ESAB Eagle 3500 CNC Plasma cutter

[simce]

Hi,
This request might not be for this forum, but I'm getting desperate and disappointed by inability to find support/service for a professional machine.

We're having in our company a non working ESAB Eagle 3500 CNC Plasma cutter and local service is not interested in servicing it. Lack of service documentation is preventing us from fixing it.

I'm wondering if there's anyone in this forum who can provide a support in fixing the machine? The machine is located in Skopje, North Macedonia. Neighboring service centers are welcome, and if anyone is interested in doing remote guidance for servicing is also a great option for us since we have skilled electronic/mechanical engineers that can execute proposed steps for servicing.

Thanks,
Blagoj

 

[D.A.(Tony)Stewart]

Has mechanical inspection done all the ESAB recommended maintenance?
Which parts are working, not working? How fast did that occur over time?

 

[simce]

Has mechanical inspection done all the ESAB recommended maintenance?
Which parts are working, not working? How fast did that occur over time?

The machine was purchased second hand, and the seller claims that before disassembly was working fine.
After assembly at target facility, the Operator Control Panel shows an error that the Macine Control (MC) system is not connected to Operator Control Panel (OCP) and further use of the machine is not possible.
My inspection of the communication between MC and OCP via CAN is that the MC is requesting some data from the OCP (OCP generates ACK on request), OCP sends some data back (MC is generating ACK at this packet) but shortly afterwards error message is generated.
Looking at MC configuration files, based on logical thinking the MC is configured to use other type od OCP than the one delivered and connected. Seller is not contactable to give more info, but we need to find a way of using the machine.
Any help is appreciated.

 

[D.A.(Tony)Stewart]

What error details?

 

[simce]

What error details?


View attachment 193257

This is the message exposed at the Operator Panel:

 

[dick_freebird]

Have you checked with ESAB about factory inside or field service?
Maybe look for welding / plasma cutting / metalworking 'boards
for more ideas?

 

[simce]

Have you checked with ESAB about factory inside or field service?
Maybe look for welding / plasma cutting / metalworking 'boards
for more ideas?

I have spoken with local official ESAB service company, they promissed to visit the site several times, haven't came for the past 7 weeks. I do not expect they will visit the site.
Tried with official service centres from neighboring countries Serbia and Bulgaria, haven't received any promissing reply.
Discussions with official ESAB support center for southeast EU did not went smooth since i haven't got any reply from them during the past 2 months after several messages on their contact form.
There's a possible support comming from Croatia, but I'd like in the mean time to try other options as well.
Thanks,
Blagoj

 

[D.A.(Tony)Stewart]

Compare the signal quality of Rx at each end to rule out analog problems.
Signal PE grounding?

Is there any Power up self-test?
Flash code updates?
Key validation?

Use Logic Analyzer to decode Tx Rx data.

This seems like a Level 1 issue on the OSI layers.

 

[simce]

Compare the signal quality of Rx at each end to rule out analog problems.

Is there any Power up self-test?
Flash code updates?
Key validation?

I've attached two types of CAN analyzers to check the connectivity and 100MHz osciloscope to check signals. Signals are good.
Both CAN analyzers on machine startup detect a kind of request comming from Machine Controller (MC) towards Operator Panel (OP) on which the operator panel is generating CAN ACK signal. Immediately afterwards the Operator Panel replies with some information back when MC generates ACK signal. After this init sequence whenever a button is pressed on OP, a two byte message is generated with byte values dependant on which button is pressed and for all messages the MC generates ACK. This shows that on both sides HW is processing communication packets as it should.
Revieving the .ini files for software running on computer controlling the MC, by my opinion it seems the MC software is not configured to properly process received messages from the OP, thus "concludes" that panel is not present.

As i see, the .ini files should be properly configured on MC, for which service/installantion manual is needed.

Thanks
/Blagoj

 

[D.A.(Tony)Stewart]

Can you get the source code on the initialization routines for MC, OP from ESAB considering their lack of onsite support.

Or reverse engineer MC code. Ask for spare panel prices too on the used market.

 

[simce]

Can you get the source code on the initialization routines for MC, OP from ESAB considering their lack of onsite support.

Most likely not, since they do not reply even on my request for support/onsite service.
I'd expect that this can be solved by installation/configuration manual for MC side SW, but lack of any communication from their side makes any solution with them impossible.

 

[D.A.(Tony)Stewart]

Ask how much is documentation