HAAS VF1 retrofit

sspeed33317 wrote: I was going to just mount the motherboard to a panel and let it ride, but i think I will be better off
with everything in a case. It will just barely fit in its space.

I see the PC motherboard as just another component in the motion control system (and quite a cheap one) so mine tend to live mounted on a panel with all the other cards.

andypugh wrote:

sspeed33317 wrote: I was going to just mount the motherboard to a panel and let it ride, but i think I will be better off
with everything in a case. It will just barely fit in its space.

I see the PC motherboard as just another component in the motion control system (and quite a cheap one) so mine tend to live mounted on a panel with all the other cards.

Have to agree. My view is colored by having messed about in my own machines for decades and seeing OEM stuff in the same manner. Even when it was PC/Windows based. The PC side boards were always "just another board". Granted, they're usually some industrial version, but a PC none the less. Haas, Fadal, Mazak, Bridgeport, ProtoTRAK, and a number of others were all like this. The only thing I didn't know is if there were guidelines for how far away from certain other components the PC stuff needed to be for any kind of interference reasons.

well the reason i decided to put everything in a case was not to have to figure out how and where to
mount the dvd drive and flash drive, also the power supply i have has so many wires hanging out of it
it was going to be a big mess. i may still have to do a case hack but it will be a neater install.

Well got to go to work...looking forward to a three day weekend

Well, I ended up picking up a twin arm tool changer.
It is brand new , two motors and one air cylinder.
The arm mechanism is cam motion. An amazing machine to study. But so simple.

Due to my lack of programming skills I think this is the best bet instead of trying to get my carousel working.
For what I got it for I couldn't pass it up.

It should be here by the end of this coming week. Will have to make a mounting bracket and align it to the spindle.

I don't mean to rain on your parade, but you really haven't gained anything . The only thing you don't have to do now is move the head up and down, you have effectively lost 4" of tool of table clearance . The cam just swaps tools, Matsuura has them also, you still have to count the tools, open and close the drawbar , get the pocket up and down ,in addition now you have the hassle of a random tool changer , which it it gets out or sequence, will be a mother to resequence. You can't save your tool locations with out some programming, although the tool table might if random tool changer is set to 1. Good luck, but I think you just made your job a bit more complicated.

The new tool changer arrived Thursday, it is smaller than I thought.
I don't think I am going to loose any clearance I can mount it a little higher then
the current carousel is, remember the spindle has to move up for the tool change.

The whole moving the Z axis is the main reason I decided to do this.

Now I can do the whole tool change in ladder logic. I am really weak in programming.

I am guessing when Tool change is set to random the program calls
the pocket number instead of the tool number ??

The tool changer is made by Gifu and I am sending a request to see if they
have a ladder program written for it.

It has about 6 proximity switches on it and two motors with brakes.