness of the copper wires inside is very thin due to all the different windings for all the different voltages, that is why it doesnt take much for them to stop working.

[fdos]

Dom.. Is this what you want?

It's available if you need it. Complete PSU from a TNC145, which was working when I broke the machine up. located in Poole Dorset. Make me an offer if you want it.

Wayne....

[UKRobotics]

fdos, please check your private messages. Thanks