[learning_elec]

Hi I have posted before but the thread has gone cold. Im looking for some help setting up a fanuc test stand. Is anyone able to assist? I would love it if I could talk to someone on the phone who has prior FANUC experience as I believe I'm almost there I just need a few pointers.

thanks

[Alamgeer]

I'm also on the same boat. Have you succeed to build Fanuc test system. I'm also looking to build a test rig for Fanuc servo/spindle amplifier. I just need to run motor in both direction and want to make sure there is no alarm in drives. So what would be minimum hardware will I need? to test fanuc drives. Can I test without Fanuc controller? Or can I use PLC instead of Fanuc controller?

[bobir]

I'm also on the same boat. Have you succeed to build Fanuc test system. I'm also looking to build a test rig for Fanuc servo/spindle amplifier. I just need to run motor in both direction and want to make sure there is no alarm in drives. So what would be minimum hardware will I need? to test fanuc drives. Can I test without Fanuc controller? Or can I use PLC instead of Fanuc controller?

There is a whole lot of us in this same boat.
As far as I've progressed in this task, my understanding is that you can't really control FANUC amps and motors without FANUC CNC brain,
aside from a very limited amount of motors&amps supported by GE PLC DSM314i and 324i modules, and they can't control spindles.

For a minimum hardware I'd say you need at least one CNC controller, including rack, screen (or single unit in case of i-series) and mdi,
something to imitate machine control (operator's panel, or just an I/O link rack where you'd activate inputs to make CNC think that it has an operator's panel),
SRAM memory card and something to read and write it with and software to write PMC ladder.
Depending on what series of amplifiers you are interested in you gonna need 16-MB/MC for older TYPE A/B interface, and i-series for anything with FSSB,
or maybe PowerMate, but I stopped digging in this direction as soon as I learned that it doesn't support spindles, and now I am focused on getting my 16-C and 16i-A running.

There is a lot to this topic that can be learned either by paying FANUC a few grand, and probably not with older systems, or digging through hundreds of megabytes of PDFs, hoping to
accumulate enough knowledge to understand what you're doing. Or ask on forums, and hope that someone will tell you how to do it, but good luck with that, as I haven't really seen any
solid topics on getting this kind of system running, ever. Most of build threads are either about something ancient from 80's, or nothing.

If anyone with the knowledge happens to read this post, I'd like to ask if there are any fundamental differences between various types of CNC units in one series (say, 16-MC and 16-TC) that would
prohibit me from building a simple stand that needs to rotate a motor once in a while? And also, is there any cheat sheet on servo software versions, and supported amplifiers, it's really easy to get
lost between all those HRVs and their relations to axis control cards and servo software in FROM?
Thanks.

[bill4807]

As far as I know you should be able to run the same motor on the "M" vs the "T". M, is for Milling control. T is for turning control. I believe different options and possibly axes capability are the differences. Servo software versions related to amplifiers should be in the servo amplifiers manual.
You should not even need to use HRV since you are not doing any advanced cutting.. Axis control cards at a minimum should support 3 axis. If you need 4-5-6+ this is when you buy other cards that don't come standard, depending on the control package.
Whatever control you have bought, you are limited to that servo software for the most part. So for instance if you want to test alpha series motors you may need 15M control, Ai series motors you may need 0i control. Bi-b series motors you may need the 0i-F. The answers are for the most part in the manuals, but sometimes hard to put the info together. We used to test and had a few different versions older of course but I haven't been dealing with older controllers for a while so I lack that knowledge somewhat now. To be honEst it's hard for someone with experience dealing with fanuc to keep track of it all. I can understand your frustration. But software and hardware compatability issues come with all manufactures, not just fanuc.
I know it's not all your looking for, but information is information.