Bridgeport R2E3 with Boss 8

[John Bennett]

Have just bought this machine and powered up. LCD is a bit unclear but can follow. I can run spindle, speed adjustment, jog x, jog y (with rotary knob and + and - buttons) but when trying to adjust z, the same way as x or y the error light comes on and the lcd says something about limit, I have removed the front cover on the head and manually rotated the belt to come of the limit switch (rotates freely) with the same result. I checked all switched for the quill with a ohm meter and all seem correct. What am I doing wrong.

I believe it must be my ignorance as it took me over a hour to find out that I was able to jog the table but just did not notice the movement as the feed rate was so small.

[machintek]

Did you enable the drives? I believe the machine can jog using the jog knob to jog off a limit switch. Then you need to home the machine. There is a home switch for each axis. If the axis is on a home switch, the control is smart enough to jog off the switch then come back on, look for the marker pulse (one per rev of the motor) and then count .300 inches. If it never stops, it may have a bad marker pulse. It can be fooled by jogging to the center of travel and rehoming. Press and hold down the home switch with a screwdriver once the axis starts moving in the home direction. If it stop in about .300 then you may just need a switch adjustment. If it never stops then it is the marker pulse. Home switch adjustment is in the maintenance manual. If it never comes off the home switch by itself, then you may have a bad switch or wire. You will need the books. Try machinemanuals.net for these manuals on CDROM.

George

[John Bennett]

I did get the manuals on CD and followed the instructions...enabled drives etc. I have checked all limit switches with meter and found no faults. Checked voltages into contoller board (nc400) and still found no faults, as a next step I switched controller from z to x and found that the z axis will function but not the x. Now I know the controller is the fault. Is there a full wiring diagram for these controllers and do people normally try to fix them.

The lcd has missing lines in the display so to interpert, the errors, is a little bit of, "fill in the blank"

[Al_The_Man]

What size and resolution is the LCD, I got a couple of brand new Sharp 10.1" 640x480 for $10.00 on ebay.
Al

[machintek]

I would have to check my cheat sheet folder but I cannot guarantee that I have a schematic for the axis drive. I also have to check the first provisional manual for this machine. It may have some data. It may be hard to get this repaired. I will check with my parts guy.
You are correct in that the error codes are actually 4 individual pieces of data that must be decoded with the use of the book. It helps to have useable digits.
The original display was made by EPSON and was a 2 line display. The last time Brideport had these on their parts list, they were asking $700.00 for each one.

George

[machintek]

Give me your email. I just scanned some data on the NC400 drives. Some basic descriptions and schematics on how they work. It may help someone to see what the problem is.

George