Need Help!- Misubishi Meldas Lost parameters

[peterwalker58]

Hello
my first post here
I have a Hartford HV45s VMC with a mitsubihi Medas controller that has lost its parmeters. How do i reload them? I have the factory settings. I want to finish my airplane engine
Thanks
Peter

[Caprirs]

Procedure varies with which Meldas control you have. M0, M2, M3, M520? I can help with the M3 if that's what you have.

[HuFlungDung]

It's a conspiracy, I tell ya! Same thing happened to me recently.....must be the end of life for a lot of lithium batteries out there Mine went for 12 years though. Had only 0.4volts left when it quit, compared to 3.6v when new. I made up a new battery pack and hung it outside the 'black box' where I can get at it for the occassional probe with a multimeter henceforth

You'd have to wonder at the engineering for these things, when there is no circuit built to monitor the battery condition. Its about as dumb as building a car with no gas gauge.

Mine was a Meldas 50. There is more to it than just loading the parameters back in. The control needs to be reinitialized, then formatted, changed to English, then serial port settings put back in, the PLC reloaded and the parameters and tool offsets (if you saved them) reloaded. A call to Mits support is well worth while. The guys in the North American contact office are a sharp bunch.

[peterwalker58]

]Procedure varies with which Meldas control you have. M0, M2, M3, M520? I can help with the M3 if that's what you have.[/QUOTE]

My control is a Meldas 320. The machine powers up when i hit the power button on the controller but nothing lights up, no screen no servo lights. The controllers in the controll cabinet come up with some codes ansd lights.
I guess i need to plug into the RS232 port to set it up and load parameters.
BTW I found the Factory supported sevice techs but its gonna be expensive I think

Thanks Peter

[Al_The_Man]

If you get nothing on the screen, it sounds like more than parameters?
Al.

[HuFlungDung]

Peter,
Those alarm codes may help pinpoint the exact problem. But, the list of alarms in the manual seems like it might be abbreviated (it was in my case), and you'd have to phone in to find out the interpretation.

[Caprirs]

Sounds like the battery got low. Power but no screen is typically the result. Going through this will power up the machine and make it function, but you'll still have to address the dead battery so it can all be lost when you power off again for any extended period.

Here's what to do:
Initialize the MC-161(9) card
- In the back cabinet, find the MC-161(9) card on the control.
- Locate the DIP switches along the edge of the MC-161(9) card.
- Starting from the topmost switch, flip the first, third, and fifth switches on.
- Turn on the main disconnect, then turn on the control for 30 seconds. The screen will still be blank.
- Power everything off and set all the DIP switches back to the left/off positions,
- Power up the control again.
- You should now have a display.

Format the memory and load the canned cycles
- Go to the ALARM/DIAG screen and press the soft key for PLC-I/F.
- At the bottom of the screen in the first three fields, enter 1001 in the DEVICE field, leave DATA empty, and M in MODE and press input.
- Go to the TOOL/PARAM screen, and press the soft key for BASE2
- Change fix_P to have a value of 1.
- Go to PROGRAM/ IN/OUT screen.
- Press the soft key IN/OUT at the bottom of the screen.
- Press the soft key for ERASE.
- In the DATA field, type FORMAT and press input.
- Press the soft key INPUT.
- In the #( ) field, enter 4 and press the input key to reload the fixed cycles.

Set I/O parameters to transfer machine parameter file
- Go to TOOL/PARAM screen
- Use NEXT soft key twice to show I/O PARAM and press the soft key for it.
- On the first screen, we only care about the first three for DATA IN, DATA OUT, and NC RUNNING. Set them all the same for now. Set DEVICE to 0. Set PORT to 0 or 1. This depends on how the machine builder set things up. If you're not sure, set PORT to 0 and plug your RS-232 cable directly into the port on the MC-161(9) card.
- Press the soft key NEXT to get to page 2/5.
- There are three fields to enter data. The first is for the DEVICE you are communicating with (in case you want to use different settings for simple transfer and DNC modes), the second field is the parameter #, and the last is the value of the parameter.
- I set my machines with the following:
- These settings will run 9600 baud, 7 data bits, even parity, and 2 stop bits.

Code:
DEVICE NAME XON
BAUD RATE 1
STOP BIT 3
PARITY EFF 0
EVEN PARITY 0
CR. LENGTH 0
TERM TYPE 0
TERM CODE1 0
TERM CODE2 0
REWIND CODE 0
HANDSHAKE 3
DC CODE PARITY 1

Transfer the parameter file to the machine
- Get your PC ready to transfer.
- Go to PROGRAM/IN/OUT and press the soft key IN/OUT.
- Press the soft key for INPUT.
- In the # ( ) field, enter 3 and then cursor over to the DATA field. Leave it blank and press the input key. If the PC is ready and the RS-232 cable is correctly wired, the control will be waiting for data.
- Go back to the PC and initiate the transfer.
- When all the data is in, press RESET.
- Power off the control, then power off the main disconnect.
- Wait about 5 seconds and power the machine back up.

You may still need to load the tool change macro also. Some machines also require setting specific parameters for the current tool in the spindle, tool magazine position, etc. Those parameters will only come from the machine builder.

[chippy1]

If it's a M320 control then the CPU card is a MC111 PCB. If it's an M320V control then it will have a MC161 or MC161-1 PCB for the CPU. If it's an M3A control then it would have a MC161-9 PCB I believe. Then follow the procedure below. If it's a MC111, you only need to flip dip 1 & 3.

Regards,

Chippy

[peterwalker58]

Hello
I followed the procedure. I have the same outcome, No screen no NC light. I tried 3 times with the third having the machine powered up to put charge into the battery for 3 hours. Its a MC161-1 card the System is a M320V
Thanks Peter

[Caprirs]

I've given you all I know. I can only suggest contacting Mitsubishi from here. Unless, the battery is so dead that it will not tolerate even the brief power off during the initializing procedure.

[peterwalker58]

Ill get Mitsubishi to sort it out
Thanks for your help
Btw im building a 5 cylinder full size radial aircraft engine form scratch clean sheet.
Peter

[Caprirs]

That I would love to see. Pictures are especially appreciated on such projects.