Thanks Hood I will check that link.

Hi Mark the machine is on Fanuc 6ML and it has the Beaver interface board which has the TC1 and TC2 cables going out to the tool change interface board which switches solenoids and is wired to the prox sensors for the tool change arm.

John
 

John,the reason for asking was that some of the sestep outputs and possibly inputs are from the plc programme in the Heidenhain controlled machines which have the plc programme on an eprom and which would make it very difficult to rewrite the sestep part of it as there is as far as I know only one guy in the land who knows what that is.I would think that looking at how Beaver developed the machines and controls that the Sestep is being used as an extension IO board more than a plc in its own right.
The same guy quoted me a not too bad price for a sestep repair but he may not offer the same prices to everybody.
The Fanuc interface will no doubt bring it`s own problems.
Btw are you the John I think you are from the Manchester area?

Yes Mark that's me from Accrington.
I spoke to Beaver Mike last time I had a sestep exchanged and he said Mark at servotek had fitted a mitsubishi plc to a Beaver with Fanuc so I had just presumed it was possible to do that but I see your point as I was wondering how the sestep did the tool numbers.

Looking at the wiring diags it seems pretty straight forward with inputs and outputs to the sestep all listed but I'm sure to be missing things having not studied it to deeply!

John.

The Fanuc control on this machine doesn't have the usual PC model B board so no plc at all on the Fanuc side just a connection board to take outputs from the Fanuc motherboard to the Beaver interface board (all these pin outs are in the manual).

John.

By the way Mark can your guy repair these sesteps as Beaver Mike only does exchange and has no knowlege on how to repair them.

John.

Beaver Mike must have someone repairing these or he`s doing it himself because they have not been made for over twenty years and Sprecher and Schuh who made them were taken over by Rockwell I think and never made another plc,so ask yourself where are the exchange units coming from.
The only guy who can test them that I know is Mark at Servotek.He`s offered a fair price to repair mine but I`m undecided whether to check a bit on it first as the chances are it will be a cap that`s gone.
I know about him fitting the Mits plc but he has all the info as he was at Beaver up until the end.
I bought a VC5 that someone had tried to replace the Sestep on with a Siemens S5.It didn`t run because they did not know how to write the plc programme.I did,but thought it was simpler to upgrade to a 155 control and Heid external plc board as later machines had gone that way and I had drawings and a spare control so it was quite a straightforward job and the machine is standard.
If I was you I would stick with the Sestep.Get prices from MSS and Servotek.Best to email Servotek.
Or,I`ll give you £200/tonne for the machine.

The exchange sesteps I've had from Mike are ones that come from scrapped machines I think as they have no repairs on them.
They still have the original leaky seamos buffer battery in them reading about 0.5v! (not sure if the battery does anything anyway?)

Can you write Heidenhain plc programmes or did you use one from a later all heidenhain machine just curiouse!?

I'm sure I can fill the column full of scrap metal and make it weigh around 20 tonnes, then we have a deal 

I can write plc programmes but the easy way for a Beaver is to tell Servotek the serial number and get a pre programmed eprom by return.Another way is to get someone with the same model of machine and control to call up the plc code number on the screen and then you order the eprom from Heidenhain.
The plc programme must match the machine because it`s obviously looking for certain inputs before it lets the control give any outputs.
On the machine I upgraded I had to disconnect every wire from the interface board,the plc and the control and ring them all through to identify them and connect them to the correct terminals.

Yes I like the Heidenhain controls especially being able to mod the ladder with it all being viewable on the screen and built into the control as opposed to having a separate plc. The Partsmaster I have is like that it's on Heidenhain 355.

Also you can put the ladder from a 355 in any of the 400 series controls and the ladder will be automatically updated to work on the newer control. Great for a retrofit!