Biesse Rover 322 MESA retrofit

I have now completed the conversion process as far as IO modules and wiring goes. All CNI modules removed and replaced with MESA cards. All IO wires and sserial connected and seem to be correct.

I can see all daughtercards in Linuxcnc, but I still have the red light on cards that have outputs (7i71 and 7i84x2). 7i70 gives green light with 1 hz "heartbeat". I have narrowed down the issue to be related to the power connections. For the cards with outputs I am running separate VIN and VFIELD, from individual power supplies (but common ground). If I move the power connector from the 7i70 to the 7i71 and switching the VIN jumper I get green light and heartbeat as expected.

The separate VIN and VFIELD follows the original wiring for the machine, where VIN gets power as soon as the main switch is turned on, and VFIELD gets power when LinuxCNC is running and taken out of e-stop+power on (short version).

According the the MESA manuals the red light indicated no watchdog signal, but I'm suspecting there is more to it?

Do the daughtercards need power on both VIN and VFIELD for the green light to come on? Or should I expect them to be operational as soon as VIN gets power?

Output cards using some types of driver chips need VFIELD > 5V to start.
This is to protect the driver chips that should not be operated below 5V
VFIELD.

Hello, Tom!

I also have a task to retrofit Biesse Rover 322 to LinuxCNC.
My problem is that there is absolutely no documentation with the machine. I am somehow managing to do without electric schemes simply by tracing each wire and trying to guess its meaning. I do have a source for hints, as I have electric scheme of older Biesse machine that I have retrofitted to LinuxCNC few years ago and many of things are similar (but not all as the old machine had tons of relays that were driven directly by cnc controls, but this Rover has serially commutated 8 input or 8 output blocks).
My main problem at the moment are servo drives. I cannot make them to move. I have connected them to LinuxCNC based on the pinout of that older machine. At least encoders work.
I believe that I have found a way to enable the drives, when I short-connect the chain through all those safety relays and what not. At least big relay on bottom right corner engages (sorry for not being able to specify relay and wire numbers, I do not remember them and it is 3 hour drive to get there and I am going tomorrow) and one wire from drive to cnc controls goes false at that moment (which I believe is "am fault" or similar). But when I apply voltage to what I believe is analog signal input of the drive, nothing happens.
I would appreciate, if you could share some hints. Do you have any idea, if there is a chance to get manual for those Yaskawa servodrives somewhere online? I did not have any luck finding them. I have contacted Biesse with this question. They promised to get me a copy of documentation but weeks have passed and there is still no answer, so it seems that there is no point of waiting any longer.

tom_no wrote:

If someone else down the line should be contemplating a similar retrofit here is a few notes I would have found helpful to know before setting out

I just wanted to tell that these notes actually were useful for me as they helped me to find those I/O blocks under the machine that I had previously missed. Thank you for the tips!

Hello
Please can you take clear photo of that mesa train? I am at start to retrofit biesse 316 with same mesa hardware..it could help me to see jumper position and rest for power. Thank you

tom_no wrote:

Also; Having you here; RS-485 control of the VFD should be possible through the 7i77 and it's sserial port, right?

Hello Tom!
I'm also in the process of retrofitting a Rover 322 at the moment. Would you mind sharing your current HAL and INI files? You've gone through so much stuff that's still ahead of me. 
Also, what route did you go with connecting the VFD - RS485 or did you set it up for 0-10V?

Thanks for your notes so far!

Stefan

i try to find someone that want retrofit toghether wtih an biesse 322
i find a lot of topics but not with complet documentation
 

Hi Stefan,

RS-485 on the stock drive uses an old ANSI protocol that needs a custom driver to work with linuxcnc. 0-10 volt worked for setting speed, but I got too much noise on the retun line to be able to get spindle at speed signals and so forth. Ended up getting a new 7,5 kW Delta MS300 VFD that dropped nicely in. Runs nicely with MB2HAL and gives me extra functionality as separate motor configurations for each spindle motor.

I have two Biesse Rover 322 machines - one already was retrofitted few years ago, but returned to me for improvements (tool change was not done at the time etc because owned did not want it) and other one still has original controls and will go through retrofit really soon

I meant to reoly to this post