Retrofitting a 1986 Maho MH400E

Thanks a lot for your continued support PCW. I'm going to make a short video to show what I'm doing exactly before sending the card back (there's still hope it might just be my incompetence). But that will have to wait until next week probably, I really need to get this MAHO tuned now so I'll presently rewire the IO from the 7i84 to the 7i77 (it's pretty great that it has so many pins, and a good bit of fortune that I bought more cards than I actually need since I hadn't really checked in advance if they're all necessary).

I completed plotting all the wiring changes from the 7i84 to the 7i77, in comparison with Mark's modified diagrams. This wasn't very hard since all the inputs and outputs are consistent between the two Mesa cards, and only the terminal blocks change.

If for some bizzarro reason anyone would need such a reference, I'm attaching a spreasheet with all the changes. It has physical pin numbers on both cards, the LCNC pin address, the function of each pin and the number of the wiring sheet where the change was made. It's base is the original ribbon wire names, which I labelled and recommend that anyone doing a retrofit this way also labels.

Hope that works as a temp solution to get the machine back in service. Do you ever use the MAHO spindles, or is your HF spindle allways in operation for on your machine?

I think it is cool that the Literature major is doing this. I found the learning curve very steep, and although I'd never really learnt electrical troubleshooting, and reading wiring schematics well, in my basic training as an aircraft mechanic, and also in the course of type courses I at least had a fair bit of exposure to this stuff. Good on you for doing this
Mark

The HF spindle is on to cut acrylic almost always. But I recently ordered and will soon receive designs for two injection molds, and before I gather the funds for the materials and necessary mechanical reconditioning of the Maho I also want to make a vacuum table with custom plates that can be switched around depending on the program.

I'll change the IO addresses for the hal spindle component. The pin numbers and types will be the same (Mesa being consistent), it's only necessary to change the card name.

I actually went as far as to get a PhD in my field. But I've always been a nerdy type of person, learning programming as a hobby in grade school, building my own PCs, etc. Nothing approaching this scale of a project though, that's for sure. And slacking off terribly in all my university years.

The learning curve has been absolutely brutal. Making terminals, soldering connections, getting all the tools (wire stripper, crimping tool) and materials, getting used to Linux after a lifetime of Windows, hal, Mesa manuals, the LinuxCNC documentation. TBH, I've been working since May 1st everyday for 8-12 hours (7 days a week). On the other hand, having worked with the Maho for almost 2 years I at least have enough confidence to know what the machine should do, where the limit switches and motors are, how to access stuff, etc.

Got everything rewired to the 7i77 and changed the pin names, everything works like it's supposed to! Now I'll finally get to servo tuning. Watched a very nice tutorial in German on the subject by the Youtuber you recommended, and even though I understood only some of the words he said, the process was laid out very well in an easy-to-understand way. Don't remember his name but that guy makes awesome tutorials.

Talla83. He is also active on the CNCEcke.de forum. Very bright young engineer, who's videos also helped me a lot.

I hope you get that machine back up and running today. It has been discussed before, but it is probably easiest to implement two (or three) complently separate LinuxCNC configurations, as separate machines. One the HF spindle set up, one for the MAHO vertical spindle with the gerarbox.comp, and maybe a third for the horizontal spindle. SInce switching from one spindle to another is a significant job, restarting LinuxCNC is not a singificant burden. Not worth learning the HALfui necessary to make a single super clever HAL/INI which can switch on the fly.

Congrats for the PhD. Expanding the boundaries of science is an impressive acheivement.
Mark