Hey guys, my VH-65 wont cold start. It was working a month ago (last time i used it). I suspect the limit switch inside. I put new oil in it last time I used it, and It seems that some coolant leaked into the gearbox too; the oil was above the level marker on the side of the rotary table.
I use my rotary as an indexer (don't have the PCB for full 4th) with a fadal servo controller model 1 indexer box. When you power on the box you have to align the mark on the rotary table and CS it just like the other axis on the mill. Now it won't find it's index.
Something interesting that I don't understand is that previously if you didn't align the mark right, it would sill 'find its index' and allow you to operate it - it just was offset by whatever distance you were from a proper CS with the marks aligned. I also notice that if you jog the rotary around very slowly you hear it tick/click every few degrees. Maybe there are several index locations on some kind of limit sw encoder wheel?
Another symptom is that usually when it runs it's CS routine it will rotate about 10 degrees CCW, then rotate back about half that CW and it will then have found it's CS index mark. Last night it would only rotate CCW but then not back the other way. The indexer box says 'index mark not found, jog to align marks and press ESC to try again.' This morning with all the machines and compressors shut off, I can hear the motor really well in the VH-65. When you press CS it moves CCW 10 deg like it should, then from some positions, it will actually move a tiny amount back CW but only fractions of a degree. You can hear the coil in the servo motor energized and moving the system minute amounts. It still doesn't find it's CS index, but it does seem better than it was last night at least.
Does anyone know what kind of limit switch is inside the VH-65? I could see that if it were optical or magnetic that my oil over-fill may have messed it up by getting it dirty or maybe shorting? (seems unlikely). For now I drained some oil an am letting it sit. I'll try it again later. I assume that getting to the limit switch in this thing is going to require a full tare down . Any experienced fadal advice would help me out a lot here. Of course I have an indexing job lined up - so as usual in the CNC world time is of the essence.