Reply with QuoteCheck your grounding. I didn't have the same box you had but had a hell of a time DNC through my computer and with the Calmotion box in my old shop. It all went back to a bad ground. New shop, new wires, new earth ground and all works well.
Potential RS 232 Problem
Hi everyone, this is my first post. I tried to post earlier this summer but had not activated my account.
Anyhow, we have VMC4020 with the 88HS control and it seems to have some issues that as far as I would wager have to do with the RS232 board, or something in that system. I am not super familiar with the machine as it is our only Fadal.
We are using the ITSCNC Usb box to DNC into the RS232. Here are the two issue's:
#1 - When we power on the machine, after the first CS cycle the machine axis will freeze outside of jogging manually, but only after the first CS, after the second it works flawlessly. So here is the example for the error:
-Power on machine
-Run CS command
-Manually Jog away from home
-Run HO command
-Machine fires a pneumatic solenoid of sorts but does not move, control screen will go blank, go to the home screen, then nothing.
-Manually Jog back to CS position - when you jog away from the frozen position, the axis's will engage very abruptly, but will not repeat.
-Run CS command
-Machine works perfectly with all commands from here on out.
Note: if we power up the machine with the ITS box disconnected, this does not happen, the machine will not freeze after the HO command. It will work perfect from the start.
#2 - ITS box periodically is unresponsive. When i say periodically I mean, as of this week only. The box worked properly for the past 7 months that we have had it, but randomly mid program this week it simply stopped. The machine was homed, reset and the ITS box was not longer accessible.
We went thru the wiring for the ITS box, verified +5V thru the centre barrel of the power wire and ground on the outside. We also ran the RS232 test that we found info for online as we somehow actually own the "test plug". As far as we can tell our machine passes the RS232 diagnostic test. Regardless of the machine passing the diagnostic test and being confident in the power connections the box would not communicate.
The machine sat for a few days. I put the ITS box in it tonight and it works perfectly again... I am hoping someone has some conclusive info on this as open ended problems are frustrating as there's no telling if/when this problem will arise again.
Here are pictures of the control case on the machine, along with the RS232 test.
Thanks in advance to everyone on here!!
Similar Threads:
Re: Potential RS 232 Problem
Check your grounding. I didn't have the same box you had but had a hell of a time DNC through my computer and with the Calmotion box in my old shop. It all went back to a bad ground. New shop, new wires, new earth ground and all works well.
Re: Potential RS 232 Problem
Have you SAVED all Parameters ...while Control running is Priority ONE....if possible....WRITE them down if..rs232 is down
Re: Potential RS 232 Problem
I will check this, is there any quick tips for best place to check that?Originally Posted by warrenb
We realized something over the weekend, the DC power supply in the machine is some retro-fitted power supply that must be out of a computer or server of some sort ("Power-One HDBB-105W). Went thru the maintenance manual for the machine and it says that you should have +5v / -5v and the +12v / -12v with very little VAC (~0.01). We have the following:
-No -5v at all (the -5V seems to be hooked to the GND terminals on the DC power Buss)
+4.9v
+19.7v - +20.1v (~43VAC)
-12.3v (0.01VAC)
The posts that are supposed to be +12v are fluctuating around +20v and have a very high VAC. I know you are supposed to use an oscilloscope for measuring ripple, but this seems, wrong...
Could a finicky ground for the machine cause this or does this sound like I should just get a proper DC power supply, I know FADALCNC and ITS sell them now for like $275
Re: Potential RS 232 Problem
Quick Update:
Realized that -5V is common, as it would be listed on the FADAL DC PSU. I disconnect the Power Supply from the boards and retested the +12V, it still reads over +20V and wild VAC readings, so I am thinking its safe to assume a proper replacement is in order?
Thanks!
Re: Potential RS 232 Problem
Hi Guys,
Quick update here. After speaking with the techs are FADALCNC we purchased a new DC power supply, as that seemingly was our intermittent issue, and we still believe it is, however, we got the proper power supply and wired it up today but we have an issue with supply voltage to the power supply (I assume the aftermarket PC style one we had before didn't care about the voltage).
Anyhow, the pictures I am attaching will likely do a better job explaining whats going on than I will do here. I talked with a tech at FADALCNC (CNCPROS) and he said if I dont have the 110V into the DC PSU it will not kick on. I have verified every connection for all of the COM/+5V/+12V/-12V and our source for the AC in.
The AC in to our DC PSU is giving me 80VAC, this 80VAC is coming from the second pole of a solid state relay mounted above our CNC POWER button. This Pole is fed from an "electrocube" module that is coming off the other pole of this solid state relay. To my understanding this is the "brown out" circuit? The tech at FADALCNC said we should see the 110V at both lower poles of our solid state relay which are connected to either side of the CNC POWER button, and then the top two poles are to COMMON and +5V. All of this is correct except whatever this "electrocube" is doing, is creating 80VAC into the second pole of CNC POWER switch as well as 80VAC into our DC PSU.
I have sent these pictures to the tech at FADALCNC but have not heard back, I am wondering if anyone on here has some insight. Is that second pole of the CNC POWER button and the solid state relay supposed to have another 110V phase connected to it? We are a bit confused by how this power circuit is wired.
Thanks for any help guys!!
