[kutter]

Hi All,

About 10 years ago I purchased a Max NC 10 tabletop mill along with a 4th axis. I didn't use it much and never install the 4th axis. I sold the machine but kept the 4th. I've since bought a Haas Mini. I'm wondering if anyone knows if I can run this 4th, just as an indexer, of an old laptop. I'm not sure what I'm missing, aside from the floppy, which I assume are drivers, to make it go as a stand alone indexer.

I'm also not sure what to do with the two white male and female dual pin plugs. I think i member them going into a similar box on the back of the NC 10.

I hooked this up to an XP machine with Mach 3. I got some sounds and that's about it.

I'd like to chuck it up in the Mini just to index round stock in octagons and such. Anybody know what I'm missing or what I need?

Thanks abunch,
Jeff
J.A. Harkins Custom Knives

[LUCKY13]

I dont know anything about the Maxnc setup, but it looks like a simple stepper driven 4th.



The two wires in that plug "may" be a brake so it holds steady after stopping. Or it could be the main power for the driver to feed the stepper. Its got to get main motor power somewhere and its not going ot from the computor. The rest is going to be the stepper driver.


you will either have to find the wiring diagram to the driver box, or take it apart and figure it out.



It may be possible you simply didnt have the pins and such setup wrong in Mach to work with it, or it may have needed the brake released (if thats what it is). Or the Laptop may not even work with it, may need a desktop unless you know for sure that this laptop will run Mach thats very possible.


Either way it should be possible to run it through Mach & use it as a indexer.


Jess

[awerby]

If all you want to do is indexing, then probably the simplest thing to do would be to remove the stepper, etc. and replace it with a hand-crank so you can advance it manually. The face of the rotary table is calibrated, so you'll know where you are.

Otherwise, you're faced with integrating your stepper-driven 4th axis with the Haas system, which is a proprietary system designed to power brushless servo motors, has nothing to do with Mach, and resists the integration of non-Haas parts.

If you really want to control that stepper motor so you can advance it electronically, the best alternative probably would be to purchase one of Sherline's stand-alone single-axis controllers CNC Rotary Indexer (Sherline actually built that rotary table, not MaxNC) and keep it separate from the Haas controller.

Andrew Werby
ComputerSculpture.com — Home Page for Discount Hardware & Software

[LUCKY13]

At the worst adding a Gecko driver & a cheap BOB it would run stand along with Mach3 for this.



One of the Admins sales these little machines ( or atleast has few for sale) & IDK if he knows how to wire them but I sent him a PM with a link to your thread. He might come in with some info but I dont when he will be on. Hopefully he will know how to set it up.


Jess

[kutter]

Thanks everyone for the input.
The laptop worked fine for a cnc mill I built about 20 years ago. It seems to run Mach 3, although I don't have anything for it to run.

I had hoped not to have to buy a whole new setup... ie. the Sherline's stand-alone single-axis.
Although that handheld pendent looks pretty cool.

You are right, Awerby, integrating to the Haas would probably be impossible, as well as over kill.

I will fiddle with Mach 3 again. Although I'm still curious as to what the 2 white ended leads are. With Everything connected except those to set of white plugs there is no voltage and continuity between the 2 sets. To be clear these plugs are male and female each containing 2 wires. They are shrink tubed together so it doesn't appear they were ever meant to connect to each other although they are mates.

Below is a picture of the innards.

Thanks again,
Jeff

[LUCKY13]

I did just find out a littl ebit about this. The white cables are for added the MaxNC spindle motor so that the forth axis controls will then control the spindle motor.


So they would hook up by unhooking the spindle motor wiring, pluging the spindle motor wire into the 4th axis wiring ( one of the white plugs) then taking the wiring that use to go to the spindle (from the controller) and pluging it into the other white connector.


For some reason they had it so the 4th axis controlller would give spindle control. I am not sure of why they did this but thats what the operator manual says ( I found it on Google searching for MaxNC 4th axis instalation).



It says this 4th axis controller has its own power supply so no other power is needed. But there is something odd about this setup. The MaxNC is called a wave drive ( IDK exactly what that really means) and the forth axis will not work on port two of Mach3. There was a guy that got it working on port number one with Mach3 but for some reason Mach3 will not work with a wave drive on port number two (Most be some settings that could be used in port one config that allowed it to work there).


I havnt found what it took for this guy to get it workring on port number one, but it was some set of settings he was talking about. And if I was undrstanding right its soemthing in Mach3 for setting up for a wave drive (its not step & dirrection).


Anyway it may be possible to get it working if Mach3 is not controlling other controller ( by hooking it up to port one) and making the right settings. This would give you the indexing you want, and there might be a away to take some signle from the Haus controller to even get it in sync with program its running ( that would take some figuring, but going out of the box with normal thinking might pull off something). First you have to get the 4th setup working with Mach3.


At the worst IDK see why taking the controller apart and using it to add a Gecko stepper driver ( use the power supply and some fo the wiring) to turn it into a normall 4th axis setup for Mach3 would not work. That would be much cheaper than buying another 4th axis setup. Heck one of the Keling stepper drivers would get it done for under a houndred dollars.


Still I think it should work with the right setup the way it is. DO a Google search as I described and it lead to a few post in other forums about this. I am sure with the right search and follow up you should find the info needed to fire that axis up in mach3 ( I think some of the listings I was finding where in the Mach3 forum).


Jess