Air Consumption on older Haas?

[diyengineer]

I'm contacting the people who are making my cables over at Shop Floor Automations | Predator Grizzly Cable RS232 Serial Cable

They make a db25-db25 and a db25-db9. They wire them up, but don't specify the pinout they use, only that its for Haas. I'd do it, but would rather just pay and have it show up and work haha.

I plan on hopefully using the cimco DNC that comes included with mastercam.

PS take some pictures of your machine!

[evanse89]

I guess worst case scenario I just order the other $9 cable...
Once that gets sorted I have a job that I would like to start right away so I might cut my beautification project short and resume that when the weather improves.

The big black cable housing coming right out from the toolchanger, and the other one housing the limit switches on that back panel with the regulators are both broken. You can see the one on the ATC in the second picture.
What is the quickest way to repair those? Is spiral housing and electrical tape enough?

[haastec]

The big black cable housing coming right out from the toolchanger, and the other one housing the limit switches on that back panel with the regulators are both broken. You can see the one on the ATC in the second picture.
What is the quickest way to repair those? Is spiral housing and electrical tape enough?

If the outer spiral hose is only broken in the one place near the connector for the casting, you can remove the broken piece from the connector and thread the conncector back onto what is left of the existing section.

Hope that makes sense.

[diyengineer]

That's a beast! Looks like its gonna clean up really nice! You already have a phase converter? FYI talked to the cable tech, and it was a no go on using the printer port. DB9, and PCI serial port with dual db9's. such a pain! haha

I like the wavy metal wall, looks clean!

I'm sure you saw this one for sale. I tried to trade a truck for it haha.
Haas VF3. 20x40 travel Fully tooled

[evanse89]

Both of the housings are broken off right at that 90-degree elbow, I'll see if there's enough slack to rethread it into the elbow.
Its amazing how fast my garage shrank once the Haas moved in. My other two machines have a pretty small footprint without enclosures and thanks to the new-school electronics can be pushed right up to the wall.

Has anyone ever thought about moving the electronics cabinet to the side or onto the back of the enclosure instead of hanging an extra 18" off the Z column? I might take some cable measurements today but I could really use an extra foot if I can find it.

[evanse89]

I had a tool loaded up and went to test the tool changer but as soon as I see Tool Unclip on the controller Alarm 113 Shuttle In Fault pops up- it looks like the ATC did not go all the way to the right.
I had hit the orient spindle button earlier, as well as dry run the tool changer, drive dgs are at 3/9 o'clock and they orient the same way every time (verified with a flag stuck to one), so everything works correctly until there is a tool in the spindle.
I took a closer look and it looks like the tool clips in the ATC are not lined up with the groove, but rather the lower lip on the tool holder. I also lost my Z and Y axis home. If I had reset my Z grid offset earlier does the mean I have to change whatever parameter it is that sets my tool change height?

Sorry the picture is upside down, my tool changer isnt that screwed up! I tried flipping it and saving and it just didnt want to work.

[diyengineer]

Are you using cat40 bt or ct holders? I know the spindle will work with either but the carosel fingers wont. I didn't get any holders so need to figure out how to tell the difference?

must be a tool change height parameter somewhere. Does it hit a z home switch and than go xx distance away from switch to be in line with carosel? When you say z grid, what's that?

[evanse89]

There are a couple parameters for the ATC, I just want to identify the problem before I go changing them.
All my tooling that came with the mill is CT. CT has 2 different size drive dogs, I think thats why the tool holders have a small divot machined into of them, to keep it balanced at high RPM. On BT they're the same.
Thats what I had been told anyways...

When I say Z Grid I refer back to the "___axis return margin" error I mentioned last week. It controls how far the machine has to reverse itself to unstick a home switch.

[haastec]

I took a closer look and it looks like the tool clips in the ATC are not lined up with the groove, but rather the lower lip on the tool holder. I also lost my Z and Y axis home. If I had reset my Z grid offset earlier does the mean I have to change whatever parameter it is that sets my tool change height?

Yes, if you adjusted the Z grid offset, you will need to adjust parameter 64 Tool Change Height Offset

[evanse89]

I figured as much. I'm sure I will know as soon as I get that sorted but is the interference b/w the holder and fingers overloading the motor and that is why it is not going all the way to the right? Or could that be something in the ATC arm that is gummed up or requires adjustment?

[evanse89]

The manual had a 155xxx number listed so I tried that, too low! Luckily someone had written down 2 other numbers, a 142xxx and 147xxx. The 142xx was the number that was too high, so I tried the 147xxx and presto! ATC runs smooth as butter now.

[haastec]

The manual had a 155xxx number listed so I tried that, too low! Luckily someone had written down 2 other numbers, a 142xxx and 147xxx. The 142xx was the number that was too high, so I tried the 147xxx and presto! ATC runs smooth as butter now.

Even though it works, don't take what someone else had written down as a good number. Once you change the grid offset, nothing is certain anymore.

You will want to E-Stop the tool changer just before it reaches the spindle, manually move the t/c in towards the tool in spindle and stop just as the t/c fork touches the holder.
Visually look to see that the t/c fork and the groove of the tool are in alignment. If yes, then you are indeed good to go. If not, adjust par 64 until it does.
To return the carousel back to its proper position, go to ZERO RTN mode, then press SINGLE AXIS button. The shuttle will move back to the left and be good to go.

Since this is a used machine I would suggest checking the alignment again in at least 3 more places around the carousel plate. If the alignment does not stay in line with the tool holder all the way around the carousel plate, then the plate is bent; hopefully it's not though.

Good luck!

[teamjnz]

Hey Evan. Quite a project you have there. I needed to change the Z axis encoder on a 94 I have and needed to change the z grid and the instructions in the book worked great, if you have the book.

[evanse89]

Its as clean as its going to get, at least until the weather changes and the days are longer so I can start painting.
Reassembly should begin tomorrow!
I want to brighten up the inside of the enclosure, I was planning on getting a worklight from the hardware store but I saw someone added some nice LED lights to theirs, they said they just added a bridge rectifier to go from AC-DC. I really like the idea of having a light turn on and off with the machine as opposed to doing it manually. I am blissfully ignorant when it comes to this kind of thing, can someone please explain how this would all go together? Like you're talking to a 5 year old, use colors, and shapes when possible!
I'm also curious about the lube system and if there is a quick and easy way to check if it is functioning properly since its only pushing a small amount of fluid. After cycling the plunger a couple of time I don't see any puddles forming but I also can't really tell if there is any lube getting onto the screws or rails...

Sorry about this turning into another "This Old Haas" thread...

[diyengineer]

I'll probably be doing the light mods to both mine, I'll document as well as possible.

[evanse89]

I got my DNC all set up last night and was able to run my first program on the Haas, but not without a few fumbles.
I ended up using a generic 3 axis post processor rather than the Haas one I got from work because it was giving me parse and framing alarms, I'll dig into both the files and see if I can source the error, are there certain characters that cannot be included in code on these older machines?
The big problem came when I discovered that my feed hold button is apparently ornamental, that made me a bit nervous because I was about 20 minutes into a 2 hour program with no way to take a break...
Is that just a regular switch that I can replace for a couple $ or something proprietary? Is there an easy way to tell if its just a broken switch, or something wrong with the board? And most importantly; is there a way to achieve the same result without use of the button? I tried to override the feed to 0 but it stops at 10%...

[haastec]

I got my DNC all set up last night and was able to run my first program on the Haas, but not without a few fumbles.
I ended up using a generic 3 axis post processor rather than the Haas one I got from work because it was giving me parse and framing alarms, I'll dig into both the files and see if I can source the error, are there certain characters that cannot be included in code on these older machines?
The big problem came when I discovered that my feed hold button is apparently ornamental, that made me a bit nervous because I was about 20 minutes into a 2 hour program with no way to take a break...
Is that just a regular switch that I can replace for a couple $ or something proprietary? Is there an easy way to tell if its just a broken switch, or something wrong with the board? And most importantly; is there a way to achieve the same result without use of the button? I tried to override the feed to 0 but it stops at 10%...

You should be able to source a new switch through your HFO or you can probably find something similar at Grainger.
I would remove the back cover for the pendant and inspect the Feed Hold switch to make sure something didn't come loose. You can also verify if the switch is indeed bad with a simple check with a meter.

[evanse89]

Just out of curiosity is there any other way to pause the program? I didn't think to check if handle jog override works differently than the regular button.

[diyengineer]

Which dnc route did you end up going with?

[evanse89]

I went against my initial plan and got one of those ShopLink DNC USB drives off eBay and had that running in about 90 seconds...then it just took me about 4 hours and a call to Jerry to figure out that the problem was with my "Haas" post and not the DNC unit; I should have known that anything coded straight out of the box wouldn't work. Once I get a computer out at the machine I will figure out a way to avoid using a physical USB stick and just stay plugged straight into the mill. The flash drive system seems solid, I just want to avoid having to (un)plug over and over and over if I have to edit anything.
Convenient that the post processor was the problem because this week at work I'll be finishing a couple machine simulations and learning how to use post builder in NX.