New Hermes Engraver

I am working on retrofitting a Vanguard 3400 engraver and need a little help.

I am trying to figure out the wiring for the limit switches. My problem is the covers on the machine are screwed on so tight I have broken 2 allen wrenches trying to open it up to look at the wiring. They are allen head countersunk screws so no go on putting a pair of pliers on them.

Does anyone know how the limits are wired?

Also the spindle motor, any clues on its wiring? Some of it I can see, what I do see looks like it is just a single speed motor with a start capacitor. If that is it then I don't need any help.

I have gutted the EP controller and am using the power supply and motor driver card which is a stepper motor driver based upon the L297 & L298 stepper driver chips. Driving it with Mach3 via parallel port. This is working fine.

Arnie

I know this is a long time after you posted it but...

I also have a 3400, I have the original technical documents which have the schematics, let me know if this is still needed.

As to the screws not budging, try heating with a torch, they probably have too high a grade of Locktite applied.

Have you been successful in your conversion?

- George Lawrence Storm, Kenmore, Washington

George,

Yes I am very interested in the documentation you have. I have been building a schematic diagram of the motor driver board by hand tracing the circuit traces. Let me know how I could get the info. I would gladly pay the shipping both ways to borrow your manual and then make a copy for my use.

Arnie

The rest of the answer, yes the conversion is going pretty good.

I have the steppers running great. I can run them upwards of 250ipm, but have slowed them down to 100 just until I am comfortable with it.

I was able to modify the wiring to include the motor spindle start & stop from Mach3.

I have a few mechanical things to work on,

The spindle depth adjuster needs a new lockscrew.
A little cleaning.
I also need to figure out how to use all the table parts, the best way to clamp stuff etc. I was thinking about putting a piece of MDF and running a vaccum hold down, or using double sided tape?, not sure which would work best, or just use the existing clamping plates?

I am going to build a rotary attachment so I can do a 4th axis rotary.

Arnie

What is your location? In the off chance you are in the Pacific Northwest it would make exchanging the data easier.

George,

I am in Wheatland, Wyoming. My direct email is [email protected] or [email protected]

Dose anyone know what the protocol or i/o is on the New Hermes Vanguard 7000? It has both a parallel and serial port. I guess what I'm really looking for is the command set. HPGL?

Just picked one up without pc or software so I need a starting point to reverse engineer this thing.

Thanks,
Tom

Does it have the EP controller? A separate box. If not can you take a picture of the controller.

I do have the Gravo98 software & dongle key for it that I don't use since I bypassed most of my EP controller on my Vanguard 3400.

Arnie

I would be interested in your Gravo98 Software & Dongle.

I finally dug out my books yesterday, Although it has some schematics and fairly detailed drawings of the mechanical assembly I could not find specifics regarding the limit switches. It does look like I have a second copy of the prints I can send you. Contact me off line to see if any of the other documentation would be of use.

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I am not familiar with the 7000, it looks as if the controller is built into the base. I have been told that the EP controller uses the HPGL protocol, I would assume your 7000 uses the same.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by aminear

Does it have the EP controller? A separate box. If not can you take a picture of the controller.

I do have the Gravo98 software & dongle key for it that I don't use since I bypassed most of my EP controller on my Vanguard 3400.

Arnie

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Thanks, I sent a picture direct. I'm sure there is a way to do it here but it's not intuative. The Vanguard 7000 has a built in controller.

Thanks,
Tom

Quote:

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Originally Posted by keencoyote

I would be interested in your Gravo98 Software & Dongle.

I finally dug out my books yesterday, Although it has some schematics and fairly detailed drawings of the mechanical assembly I could not find specifics regarding the limit switches. It does look like I have a second copy of the prints I can send you. Contact me off line to see if any of the other documentation would be of use.

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I am not familiar with the 7000, it looks as if the controller is built into the base. I have been told that the EP controller uses the HPGL protocol, I would assume your 7000 uses the same.

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Thanks George, I'll try throwing some hpgl at it and see what happens. I suspect they have some extension to the command set to control Zaxis and spindle etc.
Tom

George,

Thanks for the tip, I put a small pencil butane torch to those stuck screws and they finally relented. I was able to trace the limitswitch wiring out now and I am marking up my schematic to show those also.

Arnie

Here is the pinout as I traced. Use at your own risk, I used resistors to limit current and pullups on the limit switch lines.

20 pin connector on stepper drive board

1 - enable
2 - x step
4 - y limit
5 - y step
6 - x limit
8 - z step
9 - z limit
11 - z dir
12 - y dir
13 - x dir
16 - connect this to +5v on power supply board
19 - connect this to 5v common

WARNING - USE AT YOUR OWN RISK - This is how I connected my parallel port using Mach3 to my EP controller, I make no suggestion that it will work for you.

Arnie

Please I have read the good work that others have done in getting their New Hermes 3400 engraver to work directly from their computer. Please can someone help me go through retrofitting my New Hermes 3400 engraver.

Thanks,

Sheik

Does any one know what size resistors Aminear used in his connection setup? Knowing that would be of great help

thanks..

b

Ok.. Been looking at the unit I have, and looks like interfacing to the existing driver board should be pretty easy. Mine has a MC74HCT244A chip as the logic input for the step and direction signals. Traced those to a short 14 pin flat cable and connector. Seems that chip should have no trouble accepting parallel port pulse signals directly, and looked like there were already pull down resistors or a resistor bank IC on the board at the input point. In anycase converting one of these should be pretty easy given that input chip. Will post progress. But this thread is so old I doubt anyone needs it.

b.

I was not checking my messages for a long time and had a different email. If anyone needs a conversion you can contact me now via private message.
Arnie

Yes, I'm interested in converting my HV 7000 to run on Mach3 - I would be interested to know more about what you have to offer. The unit I have is "stock" plain, in good shape and has been running via the use of Corel and E-Lab-v-9 but it's time to move to another level. Thanks.

WP25

Quote:

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Originally Posted by aminear

Does it have the EP controller? A separate box. If not can you take a picture of the controller.

I do have the Gravo98 software & dongle key for it that I don't use since I bypassed most of my EP controller on my Vanguard 3400.

Arnie

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Do you still have gravo 98??

no, long gone.