Fadal Retrofit

Hi guys
I have a Fadal TRM "tool room mill" that has failed controller. It is a 2003 model machine that I picked up cheap with the hopes fixing it. Parts are crazy expensive and I hear the control isn't that great when it's working right so here I am.

I would like to keep the axis motors and drivers if Linux cnc will work with them.
I'll post pic's of the motors and drivers in a few days.

Welcome to the forum and LinuxCNC.

Do you have model numbers for the drives? Do you have manuals for the drives and electrical schematics for the machine? You will need to determine the inputs to the drives from the controller. This could be 0-10V and direction, -10V to +10V, PWM or some other sort of signal. Once you have this determined then someone can recommend the appropriate hardware to interface with them. I expect it will be possible to retrofit to linuxcnc.

See my retrofit thread . It is an older machine that had Fanuc controls and I replaced the servo drives so that I could run on single phase power instead of three phase. It will give you some insite to the process although you will likely have different hardware to deal with.

There are many other threads on this forum like it that will show how different retrofits were completed.

Also ask as many questions as you like.

Here are the motors and drivers.
The spindle motor uses the same driver the only difference is it has a heat sink.

Actually, the Fadal control is pretty sweet, it super easy to use, best part of a Fadal. The drives are analog made for Fadal by either Advanced motion controls,Baldor or Glentek, the motors are Glentek or Baldor. They probably use 8192 ppr encoders. It's possible they have resolovers, but I think Fadal went to encoders when they went the AC motor route. The spindle drive is AMC. This machine probably does not have limit switches, it home by lining up a mark on the table and the Fadal control looks for the marker channel on the encoder or the next grid on a resolver and executes a homing routine. You will have to write this your self or add limit switches. There are lots of parts available on eBay for these and the boards are not that hard to fix. Other then the limit switch issue, this could be done in an afternoon, its basically a knee mill. It's not gonna have much spindle torque, I believe it's direct drive 5 hp.

Thanks for the reply.


I'm a Tormach owner. The Tormach is my first experience with CNC, I've owned since March of 07. I just ordered a PathPilot controler to upgrade my machine. From what I've read this Linux based control system is very stable and robust. I have to babysit the Mach3 system if I what to make good parts and I'll leave it at that.........
I should have it in a few days. I ask a buddy of mine where is the USB port on the Fadal? He tells me that I need to buy some kind of box to make it work like that.
I would like to add a 4th axis to the mill. These guys get crazy money for axis add ons and the 4th axis units are pricey.
I have a 4th axis for my Tormach. I can build one for my Fadal but I'm at the mercy of the Fadal guys to make it work. I feel trapped having to buy parts from Fadal suppliers.

I'm going to get friendly with PathPilot and move on from there. I'll look at the retrofit pages and get a little more familiar with this system and bug you guys a little later.

Thanks again

NitroCH3NO2 wrote:

Welcome to the forum and LinuxCNC.

Do you have model numbers for the drives? Do you have manuals for the drives and electrical schematics for the machine? You will need to determine the inputs to the drives from the controller. This could be 0-10V and direction, -10V to +10V, PWM or some other sort of signal. Once you have this determined then someone can recommend the appropriate hardware to interface with them. I expect it will be possible to retrofit to linuxcnc.

See my retrofit thread . It is an older machine that had Fanuc controls and I replaced the servo drives so that I could run on single phase power instead of three phase. It will give you some insite to the process although you will likely have different hardware to deal with.

There are many other threads on this forum like it that will show how different retrofits were completed.

Also ask as many questions as you like.

You done an outstanding job retrofitting that old machine. Very clean. That is what I had in mind.

There is no USB port on any fadal, there is a serial port and a modem port. If you want to go USB you would need a Calmotion box, but why? There are a couple ways around d the 4tb axis on a Fadal. If you just need an idexer, a rotab with a control box can be triggered by m code. If you go the full 4th axis route
You will need a 1010 card for the control for the additional axis with an a axis prom, an amp to run the axis and the rotab its self. Fadal rotabs with DC motors used resolvers and AC used encoders, the 1010/card must match. Your tormach rotab is most likely stepper, which isn't going to work with the Fadal control. You could bud a simple control box using Lcnc and control it with mcodes from the Fadal control. Yes this can get expensive, but there is no cheap way out. If you go the Emc route, you can recoup some of your investment by selling the Fadal control, as there are alot of them.out there and folks that have them, like them.

Pathpilot is Linux CNC.