Originally Posted by
HD_B
THE SITUATION:
I just started working with an older Chinese made CNC. No one here knows how the thing works since the last guy who ran it left, and its taking a minute to figure out the interface.
my previous experience is with much more open or supported systems and machines (cncmotion, onsrud, komo, fanuc controllers, etc). this is all through a handheld keypad and menus, some of which I don't get yet.
The machine was made by "Beijing East Supper Star Electomotor" and dates to the mid 2000's. the controller software is a bit of a black box, with no tech support available.
I have managed to home and zero and figure out how to set work offsets and use the tool measure device/ set Z etc.
So far what I've run is a simple flycut program posted from Aspire with the generic G-CODE mm (*.tap). I cheated my z up to test run above the table, and this all seems to check out with the right feeds, location, motion as expected, etc. HOWEVER....
THE PROBLEM:
The spindle will not kick on. In manual mode there is a key on the handheld that will toggle displayed setting between SOFF and S-ON, but nothing happens.
when running the file I get an error message: "unidentified character, any key to show error line". The error line is always line 4: which is always: G0X0.000Y0.000S12000M03 This looks completely correct to me, and identical to many line 4s turning on a spindle. am I missing something obvious or dumb here? I've looked at a few older files and they seem to have the same syntax, and while I'm not an expert at G-CODE programming, this is pretty basic...
I'm worried that in my initial scroll through various settings in the controller I mucked something up? the machine was cutting as recently as June from what I gather, with no collisions or major events since then. basically dormant until I switched things on a few days ago.
the spindle turns freely by hand.
Any tips or starting points on what to look for or begin troubleshooting this would be super helpful.
Thanks,
Ben