Fanuc Robodrill AlphaT10C -- Retrofit -- Help

Hey Guys!

I am new to this forum.
I have being using a fanuc robodrill (16m Controller) for past 3 years. Recently there was a problem with the display, which could not be solved by our local engineers. Fanuc is asking around 5500$ for the display and keypad unit. (Without Warranty). Apprantly because the machine has been handle by local engineers.

My Question is

1) Is it possible to use linux cnc as a controller, keeping the orignal fanuc servos, drives and power supply.

2) If yes, can it be done by a person with mechnical background. ( very litil knowledge about electronics)

(I do have a friend from electronics background, whom i can cunsult here in India.)

Please Help

Prashant
India

what date was the machine made?

Do you have any specifications or part number of the drives?

Fanuc parts can be purchased other places than Fanuc. Check out Fanucworld.com. Shipping to India might be high, though. Nothing against Linuxcnc, but I would hate to throw out a Fanuc controller for LinuxCNC (unless it was an older model).

The machine was made in 1996.

Servo Amplifier module No.A06B-6080-H307#EM

I am attaching JPEG files of the drive and motors. Please let me know if any other Information is required.

Thank you.

Hi jaredts,

I understand your concern. My machine broke down on April 2012. I have been trying for almost a year now to acquire the part A16B-3300-0033. I had sent an inquiry along with the photograph of the part, on 21 Aug 2012 to fanucworld.com. got no reply.

Now after 1 year, i am not sure whether my system is OK, because it has gone through, around 4to 5 repairing guys. God knows what (experiments) they must have done with it.

Fanuc is not giving warranty cos the machine is being handled by third party. They are asking me to make the 100% payment of 4560$ first.

Lets say if they fit the display and keypad.(after i Pay) and still there is an error. It will be very easy for them to pull their hands out of the entire situation.

Reason i am inclined towards Linux is that, at least i will learn some thing in the process and wont have to depend on commercial minded people for my machine shop.

Your views are welcome. Thank you

Hey jaredts,

I forgot to mention that i had bought the machine in 15000$ and have spent around 1500$ to change X and Y axis LM Guide ways. Mechanically the machine is in good condition.

Generally Fanuc is very good about returns and exchanges. When we were chasing an unknown intermittent problem on an old 11M control. They sent us and accepted return of several parts including an entire main board. We had to pay for the part up front, they sent it to us, we stuck it in, didn't affect our problem, pulled it out and sent it back, and they refunded it's cost less shipping and handling charges.

Now if you stick in the new one and it goes poof, your stuck with it (or at least its rebuilding costs).

Unfortunately I think it would be an expensive retrofit since your servo drives
have a Fanuc proprietary digital interface. A fair bit is known about the interface
(theres a thread on it in this forum: search for "fanuc servo drive integration" )

The interface looks like it could be done easily on a low cost FPGA card but there
is simply no specific protocol/timing information available (at least that I could find),
only general pinout information from Fanuc controller manuals, which is insufficient
to recreate the controller side logic.

I dont think a standard UART will help. If it was just the encoder data that would not be a
big problem but I think the drive interface serial data includes position data
and motor current data and i have no idea of the format, data rate, checksums etc