Huntron RP388

[gyro]

Hi,

I recently purchased an old RP388 on a second hand market. My goal is to make a cnc machine out of it for little hobby thingies, but without schematics this is a little bit difficult. I have some questions about the machine :

1) Is it possible to get the schematics of the electonics somewhere?
2) Can I use the machine as is with Mach3 for instance or do I have to make a controller myself to steer the driverboard of the steppers?

Ronny.

[admin]

Welcome to the forum, Ronny.
The only schematic that was created for the RP388 was the power board. This would not be useful unless the prober does not work. The prober is controlled through a 9 pin serial (COM) port that goes to a built-in Cyberpak HS20 motor controller. You can send commands to the prober using the Terminal (or Hyperterminal) on your PC.  Your best bet is to do a net search on "HS20 Cyberpak command set" to find a listing of the commands to control the prober. We are using Cyberpak's USB motor controller on our current Access Probers and I know many (but not all) of the same terminal commands will control the RP388.
If you want to see if your PC can communicate with the RP388, connect the Rp388 serial port to a 9 pin COM port on your PC. Add a new Hyperterminal connection with the port settings at 9600 bps and defaults for the other settings. Save and go to the terminal window and power the prober ON. You should see a "CYBERVEC" header and revision number pop up in the terminal window. if you do not see this then press the Stop button on the front to the Prober to reset the motor controller and display the CYBERVEC header again. Once you establish communication, you should be able to type in manual commands to enable the individual stepper motors and actually move them. This is where you will need the command set information mentioned above. Good luck.

Thanks.
Admin

[gyro]

Thank you for the quick and accurate anwer Admin.

In case the HS20 Cyberpak command set should not be as compatible as I hoped for the things I want to do, is it possible to replace the HS20 motor controller with e.g. an Arduino to steer the power supply pcb? That was in fact the reason why I asked if there are schematics available for that board. I first will have a look at the command set, but because I'm a noob at cnc and things it will take a while before everything will fit as it should.

Thanks.
Ronny.

[admin]

Hi,
I do not know about the Arduino controller but the HS20 will give you movement control of the X, Y and Z axis down to a .002inch movement (1 step command).

Thanks.
Curtis

[gyro]

Hi again Curtis,
I suppose I have to connect pc and RP388 with a null-modem cable? (asking because I hate to destroy things that I want to use)

As I am rather a 'hardware' type of man than a 'software' type, the simplest way for me is to be able to use (freeware) software that outputs g-code. I could make a controller that supports the g-code and can control the power pcb board, but then again I need the schematics of the power pcb and the sheets of the CMD-40 bridges I think. I can't write a translation tool from g-code to Cybervec, so I'm stuck at that part. If I find the time this evening I'll connect the rp388 to my pc and see what happens before I can take any further steps.

[admin]

The cable from the PC to the RP388 is a simple 9 pin serial cable.

[gyro]

Hi Curtis,

I finally found the time to make a 9 pin serial cable and revive an old pc with a serial port. Seems that the fuses of the RP388 are blown though. Can you tell me which fuses I can replace them with (240V here)?

Thanks,
Ronny.

EDIT : Replaced the blown fuses with two brand new 3A/250V fuses. I made a connection with the beast and here we are :
(C)CYBERVEC V4.99S . So that part works, now I hope I can get the motors moving. If someone could write a quick testprogram for it ...

Ronny.