Biesse rover adventure!

So, as is often the case, there's a cheap as free biesse rover near me, and now that I have a yard, I can build a box shaped object to house it. Ooooh. Aaaah.

This is a slightly newer model that what the people here have been converting so i got a few questions.

The drives are yaskawa sgdb-vn. These are serial - I assume mechatrolink. Do I just toss them in the bin? I saw some people working on them but no resolution as to weather they will run. With delta B3 kits being $500ish, it doesn't seem to be worth spending much effort on the old drives, except that there are 6 (xyzc, and 2 atc's), and the price adds up fast.

Second question is on the spindle drive. This is of course a yaskawa VFD, about 7.5kw. dont know the model. Is this still plain ol analogue? If so, can it be derated and used on single phase 220v? Or, should i just bin it buy a new delta 2.2kw for $350?

The rest I guess is pretty straight forward, just a crap ton of IO.

ooh, i found this:
yurtaev.com/ymtl2p.html

linuxcnc to mechatrolink 1 pci board.

anyone know anything about it?

It's dm17ry on the forum here. Waiting to get a reply. "mechatrolink" thread:

forum.linuxcnc.org/27-driver-boards/2992...trolink-ii-interface

If that's going to work, I am gonna stick the machine on my patio (enclosed with a roof) and run 220 from the house to get it all set up and running, and then cart it to the new shop/shed when its done.

This machine sure has a lot of crap on it. 6 servo axes (xyzc atc1 atc2) 17 boring units, which each have a solenoid position I imagine. Plus the air piston to move it down into use as a unit and another one for the main spindle. A variety of pins on the table that go up and down to register work (6 i think total). Air piston to move each of the 2 atc carousels. There's one for the outer dust shield, and then another for the inner dust hood.

That's just the outputs for air control. Oof. Then there's lots of sensors. Lots of IO there, but all pretty standard.

The things that seem to be "not usual" are the vacuum rails. They each have 3 pods, and can slide around. But they have an led read out where the control tells you where to put them via the program. I wont be terribly upset if I lose that, but would be fun to try and make that work. No idea what communication they use. its 2001, so, rs422 maybe?

The other unusual thing is they uses only one VFD. There's some sort of switch (either inside the vfd, or external) that lets you run the different spindles. I need to replace the vfd with single phase models (restricted to 2.2kw) so I imagine I end up with one for each spindle.

ihavenofish wrote:

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The other unusual thing is they uses only one VFD. There's some sort of switch (either inside the vfd, or external) that lets you run the different spindles. I need to replace the vfd with single phase models (restricted to 2.2kw) so I imagine I end up with one for each spindle.

Yes, that is how Biesse did it - one VFD and then a separate contactor for each spindle, so you basically select, which spindle motor is connected to VFD at a given time. And there also is a possibility to attempt to run VFD without any motor connected

For the retrofit that I did, I wrote a custom HAL component, which had a tool number in input and it drove 3 outputs - each for a contactore of the 3 spindles. So basically it was like - if the tool loaded is in range of 1 to 12, then spindle 1 was running. if it was from 13 to 24, then spindle 2 etc.
Now it should be a lot easier, because 2.8 version supports multiple spindles and with M3 command you specify, which spindle should turn on. So you can easily do with one VFD for all the spindles and turn on the required contactor by selecting a particular spindle with M3 command.

curious to know which rover you have?

My Rover 346 has 3 spindles. Contactor for each spindle and one vfd. Use the contactors to route the correct spindle cables to the vfd.
I logically grouped tool numbers to spindles. re: tool 1-20 always on spindle 1, tool numbers 21-40 always spindle 2 and tool numbers 41-60 always spindle 3 and did a full python remap. So when I get selected_tool, I knew which spindle to energize.

I did another one with three spindles and a 3 position rack toollchanger. Did the same with tools 1-20 spindle 1, tool 40 always in spindle 2 and tool 41 always in spindle 3. It had a buch of drill banks and I did the same thing. Checking selected tool and dropping the drill or drill banks solenoids and starting the drill bank motor. I setup up different banks of drills and applied them to tool #. Works really well.

I like working on Biesse's.I worked on the older Biesses which I like with no rs-485 and yaskawa drives that are +-10. I was able to use all the relays without even rewiring them. Yours is probably full of rs485. You can use the rs-485 relay boards by modifying them and saving about 80 relays, depending on what Biesse you have.

Hi Bevin i have a rover 24 pod and rail year 2001 still in working condition but might consider a retrofit if we get a flat table in the near future also i am located in the Toronto area. the machine has one spindle with c-axis as well as 6 tool atc on the head as well as a 10 tool atc at the back. on the drill head there is one saw ,15 verticle drills and 4 horizontal on x axis and 2 horizontal drills on y axis. it has yaskawa variespeed drives

nolongat wrote:

Hi Bevin i have a rover 24 pod and rail year 2001 still in working condition but might consider a retrofit if we get a flat table in the near future also i am located in the Toronto area. the machine has one spindle with c-axis as well as 6 tool atc on the head as well as a 10 tool atc at the back. on the drill head there is one saw ,15 verticle drills and 4 horizontal on x axis and 2 horizontal drills on y axis. it has yaskawa variespeed drives

I am in Montreal...... Mine was pod and rail but I converted it to vaccum table. It works really well. Mine is a 346 built in 1995. It has 32 vertical drills and 8 horizontal drills.