updating an OLD PXCNC1100 with servos and fast spindle.

[pbreed]

I have pcnc1100 I purchased early in Tormachs existance serial number around 64.

I've had it for 13+ years and its basically done what I asked.
I did the spindle to VFD upgrade and added the power drawbar.

I wanted something with a faster spinde, but I'm really limited in space and the Tormach fits, I could not get a haas DT or MM into my space under the garage door.
I thought real seriously about buying a OM2 mill as most things I done on the tormach are small...

Alas I decided to cleanup and upgrade the mill.
I just stripped the mill down removing all of the chip trays etc and cleaned it up.
I adjusted all the Gibs, and I replaced all the Angular contact bearings.
The only ones that did not seem pristeen when removed were on the X axis. (Likley got coolant in that area)
I purchased a Tosa Tooling plate. (arrived today according to UPS.)
I'm redoing my enclosure to make it easier to clean out chips.




I purchased the Tormach Servo upgrade kit for the 1100M+. Tormach told me it was mechanically compatible, but I was on my own electrically.
I just finished that install today and it works, but I have not yet finished adjusting the step scaling max speed and acceleration settings to take advantage of this.
I got almost zero support from Tormach on this, however the guys at teknic (whose smartpath servos Tormach uses) have been helpful.
If I were doing it again I might buy the parts directly from teknic rather than tormach. I'm torn on this point as I do want Tormach to continue to be successful and to support their products.
It was a fairly simple install. In addition to the Servo kit I also purchased about 75$ worth of stuff from amazon, power supply, din rail terminal block, 26 pin IDC break out board etc..
to make the new wiring clean and neat
When I complete the settings changes (I'm doing for both mach 3 and pathpilot I hove both controllers) I will post a detailed how to.

Next up Tormach has a 24K Rpm spindle upgrade that clamps in place of the R8 spindle. This is an 80mm spindle.
Rather than get the tormach upgrade kit, I purchased some of the sub components from tormach for that upgrade and
an 80mm water cooled spindle from China with ISO-20 ATC capability.($1200 for spindle, $150 to ship and $450 to clear customs with the China tarrifs)
This should give me a 24K rpm spindle with ISO-20 ATC. I have nto finished working on this.
I'll probably start with a 5 tool wine rack style tool changer. As with 10" of y one can grab 5 tools.
I've also done the preliminary design work for a 16 Tool ISO-20 ATC and again when I finish either or both of that I will post details.

I'm trying to get my shop ready to restart some of my rocketry projects and other than working the day Job ;_0 this is pretty much what I'm
doing with all of my spare time. I expect to have both the Servo, new enclosure, and spindle upgrades done in the next two weeks.


Is there any interest in the details of this?
IE is it worth my time to write this stuff up?

Similar Threads:

• Fast Spindle - Who has Done It
• fast spindle x4 for sx3
• How fast a spindle motor should I get?
• Need Help!- How fast a spindle speed can you really use?
• Spindle speeds - why so fast?

[mountaindew]

I enjoy reading what others are up to. I find a decent write up to be better content then a video most the time. Anyway, guessing there is going to be a number of people thinking about doing this and would be interested in detailed info.

[jwatte]

I find a decent write up to be better content then a video most the time

This! 10x this! Text can be skimmed when needed, text can be easily searched, it's easy to go back and re-read a sentence or paragraph when you want to. In my experience, video takes too long and gives too little by comparison.

[David C. Allen]

pbreed
Thank you for the overview, I would like to see some pictures and a parts list for the servo upgrade, if you have time.

David

PS what type of rockets are you flying?

[pbreed]

Here is the parts list and comments.
Should be enough, but your on your own.
Mechanical:

Started with Tormach 100M servo upgrade kit.
Purchased on Amazon:
Amazon :MDR-60-24 DIN-Rail 24V power supply
Amazon:Sysly IDC26 2x13 Pins Male Header Breakout Board Terminal Block Connector with Simple DIN Rail Mounting feet
Amazon:IDC Connector Flat Ribbon Cable, F/F, 26 Pin, 2.54 mm Pitch, 20" Length 50CM
Amazon: Dinkle UL Listed DIN Rail Terminal Block Kit #1 Red/Black Dinkle 20 DK2.5N 12 AWG Gauge 20A 600V Ground DK4N-PE Jumper DSS2.5N-10P End Covers End Brackets
1N4004 Dide from my Junk box. Any generic diode will do.



Find the 1100M servo upgrade document on the Tormach site and follow it for everything except the electronics.
My PCNC1100 did not have the second knock out holes, so I had to drill and tap with 1/2" and 1/8" pipe for the grommets to hold the wires.
For the Xaxis wireing tormach provides a big metal box, that reuses the left side tool tray that is not on my PCNC1100. Seemed kind of big and clunky.
I talked to the guys at Teknic and they said as long as the connectors have silicone grease in them the motors should be coolant proof.
I did not really like that idea so I used the Teknix CAD model to make a flexible plastic boot to attach the flex conduit to the X axis motor rather than the box or nothing.
Picture of the boot here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/74ZtRaNBsFRMxVcB8
This was printed in Durable resin on a Form2. The STEP file can be found on thing verse under "PCNC1100 Servo upgrade X axis cover"

Electrical:
Remove the 3 Axis step drives and all of their wiring.
Leave the power distribution board.

Remove the ribbon cable that goes form the controller board to the axis drives. (If you have a 4th axis we will reconnect this later)

Run all the wires from the motors into the cabinet enclosure.
Mount the DIN Rail in the cabinet.
I choose to mount it to the left of the opening on the wall faxing the mill.


Using the DIN terminal block parts I made the following:
4 Red blocks tied together with the tie jumpers.
5 Black blocks ties together with tie jumpers pressdin the top.
1 Orange Block (not in the kit described above, but you could use one of the extra red ones, just don't tie that to the other red ones.)

Wire the output V+ from the power supply to the One of the 4 red blocks.
Wire the outputs V- from the power supply to one of the 5 black blocks.
Wire the diode from the one loose terminal (orange on the bottom in my case) to the adjacent black terminal block.
The banded end of the diode should face the orange block. This will be the flyback noise suppression diode for the Z axis brake.


No you need to do some sleuthing in your mill.... my mill was a VERY early PCNC where the Z axis brake was an added option that I purchased form Tormach.
You need to find three things inside you mill...

Z brake cont-actor.
Mill enabled Power
Ground

Z brake:
What contacter terminals are being used for the Z axis brake. On my mill it was contacts L1 and T1 on the right most contactor,
These wire should be wired to the power distribution board on the mill for the Zaxis brake relay or contatctor.
VERY IMPORTANT
Remove the existing wires from the power distribution to these terminals otherwise YOU WILL FRY THE WORLD by putting 75V into the 24V brake and power supply
Connect one of these terminals to the Red +24V block of the din terminal strips.
Connect the other terminal to the orange or extra red terminal block.


Mill enabled Power:
On my mill there is a big transformer that powers the power distribution board.
One side of that goes to the power distribution board and the other side is fed with AC voltage from the "Enable contactor"
Wire this transformer input power to the AC input of the 24V DIN power supply.

Ground:
My mill has a ground board on the bottom.
Tie the ground of the DIN power supply input to ground.


Connect the two wires from the brake , one to the orange single block.
The other to one of the black blocks.


From each of the new servo motors there are two cables, one with two wires and one with 8 wires.
Wire up the cables with two wires as follows:
Attach female spade connectors to each of the wires:
wire number
210 Black Spade DC Board X-
211 Red Spade DC Board X+
220 Black Spade DC Board Y-
221 Red Spade DC Board Y+
230 black Spade DC Board Z-
231 Red Spade DC Board Z+


Now the next step is easier of you do it outside of the mill and then install the breakout board in the mill after doing the wireing.
BOB stand for break out board....
No connect was heat shrunk and taped off to the cable.
+24V PS goes to one of the Red blocks. (Wire may need to be extended)
+24 Return goes to one of the black blocks.
I had to extend a couple of the wires, and while it all presently works, I'm unhappy with the cleanliness of the wiring job and will probably redo it.
First number is the cable number, then the wire number:
Sorry about the formatting I don't know how to get a spread sheet to work here.

424 460 Green No Connect HLFB+ NC X-Axis
466 Brown BOB 2 INPUT B- Step
465 Yellow BOB 3 Input A- Dir
463 Blue +24V PS Enable + +24V
464 Red No Connect HLFB- NC
461 Black 4 Input B+ +5V
462 White 4 Input A+ +5V
467 Orange +24V return Enable - GND

425 470 Green No Connect HLFB+ NC Y axis
476 Brown BOB 8 INPUT B- Step
475 Yellow BOB 9 Input A- Dir
473 Blue +24V PS Enable + +24V
474 Red No Connect HLFB- NC
471 Black BOB 10 Input B+ +5V
472 White BOB 10 Input A+ +5V
477 Orange +24V return Enable - GND

426 480 Green No Connect HLFB+ NC Z Axis
486 Brown BOB 14 INPUT B- Step
485 Yellow BOB 15 Input A- Dir
483 Blue +24V PS Enable + +24V
484 Red No Connect HLFB- NC
481 Black BOB 16 Input B+ +5V
482 White BOB 16 Input A+ +5V
487 Orange +24V return Enable - GND


Lastly if you have a 4th axis.
Strip off the ribbon cable from the 4th axis on the existing connector.
Note there are two loose wires on thei ribbon.
The loose wires are wire 26, and 25.

So counting from the loose side strip and tin the ribbon cable and install in the break out board.
Pins
24,23,22,21,22,20,19


Now install this on the DIN Rail and use the 26 pin IDC connector to go from the control board over to the break out board.

That is the complete wiring.

A picture of the wiring that works, but I'm unhappy with can be found here:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Q5x9MRBnU2ADRxVb8


I'll try to take a bunch more pictures and do a proper write up some time later.
The new servos are Really quiet and smooth!
A Big improvement over the steppers.
I'm still working on getting the speeds and scaling adjusted for the new drives.
That will be another post.

[pbreed]

Deleted content as its no longer relevant.

[pbreed]

The path pilot part of the upgrade.

Short version:

Whatever base machine you have configured, pathpilot seems to regenerate the ini file on each boot.
On my machine this file is in the directory:

home\operator\v2.4.1\configs\tormach_mill\


The specific file is :
tormach_1100_threedigitsn_sdu.ini

EDITING THIS FILE WILL NOT HELP!
At the top of the file is the text:
#
# This file is machine generated. Do not edit.
# Date generated: 2020-01-05
# Created from files:
# /home/operator/tmc/configs/tormach_mill/tormach_1100_threedigitsn_sdu_specific.ini
# /home/operator/tmc/configs/tormach_mill/tormach_mill_base.ini
# /home/operator/tmc/configs/common/4th_axes.inc
#
# Model: 1100
#

You need to edit the files that are used to auto generate this file.
I'd start by going to the directory and doing a date based file listing.
Then open or display the newest ini file and look for the text above.
I strongly suspec that tmc is a symlink to v2.4.1 (or whatever version you are running)

You will need to edit the files used to generate this ini, not the init file itself....


On my specific machine I made the following edits:

In

tormach_mill_base.ini
I'm only showing things I changed....

[TRAJ]
MAX_VELOCITY = 8.13

[AXIS_0]
# 300 in/min
MAX_VELOCITY = 5.0
MAX_ACCELERATION = 30.0

# 20 % higher
STEPGEN_MAX_VEL = 6.0

# 2.5x
STEPGEN_MAXACCEL = 75

# jog shuttle ring speed
MAX_JOG_VELOCITY_UPS = 3.33


# nanoseconds
DIRSETUP = 2000
DIRHOLD = 2000
STEPLEN = 2000
STEPSPACE = 2000

SCALE = 16000.0


[AXIS_1]
# 300 in/min
MAX_VELOCITY = 5.0
MAX_ACCELERATION = 30.0

# 20 % higher
STEPGEN_MAX_VEL = 6.0

# 2.5x
STEPGEN_MAXACCEL = 75

# jog shuttle ring speed
MAX_JOG_VELOCITY_UPS = 3.33


# nanoseconds
DIRSETUP = 2000
DIRHOLD = 2000
STEPLEN = 2000
STEPSPACE = 2000

SCALE = 16000.0


[AXIS_2]
# 230 in/min
MAX_VELOCITY = 3.833
MAX_ACCELERATION = 19.167

# 20 % higher
STEPGEN_MAX_VEL = 4.6

# 2.5x
STEPGEN_MAXACCEL = 47.91

# jog shuttle ring speed
MAX_JOG_VELOCITY_UPS = 3.0
MIN_JOG_VELOCITY_UPS = 0.008333

# nanoseconds
DIRSETUP = 2000
DIRHOLD = 2000
STEPLEN = 2000
STEPSPACE = 2000

SCALE = -16000.0


I strongly suspec the ONLY thing you need to change here in base is:

DIRSETUP
DIRHOLD
STEPLEN
STEPSPACE
and
SCALE

I believe all the velocity and acceleration numbers are overwritten by
tormach_1100_threedigitsn_sdu_specific.ini


So in that file
Tormach_1100_threedigitsn_sdu_specific.ini
I made the following changes:

[TRAJ]
MAX_VELOCITY = 8.13

[AXIS_0]
# 300 in/min
MAX_VELOCITY = 5.0
MAX_ACCELERATION = 30.0

# 20 % higher
STEPGEN_MAX_VEL = 6.0

# 2.5x
STEPGEN_MAXACCEL = 75

# jog shuttle ring speed
MAX_JOG_VELOCITY_UPS = 3.333

[AXIS_1]
# 300 in/min
MAX_VELOCITY = 5.0
MAX_ACCELERATION = 30.0

# 20 % higher
STEPGEN_MAX_VEL = 6.0

# 2.5x
STEPGEN_MAXACCEL = 75

# jog shuttle ring speed
MAX_JOG_VELOCITY_UPS = 3.333

[AXIS_2]
# 230 in/min
MAX_VELOCITY = 3.833
MAX_ACCELERATION = 19.167

# 20 % higher
STEPGEN_MAX_VEL = 4.6

# 2.5x
STEPGEN_MAXACCEL = 47.91

# jog shuttle ring speed
MAX_JOG_VELOCITY_UPS = 3.0


Long version:
I'm really really new to pathpilot and I feel uncomfortable trying to tell someone how to get into the linux screen, look at directories and edit files.
You will need to figure out these things to do the upgrade.
I'm more than willing to answer questions here, but its my hope that someone else in the community can help with these base skills /things....

[popspipes]

I only edited the tormach _mill_ base.ini file, that seemed to work for me, I wanted the actual rpm as the max which was 5304 measured.
I havent tried anything else as of yet, I need to enter the backlash figures, I think that would help with probing holes and bosses.

[pbreed]

Some things are only in the base file, some things are in both places....

If the parameter lives in both places then the machine specific file seems to override.

For example SCALE only appears in the base file.
So it only needed to be set there...

[popspipes]

Some things are only in the base file, some things are in both places....

If the parameter lives in both places then the machine specific file seems to override.

For example SCALE only appears in the base file.
So it only needed to be set there...

I will make a note of this, I know enough about PathPilot to just be dangerous!!

[davebaldwin]

Very interesting, what are the Tecnik part numbers for the motors?

Thanks,

Dave.

[pbreed]

On to the next part, the spindle....
I removed the power draw bar, the motor, the spindle cartridge etc....
The hardest part was getting the spindl pully off the spindle.

I'm installing a JGL-80/2.2R24 from jk@jian-ken.com

Again I'm following a Tormach update document:

See the Tormach option:
HSS-PCNC1100 - High Speed Spindle Kit for Tormach PCNC 1100

I did not use Tormach's spindle kit as I wanted ISO-20 ATC and the tormach version did not have it.

So looking at the Tormach kit I ordered from Tormach:

33160 The spindle clamp.
31096 VFD programming stick
35177 VFD programming kit.

Now I don't know what the specs are for Tormachs high speed spindle, so the 35177 might be useless,
One can reprogram the VFT using bbuttons ofn the front panel.


I also acquired a chiller to cool the spindle.


The new 80mm spindle and the Tormach bore were withing about 0.0005" and it was really too tight to assemble.
So I used a goot quality cylinder hone to hone out the Tormach bore to about 0.001 over size.
I put the spindle in the freezer and hit the tormach bore with the heat gun and got it all together.
If I ever need to get it back out, its going to be a chore.

I'm done for tonight, but tomorrow I'll run the cooling water the air lines form the Power Draw bar solenoid to the spindle ATC, program the VFD and
try running the whole thing.

[pbreed]

Just an update note....
The system as I have it wired described above has a fault.
When you enable the axis(s), it takes a moment for the "Smart" motors to boot.
The way its wired it disables the Z axis brake at the same time as the motor powers up.
So for a brief moment the motor is not providing torque and the Z axis brake is released.
The Z axis falls an inch or two when the system is enabled.

The correct way to fix this is to not disable the zaxis brake until the system is ready to drive the axis.

I see two ways to fix this:

1)Just add a 750msec time delay relay to the z axis brake.


2)Some how get into the control board and find the "Computer active" light driven by the charge pump and use that to
disable the z axis brake.

On the 1100MX /1100M+ it looks like the zaxis brake is explicitly driven from the Machine control board.

[pbreed]

Finished up today...
The spindle requires seal air to keep the dirt out.
It also has ATC and ATC socket Airblast.

So I removed the motor and all the guts from the Spindle head, mounted a Tormach USB I/O board,
and a couple of air solinoids there.

I reused the air solinoid for the power draw bar for the ATC release.
I used the extra terminals on the Spindle cont-actor to turn the "Seal" air on /off.
I hookled the Tormach I/O up to drive the ATC and the Airblast solinoids.
I hooked the two sensors in the spindle up to the I/O board inputs....

2 Things are sensed
1)Tool holder locked in the spindle.
2)The spindle has released the tool holder.

Both of these are proximity sensors and the Spindle docs say they are NPN prox sensors....
alas they behave like PNP prox sensors and the tormach board can interface to pnp prox sensors...
So a short trip to the Junk box and a built a NPN inverter ..... now it all works....

I can progamattically release the tool holder, run the air blast and detect of the tool is seated correctly/released.

Next up write some code to do a wine rack style tool changer...
(Actually next up is move the mill back against the wall and rebuild my mill enclosure...

[mendez]

Can you share the servo model/part no
You used?

[pbreed]

Can you share the servo model/part no
You used?

I purchased the MX upgrade kit from Tormach.
So I did not buy/program the individual servos..

CPM-SDSK-3421P-ELN-2-O-D X,Y
CPM-SDSK-3441P-ELN-2-O-D Z
The Z axis also had a brake with no part number.

[mendez]

Thanks! Do I need that brake? Tormach doesn't sell this brake separately
I also need the upgraded controller board right?

If you will have to do this conversion again; would you purchase the kit from tormach or buy all the parts and do it your self?