VMC 3020 Axis would not move

[zecevic]

Hi I have VMC 3020 with Siemens 840D. It was working fine one day. We do not shut down machine over night. Next morning no axis would move. Did reboot. Still same problem. The only alarms are "axis need referencing". Positions on the display change as i spin the hand-wheel and i get no additional errors or alarms. When i try to run the program, i only get "axis need referencing" error. It is frustrating. Please help!

[alex gitzel]

call fadal tech support 818-727-2100 then option #4 they are still there to help.there are very few siemens controled fadals left,most were sent back to the factoy to have the controls replaced with the legacy control because the siemens had bugs in it.so there will not be many here that can help you out.

[gaswiz69]

There are a couple of things to check, but I need to know which control you have. Is it a hybrid or an integrated? The easyist way to tell is look in the rear electric cabinet at the componants, if you see 2 green boards that have 1100-1 andd 1100-2 on them, they will have fuses and solid state relays as well, then it is a hybrid.
The integrated has a ready button as well as a door override switch. Try closing the doors, push and hold the ready button, then reset button. Release both, then push and hold door override and reset, release reset, see if you can jog or reference.
If equipped with air/oil spindle, check to see if your machine has a Fadal style air/oil control board, if so, is it faulted? Another thing to check, does your machine have an auger? If so, check the side door panels to make sure all switces are made.
A side note, I have yet to hear of ANY Siemens machine being returned to Fadal for retro-fit with an 88 control, maybe your thinking of the 104D.

[alex gitzel]

I was thinking of the 104d control,i was not aware they went back to siemens controls.was it a retofit for the infamatic that i hear was just as messed up as the 104d?

[gaswiz69]

The Siemens control is reliable, but the big wigs at Fadal wanted a digital control they designed, unfortunatly it was a crappy design, very unstable. (meaning the 104D) The componants were manufactured by several companies, and tolerances were too far out. Vibration caused these componants to move, causing arcs and the computer to lockup. The only recourse was to redesign the entire cnc computer. They tried that with the infomatic, but alas, they still had issues with software and reliability.
The siemens control was canned by fadal because the guy in charge did not like siemens, so they pulled the plug and put all their resources into fanuc. Fanuc is a solid control, but siemens would run circles around it, both in stability and speed. The engineers at fadal only scratched the surface of the siemens capabilities before the plug was pulled.
Incendently, the design of the infomatic control was closely similar to the siemens, both in software and hardware structure.

[egw]

Hello,
We also have the 840 D.
the control is good. the issues we have had were worse only because our tech's know the fadal stuff very well but not the seimens stuff.

One time we somehow ended up in simulation. we moved the controls but the machine did not move. Something to look at if it helps. In 8 years we lost the hard drive. the Problem was getting a ghost copy set up as our machine is.

geo


Evolution Gun Works Inc.