D&M 4 cnc vertical mill documentation

[cthomas]

I am running EMC2 on a D&M 4 cnc vertical mill. I have bypassed the onboard control card and I am connecting step and direction directly from my computer parallel port to the drive cards for each axis. I am presently turning the spindle on and off manually. Everything seems to work great but I don't have CNC control of the spindle.
Question??? Could anyone share with me the schematic or the block diagram of the main control card so that I can figure out how to connect spindle commands to the machine from my computer??? If anyone has the docs for this machine I will gladly pay for the expense of copying or scanning. I have reverse engineered the individual axis driver cards and will share the schematics of those with anyone who needs them.

Thanks,
Cecil

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[gerryv]

Hi Cecil,

I won an eBay auction for a D&M 4 CNC Mill a several days ago Item number: 330168583165 and I'm wondering if you would be kind enough to offer any thoughts or advise and if you have any documentation and schematics on these machines?

I'm actually hoping I can upgrade it if necessary, to be able to run Mach3 rather than a DOS based setup. Do you think $400 was a decent price considering the startup issue mentioned in his description?

Thanks kindly,
Gerry

[mburns]

Hey guys, I know this is an old thread, but I am wondering if there has been any progress?

I am a teacher at a high school and I am trying to bring a D&M 4 back to life. I want to bybass the card as you have done. Where are the step and direction wires?

Any luck on the spindle control?

Thanks

Mike

[boatlover]

I would love to get a copy of the schematics. I have a D&M 4 mill and want to add a standard breakout board, but am having trouble with wiring it. The original stepper drivers use four wires for signal input, but newer systems only use three. The old mother board has three of the wires labeled and they are D, C, and +5. I'm guessing the D is for direction, C for step? and the +5 is for a 5 volt input to run the card.


Thanks for the help!

My E-Mail is dpynenberg@new.rr.com

[boatlover]

I'm almost done with a mill retrofit. Feel free to shoot me an E-Mail for questions and picts.

Dale P.

dpynenberg@new.rr.com

[smorris]

I'm looking for some help as i bought a D&M 4 Mill.I need a control program eather the original or any other one that will run it. Also any operating procedure or manuals of any type would be helpful.I bought this for home and just need some help to get this little mill running.
Thank You
Steve

[boatlover]

Steve, If you don't have the original software and card to drive it you have to retrofit it to work with windows based software such as Mach 3. It can be a easy fix, Shoot me your E-mail address and I can send you some picts and info to help.

My address is dpynenberg@new.rr.com

Thanks, Dale P.

[gerryv]

Hi All,

Kind of an old thread but I'll give it a try. I'm finally getting around to working on the D&M 4 mill I bought last year.

I'm pretty sure that I'm going to upgrade it with a Probotix stepper and controller package instead of risking frying all the existing electronics which I know nothing about.

In order to help recover some of my cost I was thinking of selling all the electronics bit on eBay but then realized I'd need to describe them, which I can't so I'm thinking I should just remove the back panel with everything still attached as well as the steppers and front control panel and sell it as a single item. Less chance of my damaging something that way.

Does anyone have any advise on how or if I could power up and test the full assembly first? The unit didn't come with any software or instructions whatsoever and looks like it needs an old serial port computer to link to. I'm an illiterate when it comes to this stuff and DOS in particular (I drive a Mac). Maybe I should just advertise it "as is"?

Any advise,
Gerry

[boatlover]

Hey Gerry,


Shoot me your E-mail address and I will send you some more info on your machine. I'm almost done with a write up on how to retrofit these machines by reusing most of the components. In the end it can be a lot cheaper than starting with all new. You can replace and up grade parts in the future if wanted.

As for selling the old parts... Guess I would take picts and label wires when you remove them. I wouldn't sell them attached to the back cover since it will triple the shipping cost. You won't have to worry about replacing the back cover too! I don't see the old parts selling for much in the end. Any one who buys the parts will mostly be interested in the stepper motors and the three drives for the motors. The other circuit boards are out dated and won't really work for any thing. The power supply should go for good money, but you can also reuse it for you machine. It puts out 48 volts DC and has a secondary tap to make a 5 volts supply if needed.

As for testing the machine... You can't do anything with out a computer and software. The only thing you can do is manually turn on the spindle.

Hope that helps!

Dale P.

dpynenberg@new.rr.com

[cncmachiner]

Could anyone of the previous posters send me any of the material they might have on the mill - I've also just acquired one and would like to refurbish it.

Much Thanks In Advance,
Chris

[gerryv]

Hi Chris,

In my case I was never able to come up with anything much so I finally decided to just replace the controls and steppers with current technology. I recently purchased a used Xylotex pkg and will get a licensed version of Mach 3 so that I can use all of the wizards, etc, but have not actually begun the changeover yet. I imagine I'll just remove all of the older electronics and maybe put them on eBay as a lot. Depending on whether or not the mill motor speed controller will work with the 90v Sherline motor that came with the machine, I could decide to keep it. I'll probably also replace the front panel control module with a Mach compatible game pendant. My interest is more in having a working machine than trying to struggle through electronics on an '89 vintage machine to save every cent possible, so this seems to be the most practical approach for me.

Wish I could offer more.

Gerry in Ontario

[cncmachiner]

Cecil,

Thanks for the reply.

That's pretty much where I'll be heading with it - I, too, don't want to be bothered with aging electronics except for the initial period of evaluating what I have and then gradually start the conversion. Even with the electronics stripped out and replaced I figure I should be ahead - failing that, I'll have sherline mill pieces to work with; it does look to be in relatively pristine condition so hopefully if the servos and milling motor work, I'll be able to start converting. Right now I'm just trying to establish what base functionality I have since I received it yesterday, so anything at this point is helpful. I've never owned a milling machine or lathe, so my learning curve is that much steeper.

Presumably I will be able to keep the servo power supply but other than that I doubt I could keep much else. Although I'm wondering whether the variable speed control drive is salvageable - or maybe not - seems like the xylotex is a drive package from just a cursory web search.

Certainly I will need a break out board for my PC and I'll have to start shopping/comparing around for that. Any suggestions?

Regards,
Chris

[cncmachiner]

Gerry,

I just had a look at the Xylotex XS-3525/8S-3 which is, presumably, what you will be using. From what I can gather is that the mimimum step is defined as 11.25 degrees of angle which is fairly coarse - presumably too coarse to machine metal but maybe okay for plastic (might account for the residue inside the enclosure). Am I misreading this? Or is there another mode available? Or is there a way of repositioning/sequencing to get finer cuts via the software? Even at these coarse graduations it still should be useful for mold making.

On the plus side the board does come with a IDC to DB25 connector which can be hooked up to a computer's parallel port directly. Basically, at first glance, as you've said all that should be needed is the Xylotex board and the Mach software to run it - assuming my D&M power supply isn't toast. Of course, there is the issue of finding out how all the connections are made...

Regards,
Chris

Chris

[Gausswave]

Hi Dale,

Where was your writre up going to be published?
I like others in this thread just aquired a D&M4s. It was dead when I got my hands on it. The controller was fairly easily resurected after new bios batteries were installed and a reset/reload of the bios. I'm still pondering weither or not I should be impressed with my self about the fact I could come up with an ISA video card. Finally an old pice of junk I held on to pays off! OTOH Paying the 21$ to replace the bad bios batteries on a 386 seemed disturbing on so many levels. That and the fact I was able to find both ( exact models no less!) bios batteries with in 45min at the same store. I guess I had my geek on today.

All the fuse holders are missing the screw in clip so I'll need to replace those before I can go any further. That will be tomorrows project. That and I need to figure out why I have wires haning out off the Z axis stepper. They are white and pink as I recall.

Resurecting the 386 got me thinking ( always a dangerous thing!) Why not replace the computer with a dual boot type setup so you could run either in the orignal stock DOS mode and maintain the front panel useablity but also have the ablity to run Mach3. I guess if I have Mach3 why bother is the first answer which I can appreciate. The only other reason I can think of why it wouln't work is may be pin compatiablity of the paralle port. That can be easily handeled by a paralle port switch. I suppose if that was the case I could just add the switch in front of the stepper drivers and just add the mach3 computer and not worry about a dual boot whaich may be a better idea.
All I got was the machine. no software, manuals , etc.. If you have any information I'd appreciate what ever you can send me. I aquired some software from a local guy that is supposed to be what will Xfer gcodes to the on board pc via serial. I'd be happy to share if it'd help any one..

Rob in Seattle... KB7WNZ ( at ) hot mail ( dot ) com

[NebraskaSHO]

Does anyone have a picture of the D&M control card? I have all the floppy disks for the machine but do not have the card.

I have been in touch with another ITE instructor who removed the motors and has done what you guys seem to do. Retrofit the machines.

Anyways... I have Setup Disks 1-6, Mill programs 2, 3, and 3.3. The version 3 seems to be "fairly" modern and looks similar to a regular Windows 95 program.

This is on a Win2000 machine.

Again, no control card though.

I also have Mastercam Version 7, which one of the previous teachers had the students cut complex name tags, I think.

[vlmarshall]

Just thought I'd revive an old thread, to add the comment; keep the D&M spindle drive card! It's a Puma SM, a good little motor driver. I've been using mine with PC-driven relay control, and manual speed selection, but I'm about to add the CNC4PC Variable Speed card too.

Also, my machine was converted by D&M from a manual Sherline, not the newer CNC version. Manual leadscrews don't have thrust bearings, and my X-axis recently galled up and welded the aluminum drive coupler to the 1" diameter leadscrew mounting plate(Sherline 40280) on the left side of the table.
Sherline parts are inexpensive, and high quality, but refitting all three axis with Sherline's thrust bearings would require their stepper mounts as well. Sherline's stepper mounts are .400" longer than the blocks D&M supplied, and I'd rather not lose .400" of my X travel (because of the enclosure.)

Instead, I added a counterbore to each side of the mounting plate, .060" deep, and .375" diameter, for a pair of miniature ball bearings. ( MSC # 35381532 )
I also removed the original snapring and thrust washer from the leadscrew, instead using a turned-down 1/4-20 nut as a thrust surface, to gain a little more shaft length from the sawn-off manual leadscrew.

'll be converting the Y and Z axis now that I've tried it out on X, although switching to all Sherline parts on those axis may be a better idea, as the Sherline stepper coupler and 5-40 bolt in the end of the leadscrew allow better backlash control than the D&M parts.

Pictures soon.

[vlmarshall]

Just thought I'd revive an old thread, to add the comment; keep the D&M spindle drive card! It's a Puma SM, a good little motor driver. I've been using mine with PC-driven relay control, and manual speed selection, but I'm about to add the CNC4PC Variable Speed card too.

Well, adding that CNC4PC card has burned out my Puma motor controller, so if any of you D&M owners have one lying around, let me know.

[cnc4fun]

I recently purchased a D&M vertical mill 4s and lathe; I am interested in getting these operational. I have been told the PC part of this CNC is useless. This brings me to the point of where do I go from here?
I think it is given that I will need to get the new PC, after this, is there a standard for pin outputs and this will make it a plug and play (doubt it)? The power supply and all cards that came with the unit are designed to work with the steppers that are installed, logic tells me that all that’s left is to tell the motors what to do. After all, to me, what would the breakout board and all associated electronics care if they were being instructed by a new or old pc connected to a parallel port input? My logic to some may be simplistic; I need some help to get headed in the right direction here. I know I that I can throw money at it and get it to work but I would like to troubleshoot some and learn in the process. I believe I will try to use MACH3 as the software. By the way I have floppy drive discs for the mill, but then I insert them in the drive and nothing happens what kind of interface is required a key board and monitor or is this done through the front LCD panel.
I know this has come up before and may be old news to some, I really would appreciate any and all feedback including and documentation about the D&M line and possible a wiring diagram of the pin outs My email address is below for any correspondence thanks for any feedback. I do not have a computer at home at this time so be patient with me thank you.
John_king@q.com

[Gausswave]

The short answer is yes you can put it all back togeather use the on board PC as it was designed to be used and keep all your electronics. The longer answer is you probably won't want to. In all honesty I can't tell you much about the soft ware that comes with the machine. It is possible to get the on board PC ( mine was a 386 ) going. I did it on the mill I picked up but really it isn't worth the effort. I did it more just to see if I could. So it is possible but finding old parts to support a 40 YO machine that is soso at best by todays standrds. I'd lose it and up grade.

Yes you can keep all the old electronics. You may not want to.
The Motors.....
Are old and the magnets have probably lost some of their charge. So the bottom line is they while adaquate when they were new may not be quite up to the task any more.
The drives can be used with Mach EMC etc... since the take Step( or " clock " and Direction pulses. They should be good for 2A.

Ultimatly I eneded up with a G540 and some new Kelling drives. If you go that route then it's easy to take your PC between the 2 machines with just a DB 25 connector using Mach.

[dougputt]

Hi

Anyone out there have any wiring diagrams for the mill or M5 lathe?

Doug