[Hitachi Newbie]

Hello Hitachis,

I just purchased my first CNC lathe, a Hitachi 1993 HT-25G with Seicos Multi-L conversational control. I will spare all the back story but the machine has relatively low hours having sat unused from 2000 until this past year when the owner instructed his guys to start it up and use it. Although it functioned in 2000 when they bought it, it had a problem when they tried to bring it on line.

When started up I get a series of alarms as shown below. Problem is I don't see a ready button anywhere other than in text and in a wiring diagram. I can't clear the alarms to move on to real problem until I know where it is.

I was told there was an X-axis problem with the machine when I bought it. The x-axis is all the way up on the limit switch but shows signs of being recently moved, as does the Z-axis.
TIA,
HN



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[Hitachi Newbie]

I attached an image of the touchpad & keyboard if that helps in identifying where the ready button is... TIA





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[Hitachi Newbie]

Sorry, trying to get the hang of the Tapatalk App & attachments. Trying again...



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[shas595]

Hello, the standby button is the one to the lower right (green soft-key) of the Power Off button (Hard red).

Let me know if this helps

John

[Hitachi Newbie]

I used the standby button to clear the first alarm that said "press the standby button" and cleared it. Just below were 2 more alarms that said "press the Ready button". The standby button seems to have no effect one way or the other on these two alarms.

I found the "ready button" on a wiring diagram though.

Still need to know for sure what is the "Ready Button". Thanks for your post!


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[shas595]

The standby button is the "ready" button as it engages the servo drives and puts the machine in the ready state. If it is not going into standby, then there are some issues that are preventing it from completing the standby circuit. What alarms are left once you press the standby button initially. Also, what version of ladder software are you using, so I can pull up a wiring diagram to try and help you out. Should be in the form of "1762XXXX"

John

[Hitachi Newbie]

John,

Diagram says 1762-0102.

Current Alarms are:
Alarm 3000 - Servo Not Ready (this one worries me)
Alarm 3002 - Emergency - Reset Emergency Reset Button (std E-stop? When I hit or release it the machine does not seem to react at all, not even a CRT blink)
Alarm 5044 - Low Hydraulic Pressure (have no pressure anywhere but pump is running - Hopefully there is a pneumatic/hydraulic interlock somewhere)
Alarm 5043 - Low Pneumatic Pressure (will be putting pneumatic on it when I get to the shop around noon today.)

I will be putting air to it around noon today.

[shas595]

Hello, here is a breakdown of what you are experiencing

Alarm 3000 - Servo Not Ready - no need to worry. This is just stating that you have not entered the machine into its ready state.

Alarm 3002 - Emergency - Reset Emergency Reset Button - This one will also disappear once you can get the machine to standby (unless the circuit is not completed, but not likely)

Alarm 5044 - Low Hydraulic Pressure - once you engage the servos, your hydraulic circuits should pressurize, and this should clear. Double check to make sure the phases for the input power are correct and that your fans are spinning the correct direction.

Alarm 5043 - Low Pneumatic Pressure - this many times will not allow the machine to standby (have a few Hitachi designed like this) but it could just be a warning alarm.

My guess is to try and swap the input phases first, seems like the probably culprit. All of the alarms you have are nothing major, and should clear up which leads me to believe the phases are swapped. If not then I would check the E-Stop circuits to make sure they aren't broken anywhere in the wiring.

John

[Hitachi Newbie]

Hi John,

Very good advice I think. I have every connection incorrect (odds?). Searched the web & found out L1, L2, L3 = R0, S0 & T0. I will correct. I need to find the pneumatic settings for the 2 gages on the headstock end. Pneumatic alarm went away with air but still no hydraulic pressure, but fan on hydraulic motor is running. Other fans seem to be running the correct direction. Maybe the correcting the phase alignment will cure it. But the 2190 alarm came back. I will post results. Thanks!!

HN

[Hitachi Newbie]

One alarm and a possible bad axis drive to go?

John, your phase wiring advice was spot on. Turned out the wiring in the building was incorrectly hooked up! I jogged both axes, the spindle, clamped the chuck & tailstock, all look good. I forgot to try and release a turret tool - this machine has the QCT quick change tooling turret. However, the turret will not index.

5105 - Power Off During Turret Index - See Operation Manual 6-1 /// The turret appears to be sitting on Station 1. When I hit the turret index button I hear a pump or motor kick on but the turret does not budge. Once I try to index it the the standby light goes out and the axes & spindle will no longer jog, the machine appears stuck and the condition will not reset with the sheet key. If I turn the machine off then on again I can jog everything as before. I tried the correction procedure in Section 6 page 6-59 recommended several places but it is confusing. There are 3 different 'Select' keys and I am not sure how to select a feed mode per instructions. I tried every 'select' button combination but nada. Turret won't index within this process, it just sits on station one, which is where it belongs? I should try this again with 'a feed mode' selected but I am not sure how to do that.

Bad Servo Drive ?
A potential bigger concern is the axis servo drive may be dead (although I can jog the axes in slow and rapid mode). The unit below does not ever display any red alpha/numeric LED signal at all. The cover of this unit was off when I bought the machine and there are 2 suspiciously not-OEM wires afixed to the unit chassis (shown below), one looks like an additional ground, the other goes from a pin/post to the same ground. Can I assume this is a big problem? No display at all equals dead unit? But no alarms... yet, maybe only in automatic run mode? Any tips on where even to start?

TIA
HN

[shas595]

Those wires on your drive are OK. They are OEM, just not routed the original way it seems, but not a problem to worry about. Is the station that is shown on the control the correct station that the turret is indexed to? And the "select" button its referring to is the one in Red, just below your MDI, Edit, Memory, Tape buttons.

John

[hitachibos]

that picture of dead servo is your turret drive. check voltage across U1 V1 W1 at the bottom og that board.

[Hitachi Newbie]

Thanks Guys,

I will check the leads at the bottom of the Turret Drive. What am I looking for? Under what conditions do I check? To each other? To ground? With the STANDBY switch activated? When I attempt an index? I will need an extra hand with that as I am working alone, I cant call an index and take measurements simultaneously. I will check it out and report back but this thing looks pretty dead to me. Do I have to replace the whole unit or can I somehow test boards?

I will also try the 3-fingers & and a nose reset method again, I may have forgot to push the standby button after releasing the E-stop. But I read that is to reset the turret to Station 1, the machine is already on Station 1. But I have not been able to index the turret via any means. Will try MDI too. To call out a turret index in MDI, is all I have to do is select MDI, enter T0200 and then hit EOB? Or to I need to hit START? Does it matter which position the LOCK/WRITE key is in?

TIA,

HN

[shas595]

HN,

You can check the drive when the machine is on. The turret inverter will have power supplied to it, and that is what you are checking for via those three leads at the bottom. No need to do it during a tool change, so you can work this one alone. When doing the index via MDI, you hit T0200, then EOB, then insert to 'load' it into the machine and then the start button to execute the loaded command. The lock write might need to be in Write mode, but every machine is different in regards to what you can / cannot do with the key in lock stage,

John

[Hitachi Newbie]

Well I am embarrassed to report I found a bigger problem when testing the drive voltage. It turns out the 3 Phase power supply that was supposed to be there in the space I rented isn't actually 3 phase. Landlord insists it is, I don't think so... Bringing in a electrician this week. I will get back to this thread once I solve that particular problem. Thank you again for all of your support and suggestions.

HN

[Hitachi Newbie]

Had an electrician come in who told me the power in the building was 3-phase "Corner Ground" which based on the fact that this means one of the 3 legs has zero voltage may be some of the problem. There is true 3 phase in the building which I am getting run to the machine. We will see what happens after that...

[Hitachi Newbie]

Hi All,

I am down to a couple of turret related problems so I am posting a new thread with just those. Please give a look and your advice.

Thank you
HN