[Mill] Need some help with a CNC Mill controller

[DHarris]

Happy Father's day everyone.

Ok, I'm trying to help a friend get his "new" mill running. It's a Wells-Index mill 520/CEN/5 with a Centron M400 controller that was purchased at a government auction. When He first got the mill, the only message we got on the display was "clock c-mos battery low" but after replacing that chip on the cpu board (AR-B1564 - ACROSSER) but now the display is just blank.

With a choice of 3 main systems boards in the system (CPU, Display / keyboard control, and servo motor controller board) and not being sure if any of them are "good", I need a starting point to trouble shoot. I've checked all of the voltages / power supplies and connections. 3.5" floppy drive is working fine.

So, my question - Does anyone have one of the M400 control modules that you would be willing to install our CPU board into to see if it's at least running at all???

I live in Northern California (Sonoma county wine country).

Thanks for reading -
Dave Harris.

p.s. I've also posted this in the Wells machine sub-forum.

 

[JimDawson]

From a little research on the web, it sounds like it's common for the battery to die at about 10-12 years. Since they installed those boards from 2000 - 2002, that board is at least 15 years old. Replacing the DS12887 chip is the fix for this, but I wonder if you killed something else on the board when replacing the chip. Just for fun, you might check that you have 3 volts across pins 16 and 20 of the Ds1287 chip, it possible that you put in a dead battery. The bad news is that the AR-B1564 board is a PC104 board and not a standard PC AT or ATX board, so not easily replaced.

A call or email to Centroid might be worthwhile. Depending on how things are wired up and controlled, it may be possible to do an upgrade on the system using the existing servo controllers.

 

[DHarris]

yea, I've been working on this for about a month. Will check the chip on Wednesday (next time i'll be at his house). It's certainly possible I put a bad chip back in - good news is I installed a socket so not hard to remove & test. Call to Centroid yielded a "$6,000 + price tag to upgrade controller to latest style and still use existing servo controllers. Have found some boards on the internet (CPUs), but "used - in unknown condition parts start at $350.00 ranging up to just below $3,000.00 for new-old stock (but not from Centroid as they don't support to old cpu board anymore.

Thanks for the inputs.

ps, how can I correct the title of this thread due to my typo?

Dave

 

[JimDawson]

Well if you want to upgrade, my software is considerably less money. Free is a very good price, but it does require a Galil controller.

I fixed your title.

 

[Karl_T]

FWIW, I have an industrial computer with an ISA slot and a galil ISA slot (1760) controller. Keep meaning to list it on eBay. Have the cables and ICM module for it also.

 

[DHarris]

Thanks for the replies everyone - I'll let you know what I find out and if my buddy wants to do a full upgrade or not.

type at you soon

Dave

 

[Wreck™Wreck]

Monitor on a lathe went blank a few weeks ago, unplugged and re seated all of the boards and it cured that problem, it is a pre 2000 machine.

 

[DHarris]

Thanks Wreck Wreck - yea, I've had this apart numerous times - still looking for a known working cpu board at this time!

(or if anyone has any type of "diagnostic" disk for this controller - on 3.5" floppy!)
Dave