So, I've been working on converting over a Light Machines proLIGHT 3000 Turning Center to use a G3 Touch interface for the past couple of weeks in little hour or two sessions. So far the documentation, form posts from other users (lots of credit to @agoodevans for his work a couple of years back), and probing with the multimeter have gotten me through each issue. Right now I only have the tool turret left to figure out (which unfortunately for me @agoodevans didn't seem to have on his conversion, so I'm going to have to work through that). I see the total value of what has been posted by other users and will be doing a full summary write up for the conversions forum once I get through this, especially as the proLIGHT lathes and mills see to have been very well marketed toward high schools and seem to not have moved past Windows 95 very gracefully (I'm a volunteer coach for a robotics team at a local high school that will be using this machine when I get it up and going).
Here's what I'm looking at for the turret on this thing (pictures attached so you can look at it too):
I first confirmed that the tool turret is functional using an Arduino and a L293D H-Bridge directly to the stepper and that the location switch works with a multimeter. Next I'm looking at if there is a tool turret profile on the Masso G3 that would work straight away, and was very excited by reading about the Wabeco 8 tool turret (https://docs.masso.com.au/WABECO-8-Tool-Turret) as this seem very similar to the tool turret that I have (I have also reviewed the manual for the Wabeco to confirm that they appear to be very functionally similar https://www.wabeco-remscheid.de/med...sch/Lathes D6000-D6000-C-CC-D6000 10-2014.pdf section 18.28).
I now have wired the step+ and direction+ from the turret motor controller to the y-axis on the G3, and the turret location switch to an input designated as tool changer - input 1 in the Masso F1 configuration screen (and yes it shows as low when not in the turret home location) as detailed in the Masso documentation for the Wabeco 8 tool turret. While I still hold out hope that eventually something is going to work on the first try for me, this was yet again not that time. I have tried adjusting the settings for the Wabeco configuration to match the above step counts, but when I save and move over t0 the F3 screen to run the Home operation, Z and X home successfully, but I get only a scream from the tool changer stepper (going the wrong direction for this tool turret maybe, and just hitting the cam stop?), then a homing error alarm. So, I'm looking for next steps to see if there is hope of this working (or I can program a custom tool turret controller on an arduino, but it seems like I'm really close here). Anyone have any ideas or experience with this that they could share?
Thanks!
-Brent
Here's what I'm looking at for the turret on this thing (pictures attached so you can look at it too):
- Turret has 8 positions
- Driven by a 200 step per spindle rotation stepper motor
- A single switch that identifies tool 1 position.
- Turret has an 8 splined cam that locks a tool in place when the stepper is driven in reverse
- It looks as though 150 steps in reverse is plenty
- It looks as though 150 steps in reverse is plenty
- The gearing of the turret is 30:1 from the stepper to the turret, which maths out to:
- 6000 steps is one full rotation
- 750 steps per tool change
- 6000 steps is one full rotation
I first confirmed that the tool turret is functional using an Arduino and a L293D H-Bridge directly to the stepper and that the location switch works with a multimeter. Next I'm looking at if there is a tool turret profile on the Masso G3 that would work straight away, and was very excited by reading about the Wabeco 8 tool turret (https://docs.masso.com.au/WABECO-8-Tool-Turret) as this seem very similar to the tool turret that I have (I have also reviewed the manual for the Wabeco to confirm that they appear to be very functionally similar https://www.wabeco-remscheid.de/med...sch/Lathes D6000-D6000-C-CC-D6000 10-2014.pdf section 18.28).
I now have wired the step+ and direction+ from the turret motor controller to the y-axis on the G3, and the turret location switch to an input designated as tool changer - input 1 in the Masso F1 configuration screen (and yes it shows as low when not in the turret home location) as detailed in the Masso documentation for the Wabeco 8 tool turret. While I still hold out hope that eventually something is going to work on the first try for me, this was yet again not that time. I have tried adjusting the settings for the Wabeco configuration to match the above step counts, but when I save and move over t0 the F3 screen to run the Home operation, Z and X home successfully, but I get only a scream from the tool changer stepper (going the wrong direction for this tool turret maybe, and just hitting the cam stop?), then a homing error alarm. So, I'm looking for next steps to see if there is hope of this working (or I can program a custom tool turret controller on an arduino, but it seems like I'm really close here). Anyone have any ideas or experience with this that they could share?
Thanks!
-Brent