Multicam (AUSTRALIA) Series IIs router - UCCNC CONVERSION

[Ross N]

Hello!
I have recently purchased 2 older Multicam (Australia) routers. I believe both are circa 2006 production. They are based on AXYZ Corp controllers (AMC0002B) and run on ToolPath. I am planning on replacing the controller with a CNCDrive motion controller and running them on UCCNC. The only under the bonnet CNC experience I have is via building a 4 axis hot wire foam cutter which is driven by a UC100 so I'm hoping for some guidance.

The main reason to do the upgrade is so the machines are no longer reliant on redundant PC technology and OS. Connection to the AXYZ board is via an LRC card which requires a PC motherboard with an 8bit ISA slot which I understand to be difficult to find and becoming more so as time passes. The reason I have decided on CNCDrive and UCCNC is that I found setting up the UC100 and use of UNCNC to be quite straight forward. The machines will be used primarily to make moulds for carbon fibre and fibreglass parts.

So, where to start? I like the idea of the AXBB CNC Controller/BOB Combo and UCR201 Wireless Jog Pendant.

The machine is 3 axis, all three have 2 Phase Stepping Motors by Oriental Motor CO. LTD. (VEXTA PH296-E4.2B). Drivers are IM483 by Intelligent Motion (dip switches seem to indicate they are set to 5 microsteps per step; decimal, 1.8 deg step). I can't tell the make of the homing proximity sensors. The spindle is a H.S.D. 3.8kW, which I believe may be a ES919. The toolholder is ISO30. The spindle is controlled by a Siemens Micromaster 6SE9221-0DC40 frequency inverter.

So the first question I have is does the AXBB seem like a good fit? Second question is where to from there?! I'd like to imagine it's a matter of disconnecting the drivers from the existing AXYZ board and connecting the AXBB controller. I'm hoping to use the existing power supplies, not for cost but to reduce the decisions and opportunities for mistake - pending of course compatibility with the AXBB.

Any comments and pointers will be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

[dezsoe]

Before you order the AXBB, you should make an exact full list of needed inputs and outputs (all step/dir outputs, spindle digital/analog, solenoids for the ATC and so on). Add a few for future use. Also check your devices for what voltage do they need on their inputs. Now you can find out if the AXBB (maybe with an UCSB for port #3) has enough I/O pins.

[Ross N]

So I traced wires to work out what's what in the control cabinet and this brings me to the a question about what appears to be a relay PCB that plugs into the current control board.
I made a quick spatial sketch of each components and how they connect:

Control Componets

My question is, how do I go about deciding how I should connect this PCB, or the driven components to a CNCDrive controller?
There are 4 wires that go from the current control board to this PCB. There are 2 leads from this PCB.
One lead goes up to the spindle via an air on/off solenoid. On the spindle there is a green button that operates the pneumatic tool holder release. Manually pressing this button ejects the tool holder.
The second lead goes to two toggle switches that appear to be the On/Off/Auto for the spindle. I believe Auto means the spindle is On/Off via the g-code. From what I see so far, spindle speed is controlled via the interface on the Micromaster and not by the CNC controller.

Any tips will be greatly appreciated - because that's as far as my brain can stretch on this 40 dec C day

It should only be another week or two till I get the PC that drove this machine. Once I have this I'm hoping it will shed some light on the current pinout and how this will relate to the pinout on the CNCDrive board.

[Ross N]

A few more hints:
The relay board has 4 main components: 2 x relays and 2 x transistors. I'll get my multimeter on these tomorrow but I suspect these are to amplify the 12V board voltage (I'm assuming the 12V supply isn't being amplified on the board) to the 24V required by the toolholder release circuit in the spindle and ON/OFF signal from the controller.

[Ross N]

The weather cooled down enough for my brain to work again but I'm afraid I haven't made too much progress. I started mapping out possible connections to the AXBB_E.
In addition to the spindle relay board, it turns out the homing sensors and mechanical E-Stops also connect to the existing AXYZ corp controller via another PCB. I'm left wondering do I remove this PCB and connect the proximity sensors directly to the AXBB_E and also the mechanical E-Stops separately? Or, should I retain this board and work out how the 4 yellow wires on the board should connect to the AXBB_E?

This is where I'm at so far (obviously out of my depth)..

Again, any tips will be very helpful.

[dreamform]

Hi Ross,

I'm also planning to swap out my 2006 Multicam controller for the AXXB-E board. How did you go? I'm interested to build on your experience!

Thanks, Ben

[arturod]

Is this the one with DC servos or steppers? With ATC?

[Delco]

I have done a couple of these with UC300/UCBB combos , I always rip all the old drives and power supplies and replace with new components , then its just the basic stepper wiring , spindle vfd and probes , limit switches etc using the existing wiring if its ok.

[Ross N]

Cool. Mine has steppers and the linear ATC at the foot of the table. One thing that had me chasing my tail was that the MASSO outputs a double sided signal whereas the old stepper driver require a single sided signal. I thought I had somehow introduced noise and went mad changing cables with shielded cables etc but I was still getting very erratic results. The MASSO guys suggested trying a converter to filter out the unwanted side of the signal and the issues I had went away instantly. A trap for young players I guess. And I walked into it!

[arturod]

I think the UC300ETH + C76 + M26 may be a good option as it will let you keep most of the original wiring. Check this setup:
https://cnc4pc.com/blog/post/mach4-atc-toolchanger
Here is a very old one:
https://cnc4pc.com/forum/projects/tool- ... -for-uccnc

Arturo Duncan
https://cnc4pc.com