Mazak Micro Slant 15 Retrofit

It is on !
A small tantalum capacitor decided to hog all the power for itself, so now it has one missing leg!
Finding a faulty 3X5mm capacitor on a 3.5 ton machine is not easy, but i do need the cardio.
Now X axis servo drive does not come on, all the parameters are lost since the battery went flat, lube pump is clogged .....
Will post some pictures later.

Not sure eeprom existed at that time, prom did.
But i am pretty sure a lot of machines built at the time of eeproms still use the same battery backup system for good knows what reason, as price was not an issue on a 200K machine or more.

And another setback:
Had a deeper look at it today to morally get prepared for the retrofit and hit a snag, turns out it uses brushless resolvers so two things started running through my mind:
1 i have nothing i can use for that, so : PCW, help !
2 Andy is gonna be happy, he loves resolvers
Just now thinking maybe Andy is right, so i should try resolvers, ..... or make mounts with shafts and bearings for the f.... encoders i do have.
F..... since they turned out to be the reflective type so any miss alignment will render them useless, paid 69 Euro a piece, and 2500PPR, have 5 of them, differential with index.
O what a mess !

Yeah, it wont work !
Bloody hell, this is getting to be the game i never opted to play!
After some more research, it uses a type of resolvers that will not work with Mesa resolver card, so the only option left is to make some new mounts for the encoders. Good thing is they are attached to the screw, not to the motor, so much easier to work with. Bad thing is the afore mentioned encoders and making mounts for them with hand tools will be quite a joy.
And then there is the issue of the missing chuck, used ones go fro anything from 700 to 2000$, and for sure i am not dropping all that for some used part that might never work/be bent/off centre/messed up threads/etc. New one is 7900$ so that is out of the window from the get go.
New direction:
Mazak Micro Slant 15 parts for sale, computer, screen, UL52 controller, Tamagawa resolvers 3 of them, all in perfect working order !
Or exchange for a good hydraulic chuck and a TRA30 servo amplifier.

Seems much more reasonable.

rodw wrote:

Tommy, before you give up, check what Jon has for resolvers at Pico systems.

I am pretty familiar with normal type resolvers and how they work, these ones use the opposite in that normal resolvers have one input and two outputs shifted by 90 degrees, these ones use two inputs shifted and one single output.
I also checked if they can be wired differently, they can, but will not work.
Still, Jon, heeeeelp !

Started making some mounts and housings for the encoders, made 3 shafts on the manual lathe and found out that it is way out of whack so some adjusting is in order tomorrow and another run of 3 shafts.
As luck would have it the shaft on the resolver is 9.5mm, hence the need for lathe. Damn, i had some nice shafts at 8/10mm that would have been just cut and mount, but nooooo i can not have it that easy !
This all might sound a bit on the "complainy" side, but i am having a blast, despite all the aggravation of waiting for parts i did manage to fix a lot of stuff that was waiting for the right time ( read never ), so now i plenty of MIG and TIG welders that i rarely use, i have a working plasma cutter since the last one i had went with the last machine i built, made plenty of machine parts, etc etc.
Getting "ranty" again.
Good night all .

I love nature, but when that nature starts messing up my stuff....
Two days ago, had breakfast, did some reading, and out of the blue had a thought of finally doing something with this beast, it has been a constant daily reminder of how pressed for time i am, for over 4 years...
So off to the shop all happy and plug it in, turn it on, and i hear fans ... nice ... wait the hydraulic pump is not on, it should be on, so i move to the front and nothing, no lights, not monitor, nothing, so move to the left side to oped the servo drive/controller cabinet = darkness = no lights at all, so i open the back cabinet where the power supplies and spindle VFD is = VFD has a single LED on that says "zero speed", nothing else .... oh well.
So i check around and found 2 broken wires going to the X servo drive and i am sure those can not be the issue, was late so i left it.
Yesterday took the DVM and started hunting for gremlins, some time in and there is no power going to the controls/PC, and since i know for sure that without it it does not power anything else, i start chasing wires ... and finding mice poo everywhere! See above for nature.
Still sore from all the climbing on and chasing and removing panels, i opened one of the top covers and .... horror, oh the horror! One or more of those mice decided to make a living there dragging half the shop in there and chewing on cables, so now i am left with half a trash can of mice .... everything. Poor vacuum is full of $hit, parts of cabling are missing and had to spray everything with WD40 to remove the smell and maybe, just maybe keep them away, so i sprayed every cable in every cabinet, impulsive i know, but i was out of ideas.
Back on track:
i did 3D print some holders for bearings and encoders, made shafts for two of them, found out that the third resolver has a different mount that i will have to print, so a bit of progress, finally.
Mending all those wires will be tricky and will take some time, but at least i am not looking back, i am retrofitting it, i have all the Mesa board X2, i figured out the VFD yesterday while chasing .... so i am certain i make make the VFD work, but i have nothing on the servo drives but i might figure out with a lot of testing and measuring, but more importantly, i have nothing on the over 40 relays controlling the hydraulics of everything, from chuck to tool changes.
From what i gathered yesterday i will need about 40 to 60 inputs and 30 to 40 outputs, but i might be way off.
I might change the title to: Saga, a never ending story!