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Author Topic: Rhino ST/5 or ST/6 Lathe and MACH3  (Read 10105 times)

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Rhino ST/5 or ST/6 Lathe and MACH3
« on: October 20, 2008, 07:09:44 AM »
Is anyone using MACH3 with one of the small Rhino ST/5 or ST/6 Lathes?
I just bought one without any software and any assistance getting MACH3 to talk to the lathe would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Orin

"It is well that war is so terrible -- lest we should grow too fond of it." Gen. R.E. Lee CSA

The United States Constitution (c) 1791. All Rights Reserved.

Offline RICH

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Re: Rhino ST/5 or ST/6 Lathe and MACH3
« Reply #1 on: October 21, 2008, 11:32:39 PM »
Orin,
Looks like a small Sherline lathe tilt mounted. Looks like it has stepper motors and must have some type
of power supply / drives for the motors. The x axis will be operated with a reverse tool post as compared to
a front tool post ( but depending on the travel you should be able to use front toolpost if you desire).
 I suggest you download the Mach TURN manual as i will refer to it by page or chapter and contains much of the
info you will need to know.

You will need a computer along with the appropriate operating system ( page 2-2 ) along with MACH loaded on it.
Mach utilizes the PP port and sends the signals out to the drives via PP cable. So you will need to modify / provide for the cable hookup at the lathe box / somewhere and run wiring correctly to the drives or some kind of breakout board. You need to find information about the drives and how they should be wired as you will be defining what and where  pins go to and from . Just an high level overview see chapter 4 for specifics.

Basically you need a computer , software, cable, and some rewiring to utilize Mach talking as a "conventionally" set up lathe.

Mach will not run in DOS , and the on board computer is DOS based according to very brief look at site info. I know nothing about the RHINO on board computer so i won't speculate.
Maybe someone else will post and provide a different way to do it.
Hope this helps,
RICH
Re: Rhino ST/5 or ST/6 Lathe and MACH3
« Reply #2 on: March 10, 2009, 10:30:54 PM »
Orin,

Any luck with that ST/5?  I have one at the high school I teach at and have had it with Rhino's software.  After repeated conversations I'd really like a "modern" solution rather than using a dos program.

I now have the ST/5 with a 25-9 pin adaptor and Mach 3 loaded..... I'd love to hear a success story- I could use a little hope in my quest.

Let me know if you've had any luck!  Maybe we can stumble through this together!

Thanks,

Kevin-

High School Industrial Tech teacher
Re: Rhino ST/5 or ST/6 Lathe and MACH3
« Reply #3 on: March 10, 2009, 10:45:25 PM »
Hi Kevin,

Thanks for the note but I'm sorry to say that I haven't made much progress on the ST/5.
I have bought a Gecko G540 to replace the ST/5's motherboard but haven't started the conversion.

Like you I did not want to use the DOS program as it was very unreliable and the motherboard in mine has a yet to be found intermittent problem.
The lathe would just stop movement and would not start responding until you powered it down and re-started.
I also found that if there was much vibration it would act up.

The Gecko G540 looked like an inexpensive solution and I hope it will be.

Orin
"It is well that war is so terrible -- lest we should grow too fond of it." Gen. R.E. Lee CSA

The United States Constitution (c) 1791. All Rights Reserved.
Re: Rhino ST/5 or ST/6 Lathe and MACH3
« Reply #4 on: March 15, 2012, 08:33:28 PM »
Orin and Keven,

I have a ST/6 that the mother board controls the steppers still but the lathe motor does not work any more.
Like you, I don't want to fit a DOS system and would like to get it working with Mach3.

I am hoping that you both have it working and would be willing to give me some direction.

Thanks

Chuck

Offline Hal

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Re: Rhino ST/5 or ST/6 Lathe and MACH3
« Reply #5 on: March 17, 2012, 11:13:13 AM »
I would say the Gecko G540 is an easy way to go. I use one on my Sherline mill. If I have any issues with my Emco lathe, I will  retrofit it with a G540. Check your steppers for wiring. If the spindle is a 90vdc, a simple board swap will add speed control.You can add a couple of relays for on/off and direction.

See the Yahoo groups for more on the G540.

Hal
Re: Rhino ST/5 or ST/6 Lathe and MACH3
« Reply #6 on: March 19, 2012, 02:47:30 PM »
Hal,

Thank you for your responce. The G540 looks like a good solution, and I will be looking at the steppers wiring. The spindle motor is a 90vdc and has a large transformer next to it. I will show my ignorance here, but could you explain what board would be used for the motor speed control. Were you thinking of something like the below link

http://homanndesigns.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1


Thanks again for your input

Chuck

Offline Hal

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Re: Rhino ST/5 or ST/6 Lathe and MACH3
« Reply #7 on: March 19, 2012, 08:31:02 PM »
Look at the DC-04 Digispeed SL+deal. The G540 uses the 10v to control the spindle speed. Check the instructions for manual set up.

As for the transformer, I would not like to guess without more information. Can you use a digital multi meter? Follow the wires to see were they go.
Re: Rhino ST/5 or ST/6 Lathe and MACH3
« Reply #8 on: March 20, 2012, 08:50:03 PM »
Hal,

Thanks for your help and guidance in pointing me in a good dirrection. It's a good suggestion to get mapped out before the purchase.

I hope this summer to have it running and will update when that happens or if more questions come up.

Thanks again

Chuck
Re: Rhino ST/5 or ST/6 Lathe and MACH3
« Reply #9 on: March 26, 2012, 03:19:49 PM »
Sorry Chuck. I'm no help here. I sold ours out to a local gentleman since our school has a couple cnc machines in good order. Alas, too many irons in the fire to mess with another project. I wish you luck.  Ktow