11m upgrading to 4 axis

[cwtoyota]

My machine is a 3 axis Kuraki kv-700 with Fanuc 11m controller.

If I decide to upgrade to a fourth axis, what is required hardware / firmware for the 11m system to run the servo/encoder on the rotary table?



Thanks!

[guhl]

It's very interesting thing!
What type of servo drives: analogue or digital (yellow (black) or red caps motors)?
I have the parameters description manual for 10, 11, 12 series. I suppose it can help to glue the axis.

[Anantha Narayan]

To Guhl from Ukraine:

We have a SNK (Japanese) Gantry vertical milling machine (6 axis) having rotary table and A axis on the moving head on the gantry. This machine gets to be very slow when working on simultaneous 5 axis (3 linear axes and 2 rotary axes) whereas there is no problem when working as a 3 axis machine (only linear axes X,Y & Z). The machine is old (about 1989 vintage) and I am told the baud rate of data transfer from the PC to the controller (which is on the machine cabinet) is very low (4.8 kbps) and further the controller memory is small and so the drop in speed.
Do you have any views on this?

Thanks

Ananth

[memoryman]

The baud rate for that control has no effect on machining performance if you run the program from the memory; if you do DNC (dripfeeding) then you may need the high speed buffer option. You can increase the memory to 5120 m (2 mega bytes).
Adding an axis may involve an additional axis board as well as a major ladder modification.

[cwtoyota]

Machine has red servo caps, fanuc servos.


What I am looking for is to find out what pieces of hardware and if there are any firmware upgrades necessary.

Things like:
Which boards for axis control and servo output, etc?
New firmware or just modify some parameters?


Thanks

[guhl]

At least you need A16B-1211-0271 (one additional axis) or A16B-1211-0270 (two additional axes) PCB(s).
And no firmware upgrade, I think. Just parameters

[gbowne1]

Remember that there are 10/11 Add. Axis cards. They're anywhere from $250-960 on ebay.. but if you watch you can get them in good condition for much less.

A16B-1210-0430, -0440, -0450

But.. on the -0270 and -0271's...

There are some really cheap A16B-1210-0270's and -0271's right now on eBay. Under $100.

Concepts Industrial is a good seller. I have bought from them with pretty good luck.

While the A16B-1211-0270 and -0271 cards are $500-$1000 on ebay.

I don't know the difference is between the A16B-1210 and the A16B-1211 types.

Greg

[guhl]

A16B-1210-0430, - 50, -70 are for analog servo interface
A16B-1210-0270 - as described it's "PCB robot" (probably for robots)
A16B-1211-0270, -71 are for digital servo interface

For this type of control (red caps) A16B-1211-0270 (-71) are needed

[cwtoyota]

So I need the axis control board:
A16B-1211-0270 or A16B-1211-0271

Then additionally do I need a servo driver board as well?

[WGoyer]

Do you really need a full fourth axis? If you could get by with a separate controller like Haas makes, life would be a lot easier. If so, you need an unused M-code to cycle the indexer and access to the M-Fin input to suspend linear motion while the rotary moves.
Some issues to consider if you really need full integrated motion on the rotary:
1) Does the table's motor match the old motors?
2) Is the servo transformer large enough for another axis?
3) Are the controls in place on the pendant to select and jog a 4th axis?
4) Is the ladder pre-written for clamping and zeroing functions?

Warren
www.uptimecorp.com