Denford Software & Machines

Hello

I am in the process of getting my triac vmc delivered to my workshop and I have a few things to figure out before it gets here. I have had a good look around it and there appears to be little wrong other than the fact that the ATC arm doesn’t want to retract properly. It moves about 6” away from the spindle then needs a hand to get all the way back… I’m sure this is a known problem I just haven’t read much more on it.
The real issue I face is that the machine has a dos computer and is running Denford Fanuc milling 2.98. I checked the card and it’s a red led model with a v1.6i eprom, mint 3.28. My main question is can I upgrade the eprom to get vr5 to work with this machine?
I have 3 cards which I have removed from a microrouter, a novamill and a microrouter compact. One I believe is a green segment the others are red. Im sure they all have a 2.1 eprom fitted. I have the vr milling 5 software which came with my router and to keep the atc working I would like to use it.
I assume I cant use the newer card with the machine but can I change the chip?? If its possible is it complicated to do or is it a matter of swapping them out?
My final question. If I cannot get the machine working from the Denford software has anyone managed to get the power drawbar to work off of a button? If I have to convert it to mach4 I want to eventually have the atc working but I don’t think that will happen quickly…. If I could just do fast tool changes with the air operated drawbar in the short term it would be so much easier

Thanks,
Chris

Hi Chris

I presume your Triac will have a rack mounted control card which is different to top card fitted to the 3 standard machines as listed.

You can fit the V2.1 Eprom to the Denstep Rack Card (It just plugs in) & use VR Milling. It should work fine on version 5. The only issue is if has the override pots fitted we have to wire the feeds to the 12 volt supply to get the full movement. It's not that hard to reconfigure though.

Make sure you go in to legacy machines when you select the machine type in VR Milling version 5.

much appreciated! that saves a lot of hassle converting the machine!

Hi folks,

I require a bit more help. I have swapped out the eprom but I only get a .L flashing on the eurocard. Not sure if this is an issue with the eprom or not. The other two boards I have don't have v2.1 eprom, they are green segment boards. Would the eprom from one of those work or is there a way to tell what is going wrong?

anyone?

The .L flashing just means you are not connected to the software. Have you tried to communicate with it?

Tried various times to get it working with the pc direct to the card (bypassing the dos pc inside the cabinet. i am using a denford cable with the plastic silver ends. it cant pick it up in mintman, or vr no matter what machine i try. it may be a coincidence but i am sure the top card the eprom came from had some connection issues. that may have been related to the top card as from reading on the forum the board wouldn't give an L if the eprom wasnt working?