Light Machine Corp. Benchman XTr (retrofit)

I do still have an XP system that I can try the Ultra-Master S/W to see if it will run. If it does, I will post screenshots of the parameters.
Don

I was able to run the Ultra-Master on an XP laptop and the Allen-Bradley seemed happy to talk to it. I downloaded my file and I can look at it but not sure what it all means just yet. My spindle is a 5k and I never changed anything in the configuration so I assume this is correct for my unit. I'm in the middle of cutting parts so I am reluctant to change anything just yet and won't get into tinkering with the parameters for a couple of week. I'm using an external PID but I have no way of knowing if there is an active PID internal to the controller. That might explain a few things if there is a conflict. Anyway, just thought I'd mention the XP System.

I'm apparently got at least one corrupt file in my UltraMaster directory.
I can't open motors.dat so the S/W won't even start.

All of our systems used the same parameters for the drives so any working system that can communicate is a viable source.

Perhaps Steve can provide screenshots?

Don

ScreenShots Sorry about the size. I am posting everything that gives me an option that i think is relevant. Let me know if I missed something. Again.... mine is a 5k spindle.

Steve

The rest...

Steve

Don, thanks for the info on the torque mode and rigid tapping. The output while in torque mode was highly nonlinear, and it wound up pretty quick. My thought was mathmatically transform the output, getting the data by plotting rpm vs input. The windup was too much by 0.3vdc. I will make note to rigid tap at high speeds and address any isses when they arise.
On the brighter side, the machine is just about 100% finished, and the atc program debugging is under way!

Mac/Steve,
The only difference between the 5K and 7.5K spindle is the gear ratio inside the spindle head, all tuning parameters are the same.
Running the spindle in velocity mode, the control loop is contained in the spindle drive. Just supply speed command to the drive and wait for spindle at speed return from the drive.
In torque mode, the control loop is through the nextmove card as the spindle drive outputs the encoders and the tuning parameters for that loop are contained in the .ini file.
The ATC is fairly simple. Home it. Loosen the nut under the platter and set it up for perfect alignment in position 1, and then there is a table that is just + and - encoder counts from ideal position to actual position. Do you have a schematic of the board? It is a serial link and there are a number of built-in commands that you can access from I believe it is <shift> H, maybe <ctrl> H.
Let me know if I can help.
Don

Don,

Great to know about the gear ratio. That might help later if there is a spindle issue. That leads me to a question I've had for awhile. What is the actual speed of the motor? The documents I've looked at seem to indicate that the spindle motor is actually a 4K RPM motor and that would mean there should be a 1.25/1 gear ratio to get the 5000RPM spindle speed. Do you know if Is this correct? If I had to replace the Spindle motor, could I replace it with a 4KRPM motor?

Thanks

Steve

Steve,
I do not believe either motor was a 4K motor.
We had 2 different motors.
One was for a 5K/10K (~1HP) option, the other was for a 5K/7.5K (~2HP) option.
Both options used gear ratios to determine the speed.
I still have the specs for one of them (I believe it is the 5K/10K version) and it is rated 7200 RPM.
What data are you seeing that indicate a 4K motor?
I've been out of Intelitek for over 10 years, so I'm not sure what I've forgotten.
Don

Don,

Ok the reason I think it might have a 4000RPM speed. A couple of reasons. The motor model number is LD-4030-Q-H00AA. When I do a search for that I can't find it but the F series comes up with the same number except that the LD is an F. Usually, when a company changes something they tend to keep the performance specs the same or similar. I know that is not necessarily true but it seemed to fit my experience. I am running it off the Ultra 100 and according to the sheet for the F series, it actually tops out at 3600RPM. The Ultra 200 Tops out at 4000RPM. Before I was able to access the ultra 100 settings I was trying to use it as a dumb controller and I had issues exceeding 4000 RPM. When I tried to run it to 5000, it gave me wild oscillations so I limit the RPMs to 4000 or less. Not the solution I wanted but I was in a hurry to get it to work and it runs beautifully up to 4000RPM. I decided to revisit it at a later date... maybe next month when I am done cutting parts. I am measuring the spindle speed with an optical tachometer so I am measuring the actual speed of the spindle. I'm hoping I can dig back into the Ultra 100 and find out why it is not giving me 5000 and now that I have the software I am hopeful I can figure this out. Anyway, any information you have even to the contrary would be very much appreciated.
Steve