Messages

21

General Mach Discussion / Re: Can I convert to Mach 3

« on: July 19, 2010, 08:59:47 PM »

I started to look at it earlier.

The parallel wire plugs into a card in the control box at the front end.  The wires coming out of the back of the board are in sets of three.  Each one of those groups of three wires goes to a plug on the individual axis drive boards.  I am not very well versed in electronic testing but I think I can back trace where those connections go

I will do that tomorrow morning.

I guess I should also download the Mach 3 software,

Leo

22

General Mach Discussion / Re: Can I convert to Mach 3

« on: July 19, 2010, 05:03:02 PM »

I am not electronics savy - but also not afraid of anything.

If we dialog back and forth enough - we can probably work through all of it.  And I will learn a lot of stuff.

I can take pics and you can walk me through - I would imagine it will take a while.

The machine has stepper motors - I can give you the numbers and stuff like that.  I can get real good real close up pics and you can all help me through.  I am good at getting close up pics.

Schematics?  I truly believe we will be out of luck there.  Support from Larken is close to none.

The spindle is the Perske 2 hp with an AC Tech MC Series drive.  It is a variable frequency drive.  I have just downloaded the manual for it.  In the worst case - I can set the drive unit up as being independant, like, I can turn the spindle on and off via the AC Tech panel.  However, I would rather have it run via Mach 3.

In the Larken control box I can identify the axis control boards - and where the wires go to.  Each of the stepper motors has a 4 wire plug.  Each wire is a specific color.

OK - I am working on my truck also - so this is a bit of a side project.
Telling by the number of posts you have made - you are around here a lot.

Will we be able to go into this

What do I need to do first?

23

General Mach Discussion / Re: Can I convert to Mach 3

« on: July 19, 2010, 03:24:57 PM »

Hood,

This is the machine

http://www.larkencnc.com/cam24/index.shtml

I am not sure what else you would be asking about?

This is the Larken main page

http://www.larkencnc.com/

Leo

24

General Mach Discussion / Can I convert to Mach 3

« on: July 19, 2010, 02:02:43 PM »

I have a Larken 2424 Camtool and it uses the Larken control box that came with the machine.
It has a 220v spindle with an AC Tech series mc spindle drive and a Perske 2hp spindle.

I use Vectric software to do gcode programming.

The axis control boards are in the Larken control box.

The control box is connected to a desktop computer via a parallel cable.

There is a small Larken CNC spooler program to operate the machine.

I don't care for the control software supplied by Larken to control the machine.

Can I some how convert this machine to run with Mach 3 software?

I am pretty good at mechanical stuff, but I am not great at software, electronics or computers.  

With some help I could likely get through it.

Do I need dedicated circuit boards to control axis motion?

Is this reasonably "doable"?

Leo