F A N U C 5T 5M

Here's a common cause of servo runaways on the 5T and 5M controllers: On the edge of the power supply, you'll see a bunch of grey cables with Molex style connectors. These cables go to the A board, the B board, and the Memory & Edit board. Look carefully at the connectors at BOTH ends of these cables. If you see any discoloration, you may have a connector that's overheating. The 5v pins to the B board are the most likely to overheat, because the B board uses the most current. On early model Fanuc 5 controls, the pins that mate with these connectors on the power supply were not gold plated, and would overheat and corrode over time. The later power supplies had gold plated pins, and were not as vulnerable to overheating. Here's what happens: When the B board looses 5 volt power for any reason, the pulse coder feedback from the servos is affected. The LEDs in the pulse coders go out, and (ordinarilly) the B board would shut down the control with a pulse coder feedback alarm. Unfortunately, if the B board loses power, it can't trigger this alarm either, and the servos will just "drift" away. If the power is lost while the servo is moving, the servo will continue to move at the same speed until it overtravels. Hopefully, your E-stop circuit will stop the servo before any damage is done to the ballscrews. If you see any discoloration on the Molex connectors, you can replace the connector or, if you don't mind a hokey solution, you can just solder the wires to the power supply pins. There are other reasons for servo runaways, but on the Fanuc 5, this connector problem will let them run away without triggering any alarms.

The +6R and -6R are just reference voltages, and they are just regulated down from the +15 and -15 voltages with a pair of zener diodes near the PC07 chip on the A board. The RV3 pot adjusts the +5R voltage only. My schematics don't show any +6 or -6 voltages on the power supply itself. These "reference" voltages do not need to be exact. They only need to be constant, which is why they use a simple zener diode circuit for regulation. There is a pot to adjust the +5R on the A board (RV3) but there is no pot to adjust it on the Fanuc 5 power supply. That too is regulated by a zener diode ZD3. If your servo is running away, I suggest that you pull the fuses on that servo and test the VCMD signal coming from the A board. The signal to the X axis has a checkpin marked VCMDL, and the Z axis on a lathe is marked VCMDM. If this is a mill, then X is VCMDL, Y is VCMDM, and Z is VCMDN.

The voltage you see on these checkpins should be exactly proportional to the servo's following error. If you pull the fuses on the servo and turn the control on, you should be able to "dial in" any amount of servo error by using the step-jog buttons or the handle pulse generator. A few thousanths of error in one direction should generate a + voltage on the VCMDx pin, and a bit of error in the other direction should result in a - voltage. A servo error of zero should result in zero volts (adjustable to zero with pots RV1 L, M, and N on the A board). If you turn on the control and see a big voltage on the VCMD pins, then you've got a problem on the A board. NOTE: Be careful when pulling the fuses on a Z axis on a mill, or on a slant-bed lathe on the X axis. You don't want the slide to drift down under it's own weight and introduce servo error. Some machines use an electric brake in the motor, and turning on the servo with the fuses pulled would release the brake, but the motor won't hold the ballscrew from turning. If your VCMD signal looks normal, then you might want to test the Tach signal also. The tach signal on most Fanuc 5s is generated by the PC06 hybrid IC on the A board. The pulse coder signals are turned into an analog tach signal by the PC06, which is basically a frequency-to-velocity converter. The faster the pulse coder frequency, the higher the voltage from the PC06. The tach signal is visible on check pins SCDVL, M, and N, and it should be zero volts when the motor is still. If you have the fuses pulled, you should be able to rotate the motor a little back & forth, and see a small analog signal on the SCDV check pins. The voltage won't be much at such a slow motor speed, but you can at least see if the signal is there. NOTE: you will only be able to turn the motor a short distance before the control alarms out with an "excess error" alarm. This is normal. Just rotate it back & forth a short distance and you'll be OK. A zero volt signal when the motor is stationery would be normal. The offset for setting it to zero is RV2L, M, and N on the A board. I've seen many cases where the square black hybird ICs fail and cause servo problems. A bad PC06 or PC03 can make the servo run away, but it will only go a short distance before the servo will shut down with an "Excess error" alarm. The control sees the pulse coders turning, and when it counts up to a value preset by parameter, the control should alarm out and shut of the servo for safety.

There are only a few ICs that can cause the VCMD signal to go off the charts like this. The L (x) axis circuits are all in a horizontal row on the top-left area of the A board. The row of circuits for the M and the N axes are below them. The VCMDL signal comes directly from the 8-pin 741 Op-amp at coordinates I-8 on the A board. If that op-amp is blown, that could cause it. These op-amps are available from Radio Shack, but they seldom go bad. The 741 op-amp gets it's input signal from the square black A-PCO3 hybrid IC. I've seen a lot of these go bad. The only source for these is Fanuc, because this is a Fanuc-made IC. Any Fanuc service tech should be able to get them. 2

The A-PC03 gets its input from the A-PC02, and the PC02 gets its input from the APC01. These are also Fanuc-made ICs My bet is on the A-PC03 at location I-10 OVC means "over current". The servo has hit it's current limit and has shut down to protect the SCRs and the motor. You may want to check the brushes in the motor. Clean out any carbon dust, and check to be sure the brushes are at least 10mm in length. The armature leads to the motor are also contained in a cable that has a MS style connector on the motor. Be sure that the connector isn't full of oil or coolent, which can short the armature leads together. You may also have a blown SCR, which is equivalent to shorting the motor armature leads together. You can ohm out each SCR separately, but you have to take the servo apart to get at them. Try disconnecting the armature leads and powering up the control. Does the OVC alarm still come on? I've got all the Fanuc 5T/5M manuals and schematics, and I used to be a service engineer for General Numeric when the Fanuc 5 was popular. The common problems on the 5 controls are: 1) Burned connectors on the power supply. The white plastic turns brown, which means that the connector is getting hot. If you see discolored connectors, clean or replace them to prevent voltage loss to the circuit boards. 2) Pratt & Whitney StarTurn lathes had a chuck open/close switch that can short 110 vac to the 24vdc power supply. Be sure that switch doesnt' fill up with coolent! 3) Moving a machine can cause the CNC and/or the servos to run at the wrong voltage. The CNC and the servo transformers have to be "jumpered" to match the line voltage in the shop. A too high or too low voltage to the servos can cause all kinds of trouble. 4) The PC06 hybrid circuits on the "A" board can go bad, causing a servo to occillate badly. These hybrids can be replaced, but they're not easy to find anymore. 5) The servo gain needs to be adjusted on the A board also. There are jumpers and pots for this, but you really need to understand position loop gain settings to get it right. 6) Adjusting these 3-phase full wave servos is complicated, but it can be done with a voltmeter and an ocsilloscope. I don't recommend this for amateurs, but the procedure is clearly documented in the maintenance manual

Fanuc 5 controls used 4 hybrid circuits for each axis. In the upper-left corner of the "A" board, you will see 3 horizontal rows of ICs, each row includes: A-PC01 A-PC02 A-PC03 A-PC04 The PC01, PC02, and PC03 are working together to create the VCMD, or "Velocity Command" signal for the servo. If you put a scope on the VCMD signal and see that it's unstable, the culprit will usually be one of these 3 hybrids. The VCMD signal is visible at a check pin on the A board, or on CH1 on the servo velocity control board. The PC06 is responsible for creating the "Tach" signal for the servo. Fanuc 5s used a Frequency-to-velocity converter to turn the stream of pulses from the pulse coder into an analog tach signal. The tach signal tells the servo how fast the motor is turning so it can maintain a controlled speed. If the PC06 malfunctions, the tach signal becomes unstable, and the servo goes bananas trying to maintain a steady motor speed. The tach signal is visible on the TSA check pins on the A board, or on CH2 on the servo's velocity control board. There is also a single A-PC07 IC on the same board, but there is only one of these. It's a voltage regulator that produces a 6vdc "reference" voltage that's used by all three of the A-PC06 ICs. If the PC07 goes out, all 3 axes will go crazy. You can see the +6R, or "reference" voltage at a check pin on the board. It should be a stable +6vdc, and is adjustable with the RV3 pot.

Fanuc 0 motors with 2000 line encoders. Almost all Fanuc controls with Analog servos used this motor. Typically, the 0 motor was used for small mills and for the X axis on typical lathes. The Fanuc 5 motor is the same diameter, but a bit longer for more torque. The Fanuc amplifier that powered this motor used 60-65vac as an input, and the 5 motor used about 90-95vac. If you have the servo amplifier also, I would suggest that you used it. It's nicely matched to this motor. The amplifier/motor combination could be used with almost any CNC control that has an analog output for the velocity signal and pulse coder input for postion feedback. The only problem you might have using this servo/motor combination on a non-Fanuc control is the fact that there is no tach generator. The Fanuc CNC controls would use the pulse coder signals for position feedback, then generate an artificial tach signal for the servo. The tach signal was generated by sampling the pulse frequency from the pulse coders. An F/V (Frequency to Velocity) circuit would generate the 6v per 1000 RPM tach signal for the servo.