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Robofil 300 system reload

SINUMERIKO

Plastic
Joined
Jan 12, 2009
Location
SPAIN
Hello gentlemen,

I have the opportunity to fix a Charmilles Robofil 300 WEDM with a Charmilles controller right on these days, and say 'have the opportunity' because hopefully it will the first of this kind I ever fix, I have good experience on other CNC's tough, lathes, mills, etc.

This machine has the alarm 'No dialog with CCU COM - Check LED code'

Since I don't have the maintenance manual or anything where I can interpretate what the status leds are telling me, I believe I will have to reload the system thru the disks, wich are:

1.-MKE6.5E/8059580F/ROBOFIL 290/3X0/5X0/COMMUNICATIONS SOFTWARE/COM:MNA5X/EXE:MN99/PIL:FP18/CTUS2/8/99/DISK1

2.-MKE6.5E/8060830D/ENGLISH LANGUAGE (ENGLISH.CMD)/TECHNO MN67/WIRE MN66/CTUS2/8/99/DISK 2

3.-MKE6.5E/8062060A/TECHNO DOC FILES/DOC MN67/CTUS2/8/99

4.-AUTO DIAGNOSTIC/ROBOFIL 290/3X0/5X0/BRASS GENERATOR/#8062170/VER:3GV10/CTUS2/8/99/DISK 1OF 1

...and here is exactly where I'll need all the help you can give me, cause I have these doubts:

Are these all the required system disks?

How do I tell the machine to start floppy-reading?

Every single piece of information will be very appreciated.

Thanks in advance;)
 
You hold down any of the blue keys as you turn on the control and you should arrive at a service screen which instructs on on inserting the disks.

This thread concerns a Robofil 300 and the floppy disks so should be interesting to you http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/showthread.php?t=169964

Having said that, your alarm sounds a bit odd such that I'm not sure reloading the disks will cure it. Has the machine been moved recently or not under power for some time ?
 
MILACRON,

Thank you very much for the link, I've read it all and now am about to print it out and get going to meet the machine again. I called the owner this morning to ask him about how long it's been with the problem and he said the first alarm appeared a week ago: 'E658 The CCU PIL board fails to answer', then they played around with the PCB's and obtained the actual alarm: 'No dialog with CCU COM'...before that the machine was working just well.

After reading your other post, I assume they erased the machine's memory data because of the lack of battery backup, but it's just a tough. I will try the system reload and post my results here.
 
From Charmilles' basic training handout:

RELOAD SOFTWARE

CONSOLE2

1. Turn the machine off and wait 5 seconds.
2. Insert disk "A" in the disk drive.
3. Press the LOAD key and turn the machine on.
4. Hold the LOAD key until the message "LOADING FLOPPY" appears then release.
5. Remove disk "A" and insert disk "B" when the message appears.
6. Remove disk "B" when the message appears and insert the English language disk.

* The machine will start up automatically.

This is the same for both our 290P and 510P with Charmilles' Console 2 or "Millenium" controller.

Our disks are labeled System_A, System_B, and English.

Does your error have an alphanumeric code? For example A401 or E687 ...

It may be that reloading the system will solve this problem.

Keep us posted and we will try to help.


Edit:

See that's what happens when I take too long writing a reply.

Can't help it, I'm trying to keep my machines running today too.
 
Last edited:
BAD NEWS,

THE MACHINE DOES NOT WANT TO START FLOPPY READING, I TRIED THE SUGGESTED METHOD(S) BUT IT WON'T START THE SERVICE SCREEN OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT, IT JUST SHOWS 'NO DIALOG WITH CCU COM - CHECK LED CODE.

TODAY I CHECKED ALL THE VOLTAGES AT SEVERAL POINTS AND EVERYTHING APPEARS TO BE NORMAL, THIS LOOKS LIKE A START-UP PROBLEM, THE MACHINE CAN'T BOOT ITSELF.

BUT I FOUND OUT THIS: APPARENTLY THIS MACHINE IS A 1995 MODEL WITH AN UPDATE CAUSE IT HAS A METAL PLATE IN THE BACK THAT SAYS 'ANNE 1995', BUT THE SOFTWARE DISKS MENTION THIS DATE: 2/8/99:confused:

SO I'M STUCK AT THIS POINT.

KilrB, I BELIEVE THIS MACHINE DOES NOT HAVE A CONSOLE 2 OR MILLENIUM, I GUESS IT IS OLDER THAN YOURS, IT HAS A CRT, NOT LCD DISPLAY, ITS SERIAL NUMBER IS 52115.

MILACRON, PLEASE MAKE A COPY OF YOUR DISKS BEFORE YOU SELL YOUR MACHINE (JUST IN CASE), I ALREADY LOOKED AT YOUR EBAY ADD, NICE MACHINE YOU HAVE, LOOKS NEW.

I WROTE A LAY OUT OF ALL THE STATUS LEDS AT THE PCB'S, I WILL MAKE A COLOR DRAWING OF THEM AND POST IT HERE, IN CASE SOMEONE KNOWS HOW TO INTERPRETATE THEIR MEANING.

PLEASE STAY TUNED...:bawling:
 
AND THEN THE STATUS LEDS...:reading:
 

Attachments

  • CHARMILLES ROBOFIL 300 CNC PCB's STATUS LEDS WITH ERROR.zip
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THE MACHINE DOES NOT WANT TO START FLOPPY READING, I TRIED THE SUGGESTED METHOD(S) BUT IT WON'T START THE SERVICE SCREEN OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT, IT JUST SHOWS 'NO DIALOG WITH CCU COM - CHECK LED CODE.
Yeah I was afraid of that. All I can suggest is what you probably have already done.... reseat boards and look for loose wires...in particular at the back of the motherboard where they are not held very well. Reseating any EPROM chips on appropriate boards also.

I don't suppose anyone sells Stabilant in Spain ?

http://www.posthorn.com/Stab_2.html


Btw....DON'T TYPE IN ALL CAPS...hard to read and looks like shouting..... and put your location.. "BETWEEN 2 PPR" is meaningless to most of us
 
Our Robofils are 2000 and newer machines.

The 290 and 510 are Console 2 models and have CRTs.

None of them look like Milacron's on e-bay and I'm guessing that's the controller you have too.

Have you checked the motherboard battery?
 
Have you checked the motherboard battery?
FWIW, there is no "motherboard" battery...but there is a set of 3 batteries on the CPU board. Plus even if almost zero voltage, that shouldn't prevent the service screen from coming up...it would only prevent the retention of the software that one loaded, after the power was shut off.
 
Working for the weekend

Hi,

Today I finally made the decision of removing the whole thing for a pretty good closed-up inspection and after taking the required notes and drawing all the connectors' location I carefully took the CNC box completely out, I left the lower boards in their place thought, since I think they are not related to the actual issue.

I wanted to start looking at the UA+SAL+RESTART pcb first to check the batteries' condition, well, you better look at the pictures for yourself.

I will clean up everything and replace those dead batteries with new ones, hopefully I will be mounting the CNC box back on Monday and run the first tests, perhaps this time the machine will alow me to reload the system back on.

I will update the post that day. ;)Robofil 300 CNC front small.jpg

Robofil 300 CNC rear small.jpg

UA SAL RESTART pcb dead batteries a small.jpg

UA SAL RESTART pcb dead batteries b small.jpg

UA SAL RESTART pcb dead batteries c small.jpg
 
I once bought a 1994 vintage Charmilles Roboform 20 that sat for over 2 years without power and it's batteries corroded so bad that the corrosion ate thru the circuit board traces...and seeing as it was a layered board with some traces sandwiched in between layers, it was impossible to repair and I just had to buy a new board.

Your's doesn't look quite to that point but I'll bet you will need to do a little repair and that is probably the problem indeed.

Note however that if you don't add your location you will be banned and we'll never find out.
 
Update

Hi,

Although now I have good “Battery U” voltage at the UA/SAL/Restart PCB testpoints with the machine either ON or OFF, it still won't start reading the disks.

Can any of you guys tell me if it is normal that I hear a 'beep' coming from the keyboard only when I press down any of these 3 keys: Control, left-sided shift and right-sided shift?, in other words, when I push any other key in this keypad nothing happens, I don´t get a beep, is it normal (for the lack of OS) or...the keyboard has a damaged key that is blocking almost all others from operating, and consequently the boot process never happens...just a thought.

Here are some new pictures, the screen showing the error, the new NiCads at the UA/SAL/Restart PCB and the keyboard. Thanks for the help. ;)
 

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  • New NiCad's.JPG
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  • Console 1 keyboard.JPG
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Hi,

Although now I have good “Battery U” voltage at the UA/SAL/Restart PCB testpoints with the machine either ON or OFF, it still won't start reading the disks.

Can any of you guys tell me if it is normal that I hear a 'beep' coming from the keyboard only when I press down any of these 3 keys: Control, left-sided shift and right-sided shift?, in other words, when I push any other key in this keypad nothing happens, I don´t get a beep, is it normal (for the lack of OS) or...the keyboard has a damaged key that is blocking almost all others from operating, and consequently the boot process never happens...just a thought.

Here are some new pictures, the screen showing the error, the new NiCads at the UA/SAL/Restart PCB and the keyboard. Thanks for the help. ;)
Dear SINUMERIKO,have you solved the problem with sturtup?A similar problem we have with our machine.THE MACHINE DOES NOT WANT TO START FLOPPY READING,CRT SCREEN BLACK, WON'T START THE SERVICE SCREEN OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT.Sometimes the procedure passes and loaded the software but the software does not stored and the next day so you have to re-enter.
Battery voltage is checked and OK.We are checked the status LEDs on the UA+SAL+RESTART board.Lit red LED: RES EXT and NMI not bright green DRES.
Please help to us
 
Hello gentlemen,

I have the opportunity to fix a Charmilles Robofil 300 WEDM with a Charmilles controller right on these days, and say 'have the opportunity' because hopefully it will the first of this kind I ever fix, I have good experience on other CNC's tough, lathes, mills, etc.

This machine has the alarm 'No dialog with CCU COM - Check LED code'

Since I don't have the maintenance manual or anything where I can interpretate what the status leds are telling me, I believe I will have to reload the system thru the disks, wich are:

1.-MKE6.5E/8059580F/ROBOFIL 290/3X0/5X0/COMMUNICATIONS SOFTWARE/COM:MNA5X/EXE:MN99/PIL:FP18/CTUS2/8/99/DISK1

2.-MKE6.5E/8060830D/ENGLISH LANGUAGE (ENGLISH.CMD)/TECHNO MN67/WIRE MN66/CTUS2/8/99/DISK 2

3.-MKE6.5E/8062060A/TECHNO DOC FILES/DOC MN67/CTUS2/8/99

4.-AUTO DIAGNOSTIC/ROBOFIL 290/3X0/5X0/BRASS GENERATOR/#8062170/VER:3GV10/CTUS2/8/99/DISK 1OF 1

...and here is exactly where I'll need all the help you can give me, cause I have these doubts:

Are these all the required system disks?

How do I tell the machine to start floppy-reading?

Every single piece of information will be very appreciated.

Thanks in advance;)
_________________________________________________________________

Dear friend, resolved the fault ?....... I have the same problem, I'm starting with my workshop, my rodofil fault!, I have the 4 diskette, you can help thank.
I have manuals and diskettes, if you necesutas the few copies I can send to the address that I specify.
I would appreciate your prompt response.

I speak Spanish, my English is not good.

Att.
Juanosgava :crazy:
Chile
 
Solution for a problem

_________________________________________________________________

Dear friend, resolved the fault ?....... I have the same problem, I'm starting with my workshop, my rodofil fault!, I have the 4 diskette, you can help thank.
I have manuals and diskettes, if you necesutas the few copies I can send to the address that I specify.
I would appreciate your prompt response.

I speak Spanish, my English is not good.

Att.
Juanosgava :crazy:
Chile

Dear friends
We have so many experience in case of Iran problems by USA. So we could not take formal guides or regular services or even right spare parts for our CHARMILLES wire cute machines.
this reason made us stronger by experience and now we solve our problem by our selves.
Some few days ago, we had same problem. what we found is the problem is our main board (top solo bord that contains batteries). there is a micro switch in it (ON/OFF)
first of all set that OFF for 2 or 3 hours than in next step when every things resets (flash) from that bord you could set it On and start to install machine software diskettes.
;) Any hard problems has simple solutions:)
 
Dear friends
We have so many experience in case of Iran problems by USA. So we could not take formal guides or regular services or even right spare parts for our CHARMILLES wire cute machines.
this reason made us stronger by experience and now we solve our problem by our selves.
Some few days ago, we had same problem. what we found is the problem is our main board (top solo bord that contains batteries). there is a micro switch in it (ON/OFF)
first of all set that OFF for 2 or 3 hours than in next step when every things resets (flash) from that bord you could set it On and start to install machine software diskettes.
;) Any hard problems has simple solutions:)

Hello mohamad. Can you explain a little better the procedure. I am having the same problem. Same screen with the no comm to the ccu board. I have checked all the boards and cables. Also install new batteries. Then I installed the software and it was working ok. But one day after I shut down the machine now I have the problem. Any other thing to check???
 
Hi,

I looking for the complete software. How I can download. could u share with me?

im working with CT machines a want reinsatall MK VI.5D MKVI.5+

thanks in advance
 
Hi,

I looking for the complete software. How I can download. could u share with me?

im working with CT machines a want reinsatall MK VI.5D MKVI.5+

thanks in advance

Hello friend did you find software disk data files?
 








 
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