Newbie- Bridgeport R2E3 camsoft retrofit

[slick_ride]

Any help or advice would be of great appreciation. I am retrofitting a Bridgeport R2E3 with Camsoft pro. software and a Galil 1842 motion card. I have identified the wiring but am struggling to understand how the servo drives/amps are enabled. Once the drives are enabled there are three magnetic relays that are closed and the servo motors can then be commanded. Based off of the schematic I believe that each drive receives 15 volts from the supply and the result is the magnetic relays are closed. There is a seperate supply of 90 volts that goes through the servo drive transformer and exits the board at 45 volts to power the relays. I have tried to power the drives but nothing happens. Is there something else that needs to happen to enable the drives? I have been struggling for days now. Any ideas?
Thanks,
Dan

[HillBilly]

Dan,

Good news and bad news. The good, I did one of these with the exact same setup as you are using. The bad, It has been 5+ years ago. I have some notes so we will see if I can help.

Are you energizing the CR1 relay. This used to be done on the FMDC board by Q1. Q1 would ground wire #239 (K15-9).

If you have schematics checkout drawings #'s 1937645 and 1935902.

Darek

[slick_ride]

I haven't had much time to fool around but I did jumper #239 to ground and sure enough the drives came alive. The only problem is that the motors took off as soon as the drives were energized. This was regardless of any connection to the controller.
Dan

[HillBilly]

Some drift should be expected without the controller but it sounds like your tach signals are not making it back to the drives. They should go through the ELI board ( Drawing #1936189). This board also contains the circuitry that combines the three drive fault signals into one.

Darek

[slick_ride]

Will the retrofit eliminate the EAF, FMDC and ELI boards? I have them disconnected now. I thought that I had a full set of wiring schematics but based on the drawing #'s you suggest I do not. We have another running machine that we are using for comparison. I was never able to get a firm grasp on the functionality of each of the boards and the missing prints and lack of progress explains why. I do have the six prints ending in 902. What's a good source for the schematics (electronic or printed)...I didn't find anything that stuck out on the net.
Dan

[HillBilly]

I would leave the ELI board. I also kept the EAF board for the output drivers.

The prints I have came from the maintanance manual notebook. Give me an email address , either here or in a PM and I will send you what I have.

Darek

[slick_ride]

Thanks again for all of your input. I was led to believe that the existing boards other than the servo amplifiers were no longer necessary with the Camsoft upgrade. Is the motion card communicating with the existing EAF and ELI boards and then the boards with the servo drives? I assumed the card communicated directed through the amps (the ICM was wired directly to the amplifier). My email is lindowdanj@hotmail.com.
Thanks,
Dan

[HillBilly]

I kept the ELI board because it passes the tach signals through. It also has a load resistor across the tach signal.

You do not have to keep the EAF board. If you remove it you will have to use something to replace Q1-Q6. The Galil outputs can not drive these outputs.

I emailed you the prints. It should make more sense after seeing them.

Darek

[slick_ride]

Darek,

Thankyou for the prints. I wish I had them two months ago before I started gutting the wiring and boards. I still have a question about wiring the motion command signal from the ICM. I am not sure how the +/-10V signal ties into the existing boards. Do I wire the control signal into the X, Y, Z current pins at the K14 connector on the FMDC board and ignore the tach signal? This way the controller takes the place of the FMDC. What function does the FMDC have on both the tach and current signals? Thanks again.
Dan

[HillBilly]

The command signals to the drives will be on the K13 plug of the FMDC board. I believe the only reason the tach and current signals went back to the FMDC board was for diagnostics.

Darek

[slick_ride]

Darek...
This is the problem now. I have been unsuccessful in determining why the motors take off as soon as the drives are energized. For testing purpose I wired a switch that grounds wire #239 when on and energizes CR1. As soon as the relays start humming the motors take off. I reinstalled the DLI board and connected the K1 plug that supplies the board with the tach and current signals from the servo drives. So the tach signals are going through the board but not the controller. The wiring is correct from the servo drives but the tach and current signals are not getting fed back to the controller. From the fantastic documentation you sent me (Thanks again) it appears that the FMDC processed these feedback signals. In the current state the controller does not. Do the signals need to go through the controller? I hooked back up the FMDC board and the K14 and K2 connectors that communicate with the DLI but the results were the same. I am not sure how Galil uses the tach feedback and why the motors aren't idle at startup. Any ideas? Dan

[HillBilly]

I was able to use the Galil using the encoder feedback and the amplifier inputs. I am sure of this because the Galil card I used had no analog inputs, which would be needed to process the tach and current signals.

I would unplug the Y and Z axis amps and work just with X at first. I am showing that the tach on the motor should go to terminal #4 on the servo drive mother board ( the board the amps plug into.). Chase the wire #4 on the drive board back to the tach. You may have to ground the input to the amps with no controller present. For the X axis this would be shorting K13-1 to K13-6 on the plug that used to go to the FMDC board.

Darek