Retrofitting 5 axis Willemin W400 with LinuxCNC

Hi! Nice to hear that you also have a w400. This project is indeed not dead... however, I have moved to a new workshop and I am still paying off some "shop organizing debt". I have made a little bit of work but not much. The clamping mechanism I wrote about before seems to work well. No leakage so far...
My NUM control was having more issues than just lost parameters. I originally wanted to get it working well with the num system before conversion but that didn't work out.

You mention you have new "elco" servos. May I ask what kind. i am not familiar with "elco". I can run 4/5 axes from linuxcnc. 5th one is only moving in one direction so I suspect damaged driver. My plan is to try to fix the damaged driver.

The spindle noise is a bit disturbing but I figure that this now has lowest priority since it seems to run nice and smooth on lower rpm. Thank you for explaining how your spindle behaves.

I expect to start up this work more seriously during summer. Will try to share the progress. I will get deep into linuxcnc quite soon I think since I am "already" up and running.

When I left it before moving I was thinking about how to handle my 6 servos + 1 spindel with my mesa. (tool changer is an analog servo)... will have to revisit that one...

Sorry for confusion, I meant electrolytic capacitors for the Socadyn amplifiers. All 5 are working, at least if the temperature is right, the ones for the B and C-axis are causing some oscillations that may even cause the CNC to power-off on high feed rates, but that is only when it's ~15°C, at ~20°C things are smooth, leading me to think that some of the capacitors are out of spec by now and have some temperature dependence.

I saw the moving in only one direction seldomly before - and a week later it was working again. I would suspect capacitors for that as well.

Servos (ABB if I recall) and really everything is original so far.

Am too busy right now as well and hope for summer. I should have most documentation of the W400 as PDF (albeit in German) - let me know if I can be of any help.

Hi Guys,
I also have a W400 with Guttinger Gipsy400 cnc controller 100% working (close to Pisa, Italy).
I have some documentation in German and English that I purchased from Macodel a few years ago. And also some docs I wrote by myself during my first repair activity.
I also intended to retrofit the machine to work with mesa/linuxcnc (I purchased the necessary hardware), but it doesn't want to stop working perfectly and so I haven't found the courage to tear it apart yet.
However, if you need some information on the messages/protocol between the controller and the plc (sestep) or some information on the SCRs (yes, not MosFet, BJT or IGBT!) into the SOCADYN drivers, please, let me know.
I will be happy to contribute. I know that one day or another, this topic will be very useful to me too. Thank you

Never heard of the Guttinger Gipsy400 - seems to be the predecessor of the NUM 760?
I have several SOCADYN amplifiers for that machine, but they get flaky. Sometimes they work, sometimes they allow movement only in one direction. Some days later the work again in both directions. My guess: this is related to some capacitors having lost their capacity and being out of spec now.
Do you happen to know which ones are the typical suspects to replace first?

Happy to share my manuals of the machine, spindle and other servo amplifiers etc.

Yes, it was the first controller used on this machine model before the NUM.
These drivers expect an input corresponding to the axis speed. Have you tried monitoring this input, i.e., the voltage polarity, with a voltmeter (or preferably an oscilloscope) to check the values it takes in both cases (when it's working and when it's not)?
Please, let me know.

How we can share the pdf docs?

 

I switched the amplifiers between the axis, which resolves the issue so I'm sure the control sends the proper control voltage and the problem is with the amplifiers.
I could offer to put all my documents in a Onedrive and share the link via PM - if you can do the same, we could complete our documentation in case there are any gaps?

Indeed, what I was suggesting was to monitor the voltage value to understand if, with the axes stationary (or moving very slowly), the voltage value was consistently close to 0V or if you observed abnormal "jumps" that brought it close to the saturation value. This is what happened to me on the Z-axis drive. You could also try forcing a voltage value (low and pay attention because you need to keep the driver enabled. So better to use the C rotary axis for this test) with an external generator or temporarily reconfiguring that servo output on your MESA 7i77 board.
(private message? How? )

I remember now I had one defective drive, causing the same issue. By simply full inserting it (to connect the 15-pin power connector on the back side), all the other drivers stopped working properly (forward direction only). So, try inserting one driver at a time until you find the defective one.
Please, let me know.
Do you already have the pinout and voltage levels of the power connector?
(pin 1,7,8,9,15:GND; 10,11,12,13,14:+200V; 2…)

Hi!
Great to hear there are more machines out there!!!

I have quite a lot of documentation. Need to scan it though but I am most willing to share. Also I would like to get as much as possible from you guys. A drop box sounds like a good start!

I have ripped apart the socadyne driver since last time I wrote. Mostly to take photos of caps and trying to figure out the part name of the thyristor that may or may not be damaged. Does any one of you know what part number of the thyristor? Could not read the markings....  I have no docs at all for the socadyn drivers...

/MrK

Some recap of what has happened since last post...

When I had fixed the pneumatic cyclinder for the tool releaser there was still some strange sound when releasing a tool...
I found the issue.... A totally worn out bearing and cylindrical pin....
 
 
Replacing it made the tool releaser work well I think.

The graphite brushes of the tool changer turret motor was held in place by molded rubber parts. The rubber were in very bad shape so I replaced the rubber with an acrylic part.
 

... some pictures of the socadyne amplifier I teared apart...
 
 
 
 

/MrK