Need Help!- Fadal VMC 15RT Spindle error problem

[Gerald Sande]

Hello all, It's been a while since I have been on this forum, please excuse. Back in March I started working with a Fadal VMC 15RT CNC. This was to get it working, so once it was placed in it's spot, I wired it "480v 3p" and supplied air to it "85psi". It never started. I found a bad dc power supply in 1100-1 cabinet and replaced it using a computer "pc" power supply unit. The system came up and X,Y,Z and spindle worked. I noticed noise coming from the X motor and after a time, the X motor amp board blew a fuse. I found out that the X motor magnets came loose from the case. Well another motor was ordered and I didn't have time to work with the CNC till now. I installed the new X motor, fired the system up and the X motor was in a oscillation. I found information by accident how to adjust for this problem when I found a sticker on another amp board telling about adjusting the "comp" pot. In adjusting the "comp" pot, I found it to be intermittent and notice the "comp" pot had one leg loose from the circuit board. I soldered it and was able to adjust it and all was well with the X motor. "Adjust comp pot cw until oscillation, then back off 1 1/2 turns ccw". I had to tweak the resolver on the motor. So I exercised the X Y and Z axis and all were good. Next came the problem I haven't been able to fix yet, I went to MDA mode and did a M3 then start, the spindle came on for about 3 to 5 seconds and quit. The message on the screen was "Emergency stop-take appropriate action C axicsfault as follows error Number #8 motor overload". I checked all fuses and looked for loose wiring in spots I knew about. I manually ran the spindle motor at the Baldor keypad and the spindle motor stayed cool. I did notice one thing when you try to run the spindle motor from the CNC88 computer, the speed is reading incorrect on the Baldor. In the MDA mode I gave it a S1000 speed and the Baldor display read 173 rpms. So I believe the Baldor inverter is getting the wrong information from ? and because of ? . If anybody can put me on the correct track. Incorrect signal from a sensor ? to a control board ? Sorry for the long message, I wanted to give you some history. This spindle problem started after sitting for 4 months with no power or air hooked up. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Jerry *NOTE, I just read the error code Reference and found out that it's " spindle magnet not detected" Now I need to find the spindle magnet and go from there. Also I have a ORIENTATION failure when trying to grab a tool. MDA mode "T2M6" I think it's because of the spindle motor problem. Thanks

[scadvice]

Jerry, I'm a little confused by the C axis fault error? Do you have a rotory table also? As I think that it is the board for that you may have to deal. A parameter or some such thing. Posssibly the 4 th axis cable cover is missing? Hopfully Neal can tell you. I'm away from my shop and can't look in the manuals.
Steve

[Gerald Sande]

The spindle runs for 3 seconds and quits. This is being run in MDA mode. A normal program of any type will fail at the point of grabbing a tool with an Orientation failure. So back to the spindle, I can run the spindle motor with the Baldor keypad and have no motor problems. It stay cool and runs smooth. I will start at the sensor "when I find it" and check all wiring down to the control board. I don't have a description of the sensor location or adjustment if any. I have a limited wiring diagram for a Fadal 4020HT and that's it. The bottom line is the spindle ran fine 4 months ago and this CNC sat with no power or air for that time. Nobody has touched it. Jerry

[little bubba]

The magnet is right on top of the pulley, and there is a hall effect sensor. I think the gap between the magnet and the motor on mine is around .025". Two possibilities, too big of a gap or bad sensor. This will also cause problems when orienting to do a tool change. Side note, I ran into the same problem, had a few loose bolts on the tool change bridge and it sort of bent and my gap from sensor to magnet was around .080, that gave intermittent C axis faults.

As for the drive showing the wrong RPM, they will, its not the spindle speed, its the motor speed that its showing. On my machines high gear is 2:1 and low is 1:2 so it shows either double or half the programmed RPMs.

[Neal]

Hall effects gap should be .030" to .050". Verify that the 5volts on the red wire at the Hall switch is present.

Neal

[FastFieros]

I have lots of experience with this exact error.

Try this....

Cold start the machine.

FIRST thing after cold start go to MDI ( why you call it MDA ? )
Next thing in MDI is to M3S1000 hit enter
The spindle should come on and NOT get the error.
If the spindle does run you can hit stop spindle very quickly.
Now you can do a M6T1 and it should work.
From this point you can run a program also.

I have to do this every time I Cold Start my machine. Something about the cold start mess up the orientation of the spindle, but going to MDI and running the spindle very first thing fixes the problem.

See if it works for you. I have a VMC15 1993 with the SWEGO rigid tap.

[Gerald Sande]

I typed MDA instead of MDI because I'm brain dead. I will check the spindle magnet and pickup Monday and keep you posted.

[Gerald Sande]

Today I checked the spindle hall effect and found that there was 5volts, ground and a signal 4 volts until magnet then 0 volts. The air gap was tight .020, but I left it to pursue the wiring. All was good. I finally pulled the 1010-4 spindle controller out of my Fadal 4020 and installed it into the VMC 15. I see that the 1010-4 cards are used for both axis and spindle. The controller card I removed was a old X axis card with the jumpers corrected to spindle controller and proper Eproms. Fired the machine up, and all worked well, no problems with spindle or ATC. Being a board problem I wonder what type of problems occur on the board. I can check the Eproms, but I don't see a sum check listed on them. V92 1X RIDGIDTAP Thanks for any extended help. Jerry

[Gerald Sande]

I replaced the spindle controller board and the problem was gone. It had a 1010-4 board and found out you can use a 1010-5 board if you change to the correct prom's. "cost way to much thou" case closed, Jerry

[chrisr]

I replaced my 1010-1 card recently with a 1010-5 because of "spindle controller errors". I should have done it sooner because i had a problem for a long time prior. No problems since.