Colchester CNC with Crusader II conversion

[Dave1200]

Hi Everyone,

Me and my brother Derek (derekBPcnc) have just positioned the next project in the workshop, as in the photo, a Colchester Master 600 CNC lathe. (First project was a Bridgeport BRJ 1, now running on Mach3).
With the lathe, the intention was to remove the old Anilam Crusader 2L controls and use just the servo motors in conjunction with new drives and Mach3.
As bought the machine was sold as good condition but we had no oportunity to test any of the contols, so had low expectations of anything working. But having swithced on the controller (not drives as the workshop only has 1ph 230vac) all appears to be OK, the x & z dro works fine when moving the slides manually.
The indramat drive in its housing looks mint, not a spot of dust anywhere.
So what to do?

1) Convert the existing controls to single phase, the main trasformer 415
- 90vac will need to be changed along with the controls transformer 415 - 115 to run on 240vac. Use a +-10v to step and direction converter to allow Mach3 to interface with the Indramat drives.
or
2) Rip out and start with new drives powering the exsting motors and control with Mach3.
3) Or even leave the Crusader and drip feed via the RS232.
Main spindle motor will be run off an inverter.
Either way, it looks like a fair bit of work to convert to 240 vac.
Has anyone got experience of converting a Crusader II to 240vac single phase supply?
Is it worth it?
Regards,

Dave & Derek.

[derekBPcnc]

Hi,

Here is a photo of the 3TRM2 drive, the motors are MDC10.10H/MMA-C (11A @ 170vDC).

I suppose we could use a 240-415 transformer (or 415-240 in reverse???) to supply the existing drive transformer. Shame it has not got a 240V primary.
It would be great if we could give the drives and motors a test run.
Any suggestions would be apprecicated.

Regards,

Derek.

[Al_The_Man]

Looks pretty much in mint condition, if it is just the servo's to convert (apart from a spindle VFD), if they are 3 phase scr drives, then it may be a case of changing them out to 1 ph PWM, But if they are PWM, it may be possible to run on 1 phase.
If they are PWM and have a separate DC supply, this can be beefed up, by extra capacitance etc.
Al.

[derekBPcnc]

Hi Al,

Generally the lathe is in realy good nik and should make a good conversion.
The main transformer is 1ph, and appears to supply the indramat with 90VAC. The main tranni is a big beast, 415 to 2 x 90vac secondaries @ 19.4A each,(not sure if in parallel or feeding each of the axis individually) so I suppose we could change that for a 240 to 90vac transformer + the 115vac control side to get us going. I can't see any sign of 3ph going to the drive.
Just not sure at the moment how much effort to put into the existing controller / drives or just rip out and put in new(er).
We haven't had much time to study the wiring yet as the machine was only put in position 2 days ago.
Having had a good google about, I haven't found much info either.
The mill conversion was an easier proposition as this was an elecrical "start from scratch job"

regards

Derek + Dave

[derekBPcnc]

Hi,

Took another look at the wiring.
The transformer supplies 90vac to each drive so the plan is to replace that with a 240 - 90vac tranni.
The control side is running at 115vac and that transformer has a 415 and 220vac primaries so that will be much less of a problem.

This sounds too easy, just change one transformer and the x & z drives are working, things would be easier and less guesswork with a schematic!!
Still as a freind once said "its better to lucky than good looking"

Does anyone know a source of Colchester schematics?

Regards

Derek.

[Al_The_Man]

Sounds like the Electrics will be fairly straight forward to change, isn't Colchester still in Bus. for schematics? Or is this an after market retro?
Al.

[derekBPcnc]

Update:- .......

Connected a new supply transformer to the drives, (its actually 190VAC 2x 90vac center tapped) but nothing. (and at least no expensive smoke!)

There is a contactor that isolates the 190vac to the drive, this has a 415v coil so this needs to be changed also.

We pushed the contactor in manually but still nothing, there must be an inhibit, possibly from a safety circuit??????

Still trying . . . . . . . .

Derek.

[derekBPcnc]

Got to power up the drives today.
Servos now hold position but can't get any movement, or manual jog etc.

More head scratching to do ???????????????????

Derek.
ps Called Colchester, they said that just supplied the iron to Anilam and Anilam fitted the ballscrews / servos / controls and also said that Anilam can no longer supply documentation

[derekBPcnc]

At last . . .success

Problems were:-
Intermitant contacts on the 2 emergency stops.
Also, when we had the PSU out of the Crusader, a +-19vdc lead had popped out of the back-plane (right at the bottom out of sight). This caused the situation where the drives would hold position but not move as there was no command signal being generated by the D-A board !
Easy when you know how.

So, next step, get the spindle motor fitted with an inverter.
Get a serial lead to download Gcode from Mach3.
Cut some metal.

[derekBPcnc]

Latest update:-

Fitted a 240vac contactor for the 180v supply to the dives, the fitted contactor was 415v.

Installed the toroidal transformers in the location of the old trani.

Took out the spindle motor contactors, fitted an 240vac ip inverter, start stop signal taken to the inverter.

Serial coms worked out (that took a few nights . . .good ole RS232 !!!!!).

Some simple Gcode was uploaded from Mach and tested on some real metal!!.

VERY happy

I still intend to upgrade to Mach either with new drives or install a pulse / direction to +- volt converter to contol the existing dirves / motors.

[derekBPcnc]

Well, it finally happend.
The Crusader controller has died, or thats what it looks like.

Now when turning it on, all we get is 7667 7667 6667 6776 with all the LEDs on.
Controler does not give its normal happy beep when switched on, just a deathly silence.

So... taking a look at its brain, all the PSU rails look OK, nothing looks burns on any of the PCBs.
I put a scope on the data and address bus and it's clocking but there is not much activity....could be the 8115 that's dead?

Does anyone know what all the 6s and 7s on the display mean? or is it time for a new controller?.

If so, i'm thinking of using Viper 200 servo drives connected to the existing motors (with new encoders) + Mach3. (Already got a J head BP converted to M3)

Decisions decisions....put some time and effort into the anilam or cut my losses and go for something more modern.

Thanks for any comments and help.

ATB

Derek.

[CNC-Joe]

Derek,

I think you'd be $$$ and a whole lotta compute power ahead - to convert the Anilam to a modern controller. I would consider converting it to Gecko-320, Mach 3, break-out board, relay board, etc. etc. If you need more inputs than a standard break-out board can support - take a look at the low-cost usb based "Ultimarc" board...

Another option is to wait it out and see if anyone puts any anilam boards up on Ebay....

Good luck on the project - which ever way you decide to go...


CNC-Joe