Retrofitting Syil X3 with X4 Motor

[wwendorf]

Hi All,

I had finally gotten completely sick and tired of the slow spinup of my X3 when under CNC control (about 45 seconds) so, I got to talking with XuShu from Syil China. He said that I would be able to upgrade my X3 motor with the X4 motor and controller and faceplate so I had him send the necessary parts.

I'm pleased to say that I am almost nearly complete with this retrofit, at which time it will be time for me to store with my ATC and Power Drawbar.

Anyway, here is what I have found out so far.

The box I got from Syil included a new motor, a new driver board, a new front panel (the yellow X4 one) and some new wiring. I got 2 pages with some techy stuff on it that described how the new wiring got connected, etc... It was at that point I got a bit lost.

Luckily, I have a friend that has a Haas Lathe and Mill which he actually does all his own repairs on, plus he's an electronics genius, so he offered to come over and help me. Well, in sight of about 30 minutes, he ripped my mill apart, gutted it and rewired it (all the while i'm having a panic attack).

Long story short, we got everything re-wired and it all worked with the exception of 1 thing which was the spindle. Under CNC control, it would not set the RPM and went immediately to full speed. I'm still waiting on a final resolution on that, but it looks the parallel interface board needs to be replace with a different version board which is in the mail as I write this.

I also needed to get a different transformer to power the parallel board which Syil America sent to me and helped me install already.

My spinup time is drastically reduced under CNC control and it is down to about 7 seconds to 3500 RPM from 0 RPM. THAT I CAN live with.

I lost use of the automatic tapping feature and the quill, which, if i'm honest, I could care less about. I probably broke more taps with that feature than sucessfully tapped holes, plus i'm planning on getting a tapping head.

I took out the quill lock and just installed a bolt which hides nicely under the new front panel. I took out the handles on the quill as well. They unscrewed easily.

The only thing that didn't fit right was the control panel cover. The mounting was different for that vs. the X3. So, instead, I wound up cutting some small blocks of delrin about 2" long by 3/8" square. I drilled a small hole in them and screwed them into the X3 head. Then, I put the yellow X4 cover over the 4 delrin blocks, used an awl to mark where the X4 cover plate holes were, and then drilled small guide holes into the delrin blocks with a hand drill.

Then I just used some self-tapping screws to re-attach the faceplate to the delrin blocks. It worked great and looked like it was meant to be on the mill. There is only a tiny space up at the top between the top cover of the X3 and top of the X4 face plate which has a small 1/4" gap in it, but I just covered that gap with some tape until such time as I machine a spacer to put there.

I don't have any pictures yet, but I will post a few of what my X3/4 looks like now, and maybe a few of my delrin mounting blocks.

All in all, i'm pretty happy with it (except for the horrid yellow (I hate yellow)), but I'll deal.

So, in summary, I got almost everything I needed, and hopefully, this will be a reasonable way for people who are aggravated with the spinup of the X3 to get a faster more responsive machine.

Wade

[LeeWay]

Wow. That is still pretty slow spinup. Glad to hear it is much better than before though. At least it's usable at 7 seconds. Just put a delay in and off you go.

On the mill I built using a treadmill motor and Surplus Center controller, it is less than a second to spin up to 6600 RPM. Motor actually doing about 4000. Maybe two to three seconds to stop. It's at full speed before the coolant hits the part.

[wwendorf]

I actually don't mind a slower spinup because then there is less immediate drain on the power to my shop. When i've had motors spin up to speed in 1 shot, I see my lights dim.

Wade

[LeeWay]

I neglected to mention that I'm running my controller on 220, so that would make a difference.

[wwendorf]

Yep, definitely would make a difference. Hmm, makes me wonder. I have 220 available. I wonder what i'd have to do to run my mill on 220?? Sure would use a lot less power than 110.

Wade

[Al_The_Man]

I wonder what i'd have to do to run my mill on 220?? Sure would use a lot less power than 110.

Wade

Not really, power anyway, what you may mean is current, whether you transform up or down, the power consumption remains the same.
What often the observed effect is, that on higher voltage, lower current, the voltage drop is less for a given conductor size, so less likely to see the light dim!
You pay the power company the same, either way.
Al.

[LeeWay]

Right.
It would just mean fewer amp draw at start up because you are pulling power from both legs splitting the amp load required. It shouldn't dim the lights at all then. It would be a totally different circuit.

[wwendorf]

Well, I have seen it as a fact that if you run something on 220 vs 110 you will use less power. Doesn't matter if it's a machine or a heater. No matter the technical terms, 220 is more efficient that 110, hence there is a money savings. I just wasn't trying to be technical in my comment.

Wade

[Al_The_Man]

Sorry, you do not use less power, you do not get anything for nothing.
220 is not more efficient that 110 if the conductor sizing is correct for each application.
Please show how it is possible?
Al.

[wwendorf]

When I switched from using a 110v heater for my shop to a 220v heater, my costs went down by nearly $100 per month. But, that is not what this thread is about. Let's drop the 220v vs 110v thing or start it up in another thread.

I've argued this before and it's pointless. I know what affect my electric bills and what didn't. I'm not saying it takes less power, i'm saying it is more efficient in how it uses that power, resulting in less cost.

Back to the X4 motor in an X3.

I did some cutting with it tonight and it sure is nice to have the CNC control be nice and responsive. I'm looking forward to adding a power drawbar and ATC to my mill in the near future.

Wade

[iGG1e]

Hi Wade,

The long spindle start up is exceedingly irritating.

Can I ask how much it cost you do to the swap over? Not that I particularly want to pay for something that shouldn't be a problem in the first place, the lack of a responsive spindle control does impose restrictions on running the machine.

[PEU]

Long story short, we got everything re-wired and it all worked with the exception of 1 thing which was the spindle. Under CNC control, it would not set the RPM and went immediately to full speed. I'm still waiting on a final resolution on that, but it looks the parallel interface board needs to be replace with a different version board which is in the mail as I write this.

Wade, did you solved the Spindle problem? Im having the same issue.

check the thread: From SX3 controls to X4

Thanks!