[mflux_gamblej]

maybe its the cold? (been about -8 °F here lately). my 4020 is having issues with the spindle and the coolant. maybe the keyboard on the control is getting sticky? two days ago I had gone out to buy something and left the spindle running to warm up, 3500 RPM, facemill tool in the spindle - no program running or anything, but the spindle on at that speed. when I came back the coolant had come on, and the doors were open - so you add it up: spindle on at 3500 rpm, 3" facemill in the spindle, doors open, coolant on. It took me 2 hours to clean up the shop and the coolant turned on again at random while I was cleaning (doors closed).

that same night I was running a part and after the roughing pass the machine switched tools for finishing, came down and the spindle didn't turn on. even though it was a finish pass - 0.015" is enough to snap a $75 relieved shank 3/8" endmill.

Now this morning, I am warming up the spindle (doors closed!) and the coolant came on again. In addition to that, the spindle shut itself off earlier this morning while I left it running to warm it up.

Any ideas about these issues? at first I thought maybe the 1 in a million chance happened that the serial noise had commanded the machine to turn on the coolant. Since it's happened again, there's no way. either its a stuck button, a stuck relay, or my control is taking a dive.

Similar question with the spindle though. why would the spindle randomly turn off? will it randomly turn on I wonder? say during a tool change? or when I am doing something inside the machine? this is bad news stuff! if it's a stuck button, the spindle won't turn on since you have to hit 'shift + spindle on/off'.

maybe I should disconnect my keyboard to see if the faults still occur? anyone had these issues before? I have a cnc88

[Beltdrive]

I might start by plugging the coolant pump into the coolant 2 outlet to see if the problem follows.You will have to program m7 to turn it on.

[mflux_gamblej]

so, now a third 'phantom' key press occured in the form of a SINGLE STEP key. Tonight I am running some stainless that's taking a long time, so I'm doing other things while the machine works. I thought that the cycle was carrying on particularly long, so I went to have a look. The machine was paused, and in 'SINGLE STEP' mode. luckily this didn't cause any crash, just a waste of time.

The various happenings so far (as reported below) all have respective keyboard keys. Coolant on, Spindle Off, Single Step.

The spindle off button is the worst, as I believe it shut the spindle down on me one day (although I cannot be sure that I didn't bump the button) and trashed a $100 relieved shank endmill - could have been worse I'm sure.

The coolant off button is bad too, since running aluminum at high speed with no coolant will inevitably fill up the tool with half melted Al and clog it up to a dull followed by snapping it.

Single step hopefully just is a waste of time.


I don't have a good explanation for this though. Has anyone come up against phantom fadal keyboard presses?

[LSM]

So you have a keyboard with some bad keys?
ummm ever though of just replacing the keyboard?
or keyboard interface?
trash a couple high dollar tools and you have more then paid for it.

[mflux_gamblej]

i agree that replacing the keyboard isn't expensive, however, it may not be the cause of the problem. I'm wondering if other fadal owners have had this issue before, and how they solved it (including whether or not a new keyboard fixed the issues)

[warrenb]

Check the [solid state] relays. I recently got a 2040 and had a few intermittent problems. I traced the circuits all the way back to the solid state relays. It's easy enough to test by swapping it with another relay. I swapped them out with a couple I had gotten for $3 and it runs perfect now.

[mflux_gamblej]

I haven't checked the relays, but just for a note, it has been warmer here lately and I haven't seen the issues.

[LSM]

Heat the shop maybe wonder if you were getting some condensation or ice melting and that is shorting,
or maybe the poor machine was just shivering

[mflux_gamblej]

Heat the shop maybe wonder if you were getting some condensation or ice melting and that is shorting,
or maybe the poor machine was just shivering

it's possible that the machine was just cold. it was the first winter with that machine in my shop. I do heat the shop, but not when I am not there - I'm a one man band right now / about 20 or more hours a week.

I have considered putting a multiple probe temperature monitor on the machine, and then finding a way to stabilize the temperature with a control loop and some local heating. that'd be easier for me right now than just keeping the shop hot all the time. I'm sure there could be a whole thread about the best way to keep the shop warm / temp constant.

[mflux_gamblej]

something that may or may not be related; I mounted my 'servo controller model 1' 4th axis indexer box up underneath the CNC 88 pendant last night. I had to drill some holes in the pendant, and in the process made some chips and needed to clean the cabinet out. It is very clean inside in terms of dust so its not like it was dirty, just full of my mess that I made drilling. This morning when I fired up the machine, the blue light on top of the enclosure suddenly sprang to life. I had replaced the bulb shortly after I bought the machine, but to no avail - it didnt work. Maybe I just jostled the right connection in the box whether open, or shorted, or maybe I blew out some crap that was on one of the circuits. Having a circuit 'repaired' by jostling doesn't inspire confidence. We'll have to wait and see if any phantom keyboard presses go away post cleaning. They have been noticeably less as I mentioned when it is warmer outside.

it is kind of nice to have the blue light flash when the machine wants you to interact with it though..

[scruz]

Call fadal at 818-727-2100 they will have the answer and the parts for you.

[mflux_gamblej]

that ph # is for 'fivesmachining' do they own what used to be fadal?

its an interesting issue owning fadal machines. there are lots of parts available out there, and the parts sites make claims about being prior fadal engineers (probably true, and much appreciated!), but there is no fadal as it were.

[scruz]

Fadal is back, go to fadal.com. machines should be ready this year. fivesmachine bought fadal last year..

[mflux_gamblej]

I should have done it when I first thought about it (when I first posted this), never-the-less I have replaced my keyboard, and so far, all of the issues with random characters being typed on the screen, spurious slide holds, random coolant on / off, random single step mode, and even a random spindle off.... all have ceased. I replaced the entire keyboard assembly which is the keyboard itself and the board that goes behind it. Took about 5 minutes since you just bolt in the new one and reconnect all the cables on the back of it.

Seems to have fixed the issue.