[ericks]

So a customer asked me to repair a diy machine he bought a while back. He has a lot of issues with this machine. Once it arrives at my place i will post photo's, must say i am very excited to fix the machine.
For now i stripped the old control panel, cleaned the parts. Next i will power up the HY drive and make sure all the parameters are set correctly

[ericks]

Downloaded the manual for this 2.2Kw drive. Went through the settings....all seem ok. The drive ran my spare 300Hz spindle motor fine. Setup was for manual control so that will change plus a couple of tweaks

[ericks]

I will document the control panel build here in case someone might find it useful, including the HY drive setup.....cause i see lots of people having issues setting up this drive. The gland plate will be replaced by a 3mm aluminium one so as to serve as a heat sink for the gecko drive.

[ericks]

Slight change of plan...i think it best i add a heat sink to the stepper drive

[ericks]

Panel should be completed today, usually i wire outside the box but because space is so tight i have to wire with the backplate installed...

[Ntl]

Panel should be completed today, usually i wire outside the box but because space is so tight i have to wire with the backplate installed...

Looking good Ericks nice job!

[ericks]

Testing started. Everything is working like expected, i just had to sort the pwm freq setting on mach3 so that i got a stable freq ref from the Gecko to the VFD drive. Also a bit of tweaking on the drive settings so i get close to the set speeds in Mach3. All working well. Ran a long program with the spindle at max rpm to see if i had any missed steps due to noise...happy to report zero issues at this stage

[ericks]

Here are a couple of pic's of the machine....it's a big mess. How he managed to machine anything on it the way it is is crazy. Not he has only on drive on the Y-axis and it is on the side??? No wonder the axis jammed up. I will strip it down completely soon as he drops it off. As you can see in the pic the drive was installed on the machine open air. This is something i will never do...specially these drives. Also i noticed they used a screened cable from the drive to the spindle motor, great but the cable is definitely not a cable rated for mains voltage.

[ericks]

Tomorrow the plan is to connect up some steppers to the drive to test all four channels. Also going to set up the speed control of the spindle through mach3....he was manually starting and controlling the speed of the spindle. Bought a heat sink also today...once everything is tested i will mount all in the enclosure. Hope to get the machine soon so i can start the mechanical repairs.

[ericks]

Thank you

[wizard]

That is an interesting machine and something that looks like it will be very suitable for a rebuild / upgrade. Parts of that machine look to be well put together but then you see a lot of issues that most would consider to be basic machine design errors.

In any event I think you have a nice little project on your hands. Fix a few things and you will have an excellent platform.

[ericks]

That is an interesting machine and something that looks like it will be very suitable for a rebuild / upgrade. Parts of that machine look to be well put together but then you see a lot of issues that most would consider to be basic machine design errors.

In any event I think you have a nice little project on your hands. Fix a few things and you will have an excellent platform.

When i saw the machine that was exactly my thought, a very suitable machine for a few tweaks/upgrades. Main problem is the single axis drive on the one side of the y-axis. Once the other drive is installed it should make a huge difference. Found a lot of play in the ball screw mounts/bearings. Play in the linear bearings on the y-axis....i do expect damage cause he indicated the y axis went massively out of alignment many times. Can't wait to see how a steel frame machine compares to the one i did.

[ericks]

Completed the wiring...Will be testing soon, then a bit of tidying up and changing a couple of circuit breakers

One thing i found was that although the Gecko is a nice and compact unit, wiring layout to it was a pain. So it's unlikely that i will use it in the future. I like the fact that if i have separate drives and bob i can change individual units if there are failures plus it's easier to do separation between control and main power. I am a little worried about electrical noise

[cncmakers001]

Completed the wiring...Will be testing soon, then a bit of tidying up and changing a couple of circuit breakers

One thing i found was that although the Gecko is a nice and compact unit, wiring layout to it was a pain. So it's unlikely that i will use it in the future. I like the fact that if i have separate drives and bob i can change individual units if there are failures plus it's easier to do separation between control and main power. I am a little worried about electrical noise

Nice work.

[ericks]

Thank you

[ericks]

Progress....

[ericks]

He stripped the machine down today and sent me some pics.

[ericks]

So i only had a little bit of time to work on the machine....managed to strip the x and z axis down. No grease nipples on any of the ball nuts, i will be doing a lot of cleaning and lubricating. Found loose locks nuts on all the ball screw support bearings on all axis. Also loose and missing bolts all over the frame. The z-axis did not move smoothly, obviously had a misalignment. With the way they made the machine my only option will be to do a lot of shimming to get it lined up properly.

[ericks]

Well...the gecko is tested, confirmed all four axis working fine. Speed control of FVD working through mach3/gecko....time to start fitting stuff in the new control panel

[peteeng]

Hi Ericks - I've got a gecko on my machine with big motors and its mounted to timber. No overheat issues even in our summer. The Gecko is a really solid unit, I tried to kill it a couple of times, worthwhile putting limiting resistors on, made a difference. The unit tripped out too easily otherwise when its running 4 big motors. Cheers Peter