[veggiedawg]

Good news: First day on new job! Now: Get the Arrow that has been setting three years going and you will have a nice machine to work with.

I have experience with Hurco and Boss 9 but not the Arrow so I am going to need alot of help so please bear with me. Here are machine details:
s/n: 7049-AOB-98-059
control diagram: 91203577
VFS5 Vickers model 275/26004 A-10 rev7
BDS4 model 210 23 415 V32 (3 units )
Vickers Arrow Output Board 1000 8K

and I got a stack of GibbsCam disks, A2100 version 5.56, base disk plus disk 1 thru 14.
Powered up and got "cmos checksum invalid" and "cmos time and date not set"..... (it is NT v4 svc pack 3). Whent in to set-up and set time and date but it loses it after power down and back up. Exit set-up and boot up and I get a screen with fine vertical stripes and a 1" square icon of some sort in center of screen and thats it...
ANY IDEAS???

[mallardfizz]

hello
the battery on the workstation board needs replacing. the old battery has failed and the board has reset to factory settings. it would appear that your machine has an lcd screen and there are bios settings that need changing for the screen to work. so remove the workstation board ( it is the board on the left hand side of the control - the big silver box in the cabinet) replace the battery - a cr2032 battery- take note of the workstation board part number off the white label on the bottom of the frame (3-424-****) which if you send them to me i will send you the bios settings.
replace the board and install a ps2 keyboard into the furthest ps2 port on top of the board. you can then fire it up and alter the settings.
my e-mail (for the next 2-3 weeks) is [email protected].
regards
mallardfizz
ps if larry from patriot is watching please drop me a line

[veggiedawg]

The battery replacement and BIOS settings in place thanks to Mallardfizz.

O.k. we seem to be progressing but axis align Z Y X then spindle spins then ALARM 44-45 -C AXIS SERVO FAIL....ALARM 44-44 C AXIS EXCESS ERROR . (after degreasing and lubricating switches for X align and X Home and exercising them for some time this is "fixed" for now). Also on start-up the keypad / touchscreen indicates "missing "....

Mallard sayz:hello, the keypad/touchscreen missing is almost certainly due to a bad KTI board. you can plug a keyboard and mouse into the top of the control to bypass the fault OR you replace the board. i supply them for £300 here in the UK. When you have the c axis error is there a red light on the spindle drive?
regards, Dick

O.k. C axis error was me not knowing enough about M codes (there was a M19 in the MDI space upon start-up for some reason and I should have removed this errant code instead adding commands before it) and I can live without touchscreen for now.

The Latest: The spindle stops if I MDI a G01 move but if "rapid moves only" with a series of positions the spindle stays on. Also G1 moves with spindle off feed just fine. And, I can turn spindle on and move table with handwheel no problem. I checked rpm with tachometer and it is dead on 2000 and below. At 3000 it checks 3005. 4000 checks 4016. 5000 checks 5026. Screen message is:ALARM 39-29


Any ideas?

[mallardfizz]

hello again
i thought i replied that you can run with a keyboard and mouse plugged into the top of the control. have you looked at what speed is being seen by the control on the servo setup page?

[veggiedawg]

Yep. I am using the keyboard and mouse plugged in at the programing console (not in the back at the electronics - is this OK?)

I poked around and think I saw the servo setup page but did not see anything useful? (Might not have had spindle on). Might not be in right spot though. Can you provide directions to servo setup page? And I suppose I turn on spindle then go there? Is this the place where a difference of 10% or more indicates something? Perhaps that drift balance must be adressed?

Really appreciate the help Mallardfizz!

[cnc doc]

if your having spindle problems the vfs5 may have a battery in it i don't recall for sure its been a while since i dissasembled one. if that occured the vfs5 would default to factory settings and you could have parameter issues. contact cincinatti and get a copy of motion link its a software for diagnosing and setting spindle parameters. Also some of the servo items are not available unless you enter the password to get into service mode. passwords are generally service and worldclass. you must always exit password levels when work is complete or certain machine functions are not available

[mike_Kilroy]

I would be happy send u link to motionlink PLUS if u pm me.

yes the RAM chip in our vfs5 drives has a battery in it; design life about 6 yrs - bet your machine is a lot older than that. we replace them routinely on vfs5 rprs nowadays.

i did not see any spindle drive problem listed here, unless you are referring still to the not upto speed. If u have wiring diagram for your machine you can check that the upto speed relay is turning on (or check the i/o page cncdoc mentioned earlier or in another cmi post). there is a complex spindle program and set of parameters in the vfs5 that go away when the bram dies; usually one can get the machine running again when this first starts happening by powering down and up and down and up a bunch of times, but eventually it is just too late. pm or call us if you want more ideas/help.