Dynapath Delta 20 puzzle Tree 310

Long time lurker here, hopefully someone with a little bit of Dynapath knowledge is in attendance. Sorry if I ramble a bit or type like I talk...


Backstory: Jump down to current problem if you aren't in for a read, as little of it has to do with the current problem.

I bought a Tree Journeyman 310 about a year and a half ago because the previous owner couldn't get it working, it was having servo ground fault errors on all of the drives and they got tired of throwing parts at it. I got it for a pretty good deal and it looked to have very little wear (no gouge marks on the table, the finish on the little dust covers looked basically pristine) looked kinda like it spent most of it's life in some engineers basement. They told be that they got it at an estate sale when someone died and could never make it run. So, after pouring over the prints and looking on forums for about 2 weeks in my free time at work I found that little inline fuse in the wiring bundle behind the power supply blown and for $1 fuse, yatzee! it worked, drives worked and I could move everything around in jog mode. Sweet! Now to fix the encoder on the X-axis that they broke when they were trying to troubleshoot it. Ordered one, also ordered a VFD that would convert my single phase to run the spindle motor, and went back to work. I work at an oil refinery and we were going into a turn around, so I wasn't likely to have free time to mess with it for about 2 months so I settled in. Fast forward 2 weeks (not kidding 1 week after I get it running) a light got left on in my shop and started an electrical fire (I'd only lived in the new place for about 4 months at this point and would soon find lots of electrical decencies). Shop was trashed, everything was smoke damaged, it burned out the office that I had all of my tools etc, just terrible. So, after dealing with insurance and the cleaning company and my contractor (went out of business) and everything for over a year, I'm finally back to working on it. I stripped off all of the electronics, lube oil pump, anything hanging off of it, I greased and washed all of the soot off of it and repainted the iron, cleaned up the table etc. I was contemplating going to a Centroid all-in-one DC and just starting from scratch, but I happened across a craigslist ad from the Seattle area of a machine shop that had a Dynapath Delta 20, off of a Tree 310 and it was turn-key. They upgraded everything on their machine to speed it up, the went with new servos and the whole kit, so they let everything go for a really good deal. I got new servos and everything.

Fast forward to today:

Everything is installed, powered up no problem, faults cleared immediately. Axis all jog, every direction, the only odd thing is that when changing direction, it will jump about 0.020, enough to make a "thunk" and startle you... it does it on every axis... i'd be looking for something mechanical, but the fact that it does it on all 3 axis makes me suspicious. I'm thinking that I need to tune the servo controllers, but i'm hesitant to make any changes (I don't want to start tweaking one card and get it way out when they are all doing the same thing). When you travel in one direction and stop and then start again in the same direction, it doesn't do it. It's only when switching from one direction to the other.

Either way, that's another problem and not really the reason for my post, i'm sure I can do some more digging on that front...


My current problem:

Machine boots up, errors clear. I can jog everything. Found some examples of programs to input (small ones that only have a few lines, eg. move here) and tried to run it. First error: Axis not referenced... ok back to the jog screen, no problem. Align all of the marks, then "R" then X+, it indexes a little ok cool, move it negative a bit, rinse repeat with Y and Z... Then I try to jog it and it will go negative on any axis but not positive. I'm thinking I'm near where the machine thinks the limit is, so I jog negative for a bit and try to go back the other way, nada. Cycle the control power off and back on and I can jog positive again, ok weird... So, basically if I go in and reference one axis it will stop moving positive, if I switch back to jog after I do one of them, the other 2 will still move both directions and the one that's referenced will only move negative. I'm sure I'm doing something stupid or wrong, but after I'm done screwing around each night I cycle the controller so that I can jog it and move it back to line up all of the little home indexes before I shut it down, I've screwed with it for a couple of evenings of free time and I figure that I've been lurking here for long enough that I was time to post and maybe someone could tell me what i'm doing wrong, or give me an idea, or point me to a reference. I don't have the manual that came with it, that's on my list of things to try to acquire, maybe it'll shed some light.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. You guys have already helped me so much without even knowing it lol

I think you need to reference zero before it will run anything. It has been a long time since I ran one, so this is from my poor memory.
You jog z negative to get it off the reference switch. Then select reference zero. Hit the switch for z positive, it will jog itself up until z limit switch is found.
Then hit X negative and Y negative, they will jog to the limit switches and you will be referenced.

Have you referenced all axis first and then tried jogging?

A call to Bob or Tom at ZPSUSA may be in order. They could probably help you right over the phone. They do all the maintenance that we can't handle on our 1060.

(262) 758-6129
ZPS-CNC USA, Inc.

I'll third homing the machine, or do they have some weird procedure like cold start on a Fadal? Could the clunking be backlash comp? No telling what the previous guy messed with.

AARONT said:

Have you referenced all axis first and then tried jogging?

A call to Bob or Tom at ZPSUSA may be in order. They could probably help you right over the phone. They do all the maintenance that we can't handle on our 1060.

(262) 758-6129
ZPS-CNC USA, Inc.

Click to expand...

When I reference each axis is when it stops moving positive. I know i'm just not understanding something that's going on, or don't understand it the way that it actually works. I'm trying to drudge up my memories from the last time I ran a CNC in college and that's been 15 years and lots of beers ago. I'll definitely try giving these guys a call and hopefully they can get me straightened out. I really appreciate all of your feedback, I just kind of hit a wall without documentation... I'm sure the original Tree Journeyman 310 manual had a whole section on setup and stuff but the one that you buy online has like 2 pages of "operation", as if you could learn anything like that in 2 pages. I'm wondering if i'm somehow confusing the reference zero part, as I recall (and i'm at work now so it's purely memory) there were like 3 different options for zeroing, I think the machine zero is that sets itself when you power it on, and that's the reason for the little index marks on the table that you are supposed to align with arrows, the reference zero was like a work offset, like a G54 or something and I can't for the life of me remember what the 3rd option was. It's when I set that one that the axis' wont move positive. Which doesn't make any sense, I don't see why a work coordinate system would inhibit something that the machine zero should control. I have to be missing something. Anyway, I really appreciate you guys taking the time to respond and i'll try those guys next week. If anyone else has any input, I'm all ears.

pmack said:

I think you need to reference zero before it will run anything. It has been a long time since I ran one, so this is from my poor memory.
You jog z negative to get it off the reference switch. Then select reference zero. Hit the switch for z positive, it will jog itself up until z limit switch is found.
Then hit X negative and Y negative, they will jog to the limit switches and you will be referenced.

Click to expand...

The description above is correct.
I have two Delta 20's in my shop. One on a Clausing Kondia knee mill and the other on a Lagunmatic knee mill.
I have manuals. Send me a pm with your email address and I can scan any pages you need.

btm

btm said:

The description above is correct.
I have two Delta 20's in my shop. One on a Clausing Kondia knee mill and the other on a Lagunmatic knee mill.
I have manuals. Send me a pm with your email address and I can scan any pages you need.

btm

Click to expand...

When I “reference zero” is when it stops moving positive. I feel like there is something tied to that action that’s causing the problems.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

krissmithrocks01 said:

When I “reference zero” is when it stops moving positive. I feel like there is something tied to that action that’s causing the problems.

Click to expand...

You say this was a control pulled off a different machine ? Different brand and everything ? Lots of possibles, but the first one I think of is, the encoders could have been on the opposite end of the ballscrew ... sounds more like something goofy like that than an actual control problem.

Unless you are tripping the wrong limit switches ? Often there is a ref position switch then an overtravel switch. Maybe you are manually driving it too close. Try to ref it from six inches away instead of getting up close to the lineup arrows first.

EmanuelGoldstein said:

You say this was a control pulled off a different machine ? Different brand and everything ? Lots of possibles, but the first one I think of is, the encoders could have been on the opposite end of the ballscrew ... sounds more like something goofy like that than an actual control problem.

Unless you are tripping the wrong limit switches ? Often there is a ref position switch then an overtravel switch. Maybe you are manually driving it too close. Try to ref it from six inches away instead of getting up close to the lineup arrows first.

Click to expand...

Yea, it was pulled off of a different machine, but I was told that it was the same type. I didn’t actually see the machine, I had to have a buddy pick it up for me unfortunately and he didn’t really know what to look for, but when I got everything, it seemed identical (I know that doesn’t mean much) but the servos were identical and I they said it was off of a Tree Journeyman, the problem is, I dont remember if they said it was a 325 or a 310 and at the time I wasn’t paying attention because I didn’t realize there was a difference. Now I’m worried that the 325 might have homing limit switched that the 310 doesn’t and I’m worried that that’s what’s screwing me up. Honestly at the time, I was just looking for a replacement servo with a good encoder with the thought of retrofitting it, when the controller powered up as advertised, it made me change directions.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Are you jogging X and Y negative until it hits the limit switches?

pmack said:

Are you jogging X and Y negative until it hits the limit switches?

Click to expand...

That's the thing, there aren't any limit switches on my machine except for on the knee travel. The 310 doesn't have any, didn't have any that I pulled off and the new one didn't have anyplace to hook them up. That's why I was wondering if the Journeyman 325 had limits, because if it's looking for a limit and i'm not giving it the input... that could be a problem. Like I said, not sure if the control came off of a 310 or 325 because I didn't see the actual machine that it came off of. I was told it was a Tree Journeyman...