Denford Software & Machines

We have a Denford Microrouter Pro, Serial: H05253, dispatched in August 2004, which has lain unused for some time and I’m finding it difficult to achieve anything at all with it.

See here for the full tag plate https://www.pbase.com/callear/cnc , a general shot of the machine and other pictures that I hope help.

I have not used a CNC router before, so assume nothing! If you find yourself thinking “Surely any idiot {would | would not} have tried…” then I probably ‘have’ or ‘have not’ depending only on which is the stupidest way around.

I’m gradually ploughing through the ‘Machines’ tech forum to try to sort this out but could really use some help too.

I can’t get an RS232 connection going at all.
The single success I’ve had is that Easy Updater upgraded the firmware, via the USB port.


Physically all that happens when applying power is;
The power switch neon is lit.
The cooling fan can be heard.
The interior light is lit.
There’s a ‘click’ (relay-like) sound.
After 5 seconds there’s another click as above
That’s it. No power on test/travel in the main body of the machine. Should this happen?

If I take the side panel off and apply power I see;

The 24V “supply OK” LED goes green.
A module labeled ESR goes from ‘0’ to ‘1’ and stays that way.
The “Timer” LED goes green. It will go red in 5 seconds.
A Green LED on a board, seen only end-on and top right in this shot https://www.pbase.com/callear/image/115055092 is lit and stays that way.

A slightly complex LED sequence occurs on this board https://www.pbase.com/callear/image/115055060 which ends up with the seven segment LED showing ‘2’, a green LED flashing and an orange LED lit. This topic looks relevant viewtopic.php?f=4&t=653 but I get a ‘permission denied’ when I click the link

The initial sequence goes something like… An amber LED is lit for around 1 second. The Seven Seg flashes the middle horizontal segment and the right hand dot only for a little over a second.

Any ideas?

Hi,

Will work through a few things as you are online now.

What software are you running with the machine?

Is it VR milling 2 or 5?

When the software is loaded what machine is displayed in the top banner on the screen.

It should match the machine you have.

Hi a couple of points:

I've fixed the LED indicator link now, although not sure you need to worry about them
I'd forget about RS232 and concentrate on USB
It all sounds OK and I get the feeling you might be expecting something to happen when you turn the machine on - nothing does until VR milling 5 is installed, running and you press the connect to real machine button in the software.

It was shipped with VRMilling version 2.28. Is this still the version?

If it is above then you will need to have the "ROUTERV5PRONS" selected. This can be seen in the top left corner.
To change go to "setup" then "setup machine parameters". The password is "denny". Then right click on the line that says "ROUTERV5PRONS" then click on "set as active".

I presume at the moment you are set as "ROUTER" which uses a different top card & communicates differently.

Thanks for the rapid response and reassurance that the machine is probably not simply dead in the water. Sorry to have missed your comments this afternoon, just didn’t think to check back so quickly. Have to wait till Monday now but in the meanwhile...

I’m sure no upgrades in software would have been purchased – now running the VRMilling_V2_31_CD software downloaded from Denford site.

Thinking back, it’s possible that, at different times, I’ve used the EasyUpgrader and firmware from both the V5 and the V2 download software. Anyway, unless you say otherwise, I’ll make sure it’s V2 firmware on Monday.

I’ll also change to "ROUTERV5PRONS" and hope this is the vital bit of information I need

By the way, is there a self test routine or .fnc file that would put it through it’s paces?

Many thanks again. You now have me actually looking forward to getting back to this on Monday morning - quite an achievement after my frustrations of the past few days.

is there a self test routine or .fnc file that would put it through it’s paces

V2 milling will have installed teddy.fnc into My Documents\Denford\CNC Files - its an old favourite we used to test the speed of the machines (make sure you have Turbo mode on)
You need to find a block of foam 100 by 100 by 45 and a 1/4" ball nose.

It moves! It moves! It moves!

Very happy just to be able to 'Jog' it around.

Thanks for the pointer to he example files.

Now slowly working my way through the book too, hoping to get a few more questions in before the school's summer break

Many thanks again.