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  1. #1
    Member Rockland213's Avatar
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    Default New guy looking for advice

    Hello
    I recently started to build a CNC router/plasma. After not much thought I bought the cheap china stuff off amazon ..... that is a very long story but I did get it working.
    I was showing a co-worker a video of my table in motion and he said his uncle had a CNC machine he wanted to sell. I wasn’t holding much hope when he told me he wanted 250 dollars for it. I went and looked at it and to my surprise it was not in bad shape but not under power. When we were discussing what comes with it I was counting out my money but didn’t have a 10 so the very nice fellow said just make it 240
    The mill is probably mid 90s with millronics centurion 1 with ballscrew on the head.

    Questions or problems I’m having is the mill won’t home, the servos get power and move slightly but error
    Out and never reach home.
    The mill is Bridgeport 2hp and I have a 3hp rotophase, when I start the spindle the controller looses power. Im assuming The converter is to small but I would think it would have plenty of power to run the servos.



  2. #2
    Member awerby's Avatar
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    Default Re: New guy looking for advice

    The Centurion 1 control dates back to about 1990. It's pretty obsolete, but you might be able to get it running again. It might not be worth it, though, unless you just want to make very simple parts. Does it give you an error message when it faults out? It could be a mechanical issue (like old congealed grease in the ball screw), in which case a thorough inspection and cleaning might help. But probably that old controller is dying of old age; the plastic parts are failing, and as soon as you fix one thing something else is going to crap out. It sounds like your servos still basically work, but you should think about a total brain transplant (don't get an evil brain...)

    Milltronics is still in business, so it might not be a bad idea to talk with them about your problems. But be sitting down when they tell you how much the new controller they'll want to sell you costs. https://www.milltronics.com/service/

    [FONT=Verdana]Andrew Werby[/FONT]
    [URL="http://www.computersculpture.com/"]Website[/URL]


  3. #3
    Member Rockland213's Avatar
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    Default Re: New guy looking for advice

    I was kinda thinking the same thing about replacing the brains. Could I replace it with something besides miltronics ? I know it is possible but is it realistic? What kind of drivers do I need to drive the 47 and 65 volt servo motors?



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    Member machinehop5's Avatar
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    Default Re: New guy looking for advice

    ...Good luck with your new old machine project. found a Manual for ya from a fellow cnczoner rl49.
    https://www.cnczone.com/forums/millt...mp-manual.html

    Does the FDD still work? What about the RS232 port? try backing up all the Parameters would be a good idea. Retrofitting a new control is not easy and most never get finished. The main problem with older CNC's is limited memory storage, but if you dont need to run large programs like CAM genarated mold work who cares.

    DJ

    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails New guy looking for advice-centurion-1-non-sls-programming-manual-mn  


  5. #5
    Member Rockland213's Avatar
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    Default Re: New guy looking for advice

    Thanks for the manual
    After powering it on today when booting up it says it’s a centurion V
    I was able to fake home and get Y & Z to jog. Even did a little MDI program to get them to move
    X will not reset, In jog mode the readout changes but no motor movement and if I hold the X jog button it it will error out and say excessive x movement
    When I reset axis’s Y hand wheel locks up but I can turn X hand wheel. In DRO mode X is also noisy
    I’m thinking the motor is good because when I jogged the z axis to far I tripped the e stop and all axis’s moved
    I’m not sure if the FDD works , I have to locate a floppy
    I know I need a bigger roto phase because it won’t run the motor and the controls
    I’m making headway ??



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