[MikeD51]

Hi,
I have an old 3 axis CNC Mill with Fanuc electronics (18M).
The main board has died but the servo drive, serial spindle amplifier, and servo motors are all still good.
Just wondering if it is possible to retrofit any of the more modern lower-cost controllers to interface with and control the existing drives? (it's just a home hobby machine now and not worth spending much money on).
My understanding is that Fanuc have their own communication protocol? So I guess I'm asking if any 3rd party controllers can emulate that, or if there is some kind of interface available?
I have tried googling, but am probably not asking the correct questions, so hoping someone here may be able point me in the right direction.
Thanks in advance
Mike.

[adidoro]

I think you can.
https://www.centroidcnc.com/fanuc_retrofit.html

Or better replace electronics.
https://cnc-electronics.com/cats/fan...-system-16-18/

[Jim Dawson]

I researched this possibility and concluded it was more cost effective to remove everything from my machine that said Fanuc on it, and replace it with new controls and servos. Depending on the Fanuc spindle motor, it might be possible to run it with a VFD, I was able to do that.

[Karl_T]

This is a color code thing - red on servo is proprietary Fanuc - useless for upgrade. the problem is with their encoder, otherwise its an AC servo.

Yellow on servo means its a brushed DC unit. Piece of cake to use. standard encoder

There is also a black cap, but i have not worked with them.

[MikeD51]

Thanks for the replies everyone.
Sounds like is not possible. Such a shame that perfectly good servo equipment is unusable from another platform.
Unfortunately they are Red-cap servo motors. The spindle motor also has a red cap, so I assume a VFD will not work.
A little surprised that someone hasn't developed a solution as there must be a fair bit of old Fanuc gear around still.
So now to decide whether to replace the main board with another over-priced and obsolete Fanuc item, start again with new equipment, or scrap the machine.
Thanks again
Mike

[Al_The_Man]

Thanks for the replies everyone.
Sounds like is not possible. Such a shame that perfectly good servo equipment is unusable from another platform.
Unfortunately they are Red-cap servo motors. The spindle motor also has a red cap, so I assume a VFD will not work.
A little surprised that someone hasn't developed a solution as there must be a fair bit of old Fanuc gear around still.
So now to decide whether to replace the main board with another over-priced and obsolete Fanuc item, start again with new equipment, or scrap the machine.
Thanks again
Mike

As far as the Red cap servo's go, the commutation uses a 4 bit code that Fanuc interpolates to a sine wave for commutation purposes, there was someone here that made a convertor to BLDC commutation signals
What I have done also is remove the encoder and replace it with a normal encoder that has the commutation tracks on it also in order to use them as common BLDC servo's.
The older Black cap (DC) motors were the original N.A. Getty's servo's until Fanuc developed their own, these were the yellow cap.

[Jim Dawson]

The spindle motor also has a red cap, so I assume a VFD will not work.

Mike

It depends on the exact red cap spindle motor. Look at the data tag, if it does not say 'Exite Perm Magnet' and 'AC Servo Motor' then it is most likely a standard(ish) 3 phase induction motor, and can be run with a VFD

[MikeD51]

It depends on the exact red cap spindle motor. Look at the data tag, if it does not say 'Exite Perm Magnet' and 'AC Servo Motor' then it is most likely a standard(ish) 3 phase induction motor, and can be run with a VFD

Thanks for that, I'll check the tag today

[MikeD51]

As far as the Red cap servo's go, the commutation uses a 4 bit code that Fanuc interpolates to a sine wave for commutation purposes, there was someone here that made a convertor to BLDC commutation signals
What I have done also is remove the encoder and replace it with a normal encoder that has the commutation tracks on it also in order to use them as common BLDC servo's.
The older Black cap (DC) motors were the original N.A. Getty's servo's until Fanuc developed their own, these were the yellow cap.

That is very helpful, thank you. Looks like there may be some options.

[jaideepshinh]

Dear Mike,

I would suggest looking for a used main board on ebay/other sources. It should be cheaper and less time consuming than swapping out the controller for a replacement lower cost one. Do you have all the backups available?
Are you sure the main board is dead? What is the error shown on the main board?

In India there are some very good repair companies which do the job at very reasonable prices (One such company I have used the service of is GK Technologies in Bangalore - Can recommend their work). We also get used boards at good prices on ebay and locally here. I would recommend this as the Fanuc 18M is generally quite reliable from what I understand.

Best of luck!

Jaideep