Yet another CnC milling help question

[Bartman]

Yet another CnC machine question:


Well all, here goes

We got this new/used cnc mill at work, bring it back to the shop and it turns out that its got a burnt out power supply on the Crusader 2 control unit. We contact the Crusader Company for more information, and hope fully we can get are-pair part or info on a repair company. Well turns out they have stopped supplying support to our unit, and the only way to fix the machine is to buy a new crusader mill driver package (7500$), that’s not really in our budget at this time. Now here is my question,

Well it’s actually a couple questions:

#1- Is there any way to test the controller cards to see if they where fried when the power supply burned up?

#2- if they test out fine, should we only have to replace the power supply?

#3- If the power supply was took out the controller cards when it burned up, would it be feasible to run the steppers motors of another set of Drive cards? Say from another after Market Company, or maybe use the controller that was laid out in the Magazine to control this machine?

The only reason I ask right now, is that the owner of the shop is thinking of scrapping the hole machine now, because the 7500$ is out of out budget for repair, and me and one of the other guys that work in the build room would like to take it and rebuild the hole machine.

The 1 other thing that we haft consider, that if we can get a similar machine locally for about 5000$ that’s in fine working order.

Any ways, I hope that come one can help me out to figure out weather or not I should sink my own money in to this nice CnC mill.

Thanks

Bart

[mtlwrkr]

Perhaps you could make a deal for the owner of the $5k machine to test your drive cards. Takes 1/2 hour or so.

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"Make Chips Not Sparks"

[Thrud]

Bartman:
Most industrial equipment is fiarly well protected and the power supplies fail gracefully with destruction of the downline components a rare occurance.

[Evan]

I must agree with Thrud (nice to see you back, how's the eyeball?). I change countless computer power supplies and even when the magic smoke comes out it is a rare occasion when anything else gets toasted.

[Thrud]

Evan:
Other than the extra eye-snot, the blurry images, the bloody nebula, and the fact reading a magazine is pure hell (not just because I r stupid, either) - I am not too bad. Still ugly after all these years... http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net//biggrin.gif

[SJorgensen]

This sounds like a good question for Ibewgypsie but I'll give it a go.
If you know the power supply is gone you should start there and hope for the best downstream like Thrud said. If your transformer is still good, you or a technician should be able to verify the output of AC from it. I expect the most common failure in a power supply is with the rectifier section. Burned tracings on the circuit board would be more of a problem than just burned out power transistors. Many times you can see the heat damage, replace the damaged part, and have a good chance of fixing it. Of course if there is something binding up your leadscrews or otherwise causing a high motor load it might just blow again. The fuses should have protected it but maybe they were the wrong rating. I would try to fix the power supply and then proceed carefully to make sure the motor load is not going too high for some reason.
Measuring the amps while running under a load is in order.
Spence

[Bartman]

Well,

thanks for the information, this helps me get on my way to getting this new machine up and running. Now I just need to remove the power supply and see if I can find a repair shop and or replacement card for it.

Any body have a reliable company to deal with?

Bart

[spope14]

If it is an anilam product, hich I think it is (I have an Anilam Crusader S1400 Mill), then you can still get some used cards and parts through Anilam direct, and they should have some support people still about.

I deal with RAM Machinery in Dover, NH. Probably a bit steep if you have to pay travel (I pay 3 hours travel for repairs, which stinks, so I got the guy to show me the way around the control for three extra hours charge, which saved me about 20 hours all said). Had a card issue and a re-build three years back, cost me $400.00, better than a machine.

Here is one to look for. Something real obscure at that......

I had three years of hell with my Eagle KM 750 CNC mill. Donated to the school, went through about 3K worth of servicing all said and done (still cheaper than a $25K machine I guess). The man said I had to find a way to change the stepper motors over to test an axis "lag issue". This is not as easy as it sounds, for the X axis has a 2 foot cable, the Y axis has an 8 inch cable, both are fixed.

The big rub here. I figured I would have to do this through the "junction box" where the cables came in together on a Telephone / network type of wire set-up,. Opened up the box, and wah lah - almost one quart of really old and stinky coolant and condensation comes out - probably twelve years of such.

Dried it out with a fan, cleaned cable ends, checked all connections down the line all around and about put it all back together. Did a final balance of the control, This was September 2002, never a problem since.

Know this is a power supply problem, but maybe get a new or compatible supply, check it careful, check all your connections, and go from there. Connections may be what kills the power supply, feedback, voltages, and such. Did it for me.