dc controller for tiger4

[keithmech]

I have a sharnoa mill with a tiger4 control on it (thanks GaryAragon. .The original idea was strip all controls and replace with new and run Mach3 as I have done on my Hardinge lathe.I have no manuals with the machine.The drives are servo motors made by CEM in France and the servo drivers are CEM made by EL.GE. in Italy.Is the Tiger control
worth spending time with?Any ideas on the servo controlles and running off a pc and Mach3.

[keithmech]

I ended up stripping all the old control off the machine.I Have had good luck with the mach control and figured that time is too valuable and the tiger control too old.I tested all the motors and they all ran fine.If someone is looking for tiger4 parts let me know.

[metalcaster4jc]

How did the conversion go? I have a Tiger 3 that I need to do something with, but with everything else a small business owner has to learn, I not had much time to get the conversion completely thought out.

Andrew Abrams
Marcellus Metalcasters, inc
269-646-0202

[keithmech]

so far fine.I have gone thru the machine and sorted out any
obvious problems.I mounted a new control cabinet and panel for the lcd screen and keyboard.The new Viper drives ,vfd and breakout board are on the way.I made up a schematic for the new wiring and have it all in place ready for the controls.Tommorow I hope to test and install the power supply.I may have some fun tuning the servos as the encoders are on the end of the ballscrews.There was no coolant /guard around the table so I have one drawn and will have that made before too long.I'l post some pics
if I can remember to grab the camera.As always I should have taken shots before and after,damm this photographic memory

[CGMachine]

Hello, I purchased the second Sharnoa that Gary sold in Dec. 2007. It has been 5 years since my last post in a forum, please excuse me if I dont get things right initially. I have origional manuals, and a floppy with the origional software. The machine has been stored since Dec. and I am preparing to move the machine to my shop and get her online. I am interested in opening a line of communication.

[keithmech]

Hello CG.I have pretty much redone the control on my mill.
I'm just waiting for the breakout board.I will have it running
with Mach3 .I replaced the servo drives with ones made by VIPER.
I removed all the electrical cabinets and control box .
The machine looks to be in good shape, the slides look very nice.
The lube system pumps well.I left the variable speed drive in but
it is not really needed as I have the motor connected to a vfd.
Gary was a good guy to deal with ,I felt his pain when he found out
what my machine went for.What is the history of those 2 machines?

[CGMachine]

Hey Keith,
I need to contact Gary in the very near future as I need a couple machines
that I would like him to aquire on my behalf. When I speak with him, I will get
the particulars on the Sharnoas. I know that they were functional as he saw them under power, Gary is a trustworthy fellow and a nice guy to boot. I do have the origional lower pan, and would be more than happy to create an electronic file and send it your way. I drove my machine back to Oregon the day before Christmas, unloaded it, lubed it, and haven't seen it since. I am looking forward to having it on site this Sunday. How I overlooked the fact that it was Daytona Sunday, I will never know. Did the 'dim' CRT function well enough to get the machine up and prove that the machine was fully functional? My website is underconstruction, and I plan to post portions of the operation/maintanience/wiring schematics for fellow owners. Until then, if there is any info that you might require, if it is in the literature, I will forward it to you. Are these machines Israeli made?

[keithmech]

The machine are made by Anayak in Spain.I have the owners manual
for the machine, no control.The control was made by Sharnoa which started out in Isreal but moved to the US in the early 80's.Our machines are real mutts.
Iron from Spain,contol designed in Isreal ,servo motors/controls from France, Italy and Germany,assembled in the US.As burger king says"have it your way".Kind of makes it hard to track stuff down, but except for Sharnoa all the companies are still in business.Let me know if you need spares or a copy of the machine manual.I found mine
in the side lower left hand cabinet where the transformer for the servo drives is located.

[metalcaster4jc]

The sharnoa controller was also installed on some of the 1980's era Wells Index mills. The controller was designed by Gil Hagiz who started Numeryx. His story is at http://www.numeryx.com/cnc/index.htm and is interesting. I have some ties to Wells Index from that time period and it was interesting to read his story. Because Wells Index used the controller, their current president, Rick Robinson knows a lot about the controller and mill. He was the one that was able to supply the drive belt for the variable speed for me; he may be able to supply other parts as well.
I bought my mill from a high school buddy who worked with all the Sharnoa/Wells Index guys and is now with Lamoine. What he likes best about the machine is that the controls can be repaired at the component level, replace a resistor or capacitor etc. And the few times that I've had trouble he and Rick have been able to help me out of it.
There are a lot of capabilities in the controller that most of us don't have the time to learn. Using vairables within trigometric equations within a loop to creat complex 3 d geometries is an example. Everyone now just puts it through a post from a cam package and out come thousands of lines of G1 codes.
All that being stated, I still want to retrofit the mill with a more modern controller. We won't be able to get the electircal components and dos based pc's for ever.
Right now, and this is after 7 years of tweaking, I have the sharnoa attached to a win 95 pc to load the executive and canned cycle programs. That pc is connected to my office network with 1 drive designated as the "server drive". I cad my stuff in trubo cad in my office, clean up the program so the sharnoa can read it and dump it to the server drive. I can then move it to the mill pc, rename it without an extension and load it to the mill. There is also a MDI mode for files that are too large for the memory. Akward but better than programming at the mill or moving floppies back and forth. I've never used the tape reader on it and don't have the faintest idea of how to do so.

[keithmech]

Machine is now running.The new Viper servo's seem to be
working fine.X axis is a bit noisey,but not bad.I have it moving 250 ipm
on the rapids.I need to connect a thermal switch on to the spindle motor so that the new fan only runs when the motor is hot.Overall the project seems to have been worth while.

[metalcaster4jc]

How about some pictures and complete discription as to how you went about it? What problems did you encounter?

[CGMachine]

Good Am,
SD850-3 Tigre IV w/tape reader only. 1804 executive tape and 1804 CC. Having trouble interfacing and communicating with pc(98se). I have some literature, but not enough.Can you advise?