Build Thread- New to me Tree 325

[lavrgs]

I won a Tree 325 on ebay last Friday 4/24/09 and while my expectations aren't too high I see that it could have potential and wanted post about it because I expect to be spending more time here looking for help. The good news it took a $428 bid to buy it and probably about $600-800 to ship it from LA to Oregon. So for less than $1500 it will arrive with an "electrical" problem.
My first problem will be getting it in my shop - the short story is I need a bigger door. I am wondering about all the things I should be doing once it arrives. I am not a machinist but I work at a place that has a great shop and lots of engineers that can get me through most problems. I expect that some cleaning will take place and some investigation into what works and what doesn't. I will need a manual for a machine with a Dynapath Delta 20 controller any suggestions about where to go?
Can someone with a similar mill look at the picture of the cabinet and tell me if what's there is original or modified - I see at least one component that looks like it was fried and replaced. I also need a #2 key for the keyboard or possibly a new controller...
I expect this mill should be delivered in about 1-2 weeks then the fun will begin.

Thanks

Bill

[lavrgs]

...no Tree huggers?

[elnerdo]

Congratulations on your acquisition. I'd say you got a great deal but machines with burned controllers and an unknown history can be deceptively "inexpensive". Ask me how I know. There are a few parts that I don't recognize compared to the control electronics in my own machine, the little black box in the lower right corner and the additional wall mounted fuse are the two obvious ones.

I can send you a .pdf manual I have from Ellison machine that gives the basic operating instructions for the machine (homing,power up etc) if you send me your email address. What did the previous owner say the electrical problem was?

[lavrgs]

Unfortunately I was unable to determine exactly what the "electrical" problem was before I bought it.. The people I bought it from had no clue about what was wrong, they never powered it up or did any work to it they just resold it. It should arrive this week and I will begin the adventure...

Thanks for the offer of the manual. I have no idea what is coming with it but I saw "something" in the door. Hopefully the parameters necessary for set up or wiring diagrams. Those would be very handy.

I've thought about worst case scenarios and controls and spindle motor burn out are top choices. Replacing the controls is certainly a likely requirement even if they worked...although my first objective is to determine what's wrong and see if it's possible to fix it.

wbmac(at)yahoo(dot)com

Bill

[Hemiracer]

I spoke to a guy who worked at Tree when they were building these machines and he said the wiring arrangement changed weekly. The Dynapath web site has some control interconnect diagrams in the support section. I have been unable to obtain any machine wiring diagrams and board level schematics are unobtanium for we mortal folk, although they exist.

Your machine appears to have the servo PS xfmr situated in the lower left corner. Mine has the xfmr in a metal box mounted to the bottom of the cabinet. The xfmr on the upper right side of the cabinet is for the Dynapath control. Mine has a fuse mounted to the secondary terminals, it appears yours may not. That might explain the presence of the fuse block in the middle of the cabinet.

Those three transformer-like objects on the upper left side of the cabinet are actually chokes in series with the servo motor power leads. The soot outlines on the cabinet wall suggest there was once a fourth axis amp card and choke installed, but your pendant does not have the jog switch for the "A" axis. Mine has all three items, but the fourth axis is not enabled.

You can power the control alone by lifting the leads off the secondary of the xfmr and hooking to 120v AC. On my machine, one of those secondary leads is tied to the chassis, so look out for that. You'll want to make sure there is an appropriate fuse somewhere in the circuit.

The control power supply, mounted on the right side of the control chassis, outputs +5v, +15v, -15v and +24v DC.

Keep us posted.
Roger

[lavrgs]

I've been working on getting the computer to work. I seem to have the proper voltages and I spoke with Parts and Smarts yesterday who said the boards must be in a certain slot and mine are in the slots they're supposed to be. The processor is getting warm to the touch but I am getting 2 Japanese characters on the top left of the screen. To me this means the computer is not booting but I have no clue where to look. I removed all the boards cleaned the contacts and tried powering up with only the CPU board installed, still no luck
I've been wondering if I need the servo control in the loop and now that I know where to hook up power I may give that a shot.

taking baby steps is irritating If I had the money I would just go buy a Centroid control...

[Hemiracer]

The servo drive doesn't have to be powered for the control to work. In fact, until the control is booted, the e-stop string is closed and the reset button is pushed, the servo drive contactor is not enabled.

The guys at Parts and Smarts know the Dynapath control very well.

Are red LEDs lit on any of the cards?

[lavrgs]

Still no luck with any of the systems - probably due to my lack of understanding of how all the systems interact. After re-reading some of the posts I see I missed some of the information that was provided.
I wanted to get the servo motors to spin this weekend and had no success. I am getting closer to knowing what I will try and keep and what I will sell off. I won't sell anything until the machine is fully running so don't ask just yet...there is a short list already of people interested in parts.

The "plan" will change daily I'm sure but one of the items that will be first to go is the Dinasaurpath Delta 20. I've heard great things about these but reality says its just too expensive to repair and to someone like me who's not tied to it's funky keyboard etc I see it as an anchor.
Ireally want to get the Servo Dynamics system working and spoke with SD last Friday - I think I was talking to the accountant (really) but between us we figured out what it would take to turn the motors. OK the reality is the accounting dept needs to stick to accounting. I was unable to send a signal to the motors using the servo module. Can I put a DC voltage directly to the motor? I think I can but I don't want to do any damage. Is there an interlock or something? Perhaps the big volts aren't getting past the contactor. I couldn't find what I thought would be voltage to run the servo.
I played with Mach 3 for a short time this weekend any thoughts on it as a controller?
Next thoughts are Breakout boards then Gecko or Rutex drives. Campbell design has a breakout board they call a Combo Board - anybody using one with the SD Drives?

[ions82]

I will be keeping an eye on this thread. I have an older Tree (Journeyman 330) that I am seriously considering retro-fitting. The control on mine is even older than yours, and it is giving me fits. I've been trying to figure out how the power supplies tie into the monitor boards so I can power the control with some aftermarket supplies. However, it is quickly becoming very confusing and complicated (probably because I don't know what I'm doing in the first place).

Anyway, keep us posted on your progress. I don't know too much about retrofitting machinery, so any little bit of insight will be helpful.

[lavrgs]

I, too, am a complete newb... this stuff is way above my head but I'm breaking it down into small chunks.
For the controls - if they're anything like mine - the power comes from a supply inside the box which in my cabinet is on the lower right. The cover comes off pretty easy and then the terminals are exposed and you can check the voltage. AC comes in on one end (red,white and green) there are 3 ground pins in the middle of the outer set and +/- 15, 5 and 24...and 12 VDC ...pretty sure - but its in the thread.
I received a breakout board from Campbell design today so it's off to get confused...

[ions82]

The power supply in my mill is garbage. I bought three nice Acopian supplies from fleaBay thinking that I could just wire them into the control and go to town. Well, the "monitor boards" make it far more complicated than that. I've decided to can the whole idea and start learning about the retrofit. I think it will be a long road, but there should be a nice mill at the end of it. The electronic side of it is confusing by itself, but I'm already worrying about how I will tie in the spindle brake/lock, speed/gear change, etc...

Well, I guess I will now follow you down the path to confusion! I'm sure we'll pass each other along the way. Be sure to post any progress you make.

[lavrgs]

Which controller do you have? I would disconnect the existing supply and connect the proper voltages to the terminal strip (I'm making a big assumption) and the monitor will get its supply from the card cage.