D&M 4 cnc vertical mill documentation

[cthomas]

I am running EMC2 on a D&M 4 cnc vertical mill. I have bypassed the onboard control card and I am connecting step and direction directly from my computer parallel port to the drive cards for each axis. I am presently turning the spindle on and off manually. Everything seems to work great but I don't have CNC control of the spindle.
Question??? Could anyone share with me the schematic or the block diagram of the main control card so that I can figure out how to connect spindle commands to the machine from my computer??? If anyone has the docs for this machine I will gladly pay for the expense of copying or scanning. I have reverse engineered the individual axis driver cards and will share the schematics of those with anyone who needs them.

Thanks,
Cecil

[gerryv]

Hi Cecil,

I won an eBay auction for a D&M 4 CNC Mill a several days ago Item number: 330168583165 and I'm wondering if you would be kind enough to offer any thoughts or advise and if you have any documentation and schematics on these machines?

I'm actually hoping I can upgrade it if necessary, to be able to run Mach3 rather than a DOS based setup. Do you think $400 was a decent price considering the startup issue mentioned in his description?

Thanks kindly,
Gerry

[mburns]

Hey guys, I know this is an old thread, but I am wondering if there has been any progress?

I am a teacher at a high school and I am trying to bring a D&M 4 back to life. I want to bybass the card as you have done. Where are the step and direction wires?

Any luck on the spindle control?

Thanks

Mike

[boatlover]

I would love to get a copy of the schematics. I have a D&M 4 mill and want to add a standard breakout board, but am having trouble with wiring it. The original stepper drivers use four wires for signal input, but newer systems only use three. The old mother board has three of the wires labeled and they are D, C, and +5. I'm guessing the D is for direction, C for step? and the +5 is for a 5 volt input to run the card.


Thanks for the help!

My E-Mail is dpynenberg@new.rr.com

[boatlover]

I'm almost done with a mill retrofit. Feel free to shoot me an E-Mail for questions and picts.

Dale P.

dpynenberg@new.rr.com

[smorris]

I'm looking for some help as i bought a D&M 4 Mill.I need a control program eather the original or any other one that will run it. Also any operating procedure or manuals of any type would be helpful.I bought this for home and just need some help to get this little mill running.
Thank You
Steve

[boatlover]

Steve, If you don't have the original software and card to drive it you have to retrofit it to work with windows based software such as Mach 3. It can be a easy fix, Shoot me your E-mail address and I can send you some picts and info to help.

My address is dpynenberg@new.rr.com

Thanks, Dale P.

[gerryv]

Hi All,

Kind of an old thread but I'll give it a try. I'm finally getting around to working on the D&M 4 mill I bought last year.

I'm pretty sure that I'm going to upgrade it with a Probotix stepper and controller package instead of risking frying all the existing electronics which I know nothing about.

In order to help recover some of my cost I was thinking of selling all the electronics bit on eBay but then realized I'd need to describe them, which I can't so I'm thinking I should just remove the back panel with everything still attached as well as the steppers and front control panel and sell it as a single item. Less chance of my damaging something that way.

Does anyone have any advise on how or if I could power up and test the full assembly first? The unit didn't come with any software or instructions whatsoever and looks like it needs an old serial port computer to link to. I'm an illiterate when it comes to this stuff and DOS in particular (I drive a Mac). Maybe I should just advertise it "as is"?

Any advise,
Gerry

[boatlover]

Hey Gerry,


Shoot me your E-mail address and I will send you some more info on your machine. I'm almost done with a write up on how to retrofit these machines by reusing most of the components. In the end it can be a lot cheaper than starting with all new. You can replace and up grade parts in the future if wanted.

As for selling the old parts... Guess I would take picts and label wires when you remove them. I wouldn't sell them attached to the back cover since it will triple the shipping cost. You won't have to worry about replacing the back cover too! I don't see the old parts selling for much in the end. Any one who buys the parts will mostly be interested in the stepper motors and the three drives for the motors. The other circuit boards are out dated and won't really work for any thing. The power supply should go for good money, but you can also reuse it for you machine. It puts out 48 volts DC and has a secondary tap to make a 5 volts supply if needed.

As for testing the machine... You can't do anything with out a computer and software. The only thing you can do is manually turn on the spindle.

Hope that helps!

Dale P.

dpynenberg@new.rr.com

[cncmachiner]

Could anyone of the previous posters send me any of the material they might have on the mill - I've also just acquired one and would like to refurbish it.

Much Thanks In Advance,
Chris

[gerryv]

Hi Chris,

In my case I was never able to come up with anything much so I finally decided to just replace the controls and steppers with current technology. I recently purchased a used Xylotex pkg and will get a licensed version of Mach 3 so that I can use all of the wizards, etc, but have not actually begun the changeover yet. I imagine I'll just remove all of the older electronics and maybe put them on eBay as a lot. Depending on whether or not the mill motor speed controller will work with the 90v Sherline motor that came with the machine, I could decide to keep it. I'll probably also replace the front panel control module with a Mach compatible game pendant. My interest is more in having a working machine than trying to struggle through electronics on an '89 vintage machine to save every cent possible, so this seems to be the most practical approach for me.

Wish I could offer more.

Gerry in Ontario

[cncmachiner]

Cecil,

Thanks for the reply.

That's pretty much where I'll be heading with it - I, too, don't want to be bothered with aging electronics except for the initial period of evaluating what I have and then gradually start the conversion. Even with the electronics stripped out and replaced I figure I should be ahead - failing that, I'll have sherline mill pieces to work with; it does look to be in relatively pristine condition so hopefully if the servos and milling motor work, I'll be able to start converting. Right now I'm just trying to establish what base functionality I have since I received it yesterday, so anything at this point is helpful. I've never owned a milling machine or lathe, so my learning curve is that much steeper.

Presumably I will be able to keep the servo power supply but other than that I doubt I could keep much else. Although I'm wondering whether the variable speed control drive is salvageable - or maybe not - seems like the xylotex is a drive package from just a cursory web search.

Certainly I will need a break out board for my PC and I'll have to start shopping/comparing around for that. Any suggestions?

Regards,
Chris