Siemens Control Support Thanks.

I just want to say how helpful the people who work for Siemens in their support department are. I am not a career machinist so when I bought my first and only VMC a Sharp it had a Siemens control I knew nothing about that control. My experience was using a 2 CNC routers with some pretty simple controls and software and a Trak DPM bed mill it was also pretty simple to get up and running. I read many times I would have to pay to get help with any industrial machine. The Trak and CNC routers all had free tech support.

Before I bought the machine I found some good tutorials on YouTube about the 828D & 840D controls. I learned enough to get up and running using what I already knew from my other machines. I registered on the Siemens web site and they started sending me invitations for online training on the 828D & 840D control. The training has helped me to further my knowledge of this control. I would like to thank Chris Pollack & Daniel Vitullo.

After watching these training sessions Chris had his email address and I have emailed him with questions on several occasions and have always gotten a timely response with the info I needed.

After one of the training sessions Daniel Vitullo presented I got in touch with him and he offered for me to do a phone training session with him. This was a huge help and he walked me through some advanced (for me) training he spent about an hour and a half on two separate calls with me in which he recorded one of the sessions with the control in a video and sent me a copy so I could refer back to this video. By the way this has all been free and my machine was purchased used with no type of support contract.

I just want to say that I feel these guys who represent Siemens have been outstanding. I have nothing to gain by posting this but I just want to say if you are looking at a machine that has one of these Siemens controls 828D or 840D there is some great support for it.

To qualify this I do not do anything more than 3 axis with my machine I do know they support much more complex machining than what I am doing.

P.S. The reason I posted this today was yesterday I was running a file and accidentally hit my E stop with my elbow walking by the machine (yea I called myself a dumb ass)during a program that had rigid tapping and I was half way through the tapping using a form tap. I could not just restart without ruining the formed threads so I sent Daniel an email on Saturday expecting a response Monday but I got the response on Sunday with an explanation of how to do a block search and how to get the program re-started. This is an easy process when you are running a conversational program but a CAM generated program was not as obvious so his explanation helped a bunch.

Mike Miller

Very good to hear your fortune!

My experience has been much less than impressive, but then I just called in when I had a question on an issue that they couldn't be bothered to elaborate on more than about 12 words in the manual. (multi-pass thread milling)

I have called 2wice over the years for prog questions, and each time was told that my controller was too old and that no-one there would recall how to code it.

After 2wice being given the cold shoulder on prog questions that they couldn't be bothered to give examples and such in the book, I have lost any possible good thoughts that I may have still had at that time.

(2002 and 2004 810D, and it's been maybe 3 years since last call)


Again - glad to see that someone is getting codeing help!


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

My sob story:

Our Fryer lathe has a Siemens control. We were having parameter issues and Fryer says,
"See, that is like one of the first Siemens controls we put on our machines, so could you please go take a picture of the cabinet so we can see what axis drives you have, etc."

I kid you not, it really happened.
And the machine is only 8 years old too...............

Ox said:

Very good to hear your fortune!

My experience has been much less than impressive, but then I just called in when I had a question on an issue that they couldn't be bothered to elaborate on more than about 12 words in the manual. (multi-pass thread milling)

I have called 2wice over the years for prog questions, and each time was told that my controller was too old and that no-one there would recall how to code it.

After 2wice being given the cold shoulder on prog questions that they couldn't be bothered to give examples and such in the book, I have lost any possible good thoughts that I may have still had at that time.

(2002 and 2004 810D, and it's been maybe 3 years since last call)


Again - glad to see that someone is getting codeing help!


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

Click to expand...

I think your in the same boat as me. I've always called the 800 number but that pretty much just connects you the field service people. They have always tried and were responsive at first, but after that initial contact it was pretty much it.

Now I do have to ask why isn't this call passed onto the app guys that would know this?

Ox said:

Very good to hear your fortune!

My experience has been much less than impressive, but then I just called in when I had a question on an issue that they couldn't be bothered to elaborate on more than about 12 words in the manual. (multi-pass thread milling)

I have called 2wice over the years for prog questions, and each time was told that my controller was too old and that no-one there would recall how to code it.

After 2wice being given the cold shoulder on prog questions that they couldn't be bothered to give examples and such in the book, I have lost any possible good thoughts that I may have still had at that time.

(2002 and 2004 810D, and it's been maybe 3 years since last call)


Again - glad to see that someone is getting codeing help!


------------------------

Think Snow Eh!
Ox

Click to expand...

Similar experience here. They wanted $300 just to ask how to figure out which parts I needed before I placed an order for them.
Then the last experience was repairing a motherboard on an 850 after a lightining strike. If I wanted to ask how to determine if it was the motherboard on not, again $300 to ask. Otherwise just send the board in and they'd test it. If it needed fixed, they'd fix it. If it didn't need fixed, they'd charge me the testing fee and return it. If it couldn't be fixed, no replacements were available, and they'd quote me a retrofit control. The woman who answers the phone really doesn't care. When it was Cincinnati controls or Vickers, it was just the opposite, it was awesome.

If I have learned anything over the years regarding CNCs is that consistently, the support is inconsistent. Some are better and some are worse, but none is always good 100% of the time.

I'm glad to hear gundog got good support from Siemens. IMO, his experience is the exception rather than the rule. Something I have a hard time keeping in mind is that companies change. An outfit that left you high and dry a few years ago may now do a great job, and opposite can be true too.

I can only say how it has been for me. I got an email from Daniel (after I posted this) and he asked me to call him at which time he walked me through the process of doing a block search for starting in the middle of a program made by CAM. He also showed me a feature for finding the last line of code during an interruption like hitting the E stop by mistake.

I think right now they are trying hard to help and I am impressed with the help I have been given, but this is the training department and not the repair or service department I have not had need so far to contact those departments.