Mill control locked up

camaro_dan67 · Dec 30, 2021

My machine is a Kiwa Excel center-4 with the Fanuc 3m-c control. Yesterday I had it up and running and I walked away from it for 3 minutes and when I came back the servos were off. I cant reset the servos. The servo drives all have green lights at the vcc/rdy led. There are no alarms. I tried cycling the limit switches for each axis. Through turning the control off and back on I was able to clear all programs and parameters with the delete and reset buttons because I found 2 parameters that were not what I originally entered. I also cannot enter the parameters back in the control by turning on the parameter enable switch. Any ideas? Dan

angelw · Dec 31, 2021

camaro_dan67 said:
My machine is a Kiwa Excel center-4 with the Fanuc 3m-c control. Yesterday I had it up and running and I walked away from it for 3 minutes and when I came back the servos were off. I cant reset the servos. The servo drives all have green lights at the vcc/rdy led. There are no alarms. I tried cycling the limit switches for each axis. Through turning the control off and back on I was able to clear all programs and parameters with the delete and reset buttons because I found 2 parameters that were not what I originally entered. I also cannot enter the parameters back in the control by turning on the parameter enable switch. Any ideas? Dan

Hello Dan,
Is this the same machine that you have been having trouble with the Tool Changer? If yes, did you get the Tool Changer issue sorted?

Regards,

Bill

camaro_dan67 · Dec 31, 2021

This is the same machine with the tool changer problem. I did not get that straightened out. Why would I not be able to enter parameters? I have the estop in and the parameter switch to enable. The control displays mdi but when I key in a parameter and press input nothing happens.

Strostkovy · Dec 31, 2021

Our laser had similarly odd behavior when RJ45 connectors to the servos were making bad connections.

camaro_dan67 · Dec 31, 2021

Strostkovy what did you do to solve the issue?

Strostkovy · Dec 31, 2021

camaro_dan67 said:
Strostkovy what did you do to solve the issue?

Unplugged all of the RJ45 cables, blew out the sockets, and plugged them back in.

That machine had intermittent powerup issues for some time, but eventually refused to do anything and didn't provide any meaningful errors other than "machine not ready". It turns out the 600VDC bus that supplies the servos wasn't being powered up correctly due to communication issues.

No idea if my experience is applicable to this machine or not, but it sounds to me like a communication issue.

camaro_dan67 · Dec 31, 2021

I found I can enter tool offsets but not parameters. I know the machine has to be in estop and the parameter write switch on. Is it possible its not really in estop. Is there a way to force estop other then pushing the big red button?

Strostkovy · Jan 1, 2022

camaro_dan67 said:
I found I can enter tool offsets but not parameters. I know the machine has to be in estop and the parameter write switch on. Is it possible its not really in estop. Is there a way to force estop other then pushing the big red button?

Disconnect any of the safety circuit wires. They rely on normally closed contacts so a break in the circuit makes it stop.

Some slight variation of this on modern machines, but it usually has the same result.

angelw · Jan 1, 2022

camaro_dan67 said:
I found I can enter tool offsets but not parameters. I know the machine has to be in estop and the parameter write switch on. Is it possible its not really in estop. Is there a way to force estop other then pushing the big red button?

Hello Dan,
It wasn't an actual requirement to actuate the Emergency Stop circuit to input parameters, but by doing so defaulted the control to MDI without actually selecting MDI Mode. When you switch the PWE switch, is a p/s 100 alarm raised? If not, then it may be an issue with switching to PWE rather than anything to do with the Emergency Stop circuit.

Regards,

Bill

camaro_dan67 · Jan 1, 2022

If I flip the PWE switch to enable then start the control the p/s100 alarm does come up. I then push the page down arrow to get to parameter 0001. At the bottom of the screen it shows I'm on parameter 0001 or 0002 or any I choose. I can type in a parameter but when I hit the input key it doesn't enter it into the parameter page. I did check the function of the input key with diagnostics it does register that the key is being pressed. I can't remember off the top of my head which diagnostic number and bit are showing this. Could this problem be related to the reason the servos won't start?

angelw · Jan 1, 2022

camaro_dan67 said:
If I flip the PWE switch to enable then start the control the p/s100 alarm does come up. I then push the page down arrow to get to parameter 0001. At the bottom of the screen it shows I'm on parameter 0001 or 0002 or any I choose. I can type in a parameter but when I hit the input key it doesn't enter it into the parameter page. I did check the function of the input key with diagnostics it does register that the key is being pressed. I can't remember off the top of my head which diagnostic number and bit are showing this. Could this problem be related to the reason the servos won't start?

What mode do you have selected via the Mode Selection switch? Is it in MDI?

Regards,

Bill

camaro_dan67 · Jan 1, 2022

Yes I have it set to Mdi. However when in the PWE mode that switch doesn't change anything on the display. It stays on Mdi no matter where the mode selector switch is.

RC Mech · Jan 1, 2022

I’m not familiar with the machine nor really the Fanuc 3 but I have a 6M on a Mori Seiki mill with quirks.

Parameters on mine cannot be input unless the mode selector is in MDI like Bill said above, but my notes also state that the tool changer selector on the side of the machine must correspond to the current tool pot #. Otherwise the control will not take the parameter input.

angelw · Jan 1, 2022

camaro_dan67 said:
Yes I have it set to Mdi. However when in the PWE mode that switch doesn't change anything on the display. It stays on Mdi no matter where the mode selector switch is.

Hello Dan,
As I stated earlier, initiating the Emergency Stop defaults the control to MDI.

Regards,

Bill

camaro_dan67 · Jan 2, 2022

I found something strange tonight. I started the machine with the PWE switch on. On the motherboard the red and green leds are on in this state. I tried turning off the PWE switch and releasing the estop and hitting the reset button and the red light didn't go out. Normally doing this would make the red led go out and the servos start. I'm guessing it didnt go out because it didn't really reset and the servos didn't start.

angelw · Jan 2, 2022

camaro_dan67 said:
I found something strange tonight. I started the machine with the PWE switch on. On the motherboard the red and green leds are on in this state. I tried turning off the PWE switch and releasing the estop and hitting the reset button and the red light didn't go out. Normally doing this would make the red led go out and the servos start. I'm guessing it didnt go out because it didn't really reset and the servos didn't start.

Hello Dan,
Having the PWE switched on doesn't inhibit the operation of the Servos per se; having the Emergency Stop Circuit active does. If you were to start the control normally and have the control in the ready status with Servos active, switching the PWE on doesn't extinguish the Servos.

Engaging the Emergency Stop Circuit is a safety precaution when changing parameters, but the majority of parameters that have a critical bearing on how the machine functions requires the power to the machine to be cycled.

If you're concerned as to whether the PWE on condition is being reset, after setting the PWE to Off and pressing Reset, call up the alarm page of the control. If the PWE has not been reset, a p/s 100 alarm will still be raised.

Regards,

Bill

camaro_dan67 · Jan 2, 2022

Ok thanks Bill I will look into that. Is there a way to send parameters through the rs232 port? I did have the communication functioning for this newest motherboard before the servo thing happened. I was reading on another post of someone else trying to do this. If there is a way to do it can someone give me good instruction from start to finish.

Antarctica · Jan 2, 2022

camaro_dan67 said:
If I flip the PWE switch to enable then start the control the p/s100 alarm does come up. I then push the page down arrow to get to parameter 0001. At the bottom of the screen it shows I'm on parameter 0001 or 0002 or any I choose. I can type in a parameter but when I hit the input key it doesn't enter it into the parameter page. I did check the function of the input key with diagnostics it does register that the key is being pressed. I can't remember off the top of my head which diagnostic number and bit are showing this. Could this problem be related to the reason the servos won't start?

On my fanuc 3T controls, the first parameter is 0004. I can see values in 0001-0003, but I don't believe they are defined/writeable. Also, when I output all the parameters via RS232, the first parameter in the output file was N0004. Have you tried writing some others that are defined in the manual?

Antarctica · Jan 2, 2022

camaro_dan67 said:
Ok thanks Bill I will look into that. Is there a way to send parameters through the rs232 port? I did have the communication functioning for this newest motherboard before the servo thing happened. I was reading on another post of someone else trying to do this. If there is a way to do it can someone give me good instruction from start to finish.

I'm trying to figure out how to do this on my 3T Yang lathe also. Just haven't got back to it with the kids out of school. Maybe tomorrow.

Edit: I presume you mean writing the parameters back to the machine from a file that you previously dumped. If you just want to look see if you can get anything out (a good first step to seeing if comm parameters, etc. are set correctly), Look at Bills instructions in the Yang thread. There's also another 3T thread on PM that Bill gave even more details instructions. I think it was the other Yang Lathe 3T thread from a year or so ago...

Vancbiker · Jan 2, 2022

I skimmed through the thread but did not see what keystrokes you were using when you tried to enter parameters.

Try pressing P then the data then INPUT.

Mill control locked up

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