dro

[Ian Campbell 7Participant @iancampbell7]

Hi
I have a Newall dro on my lathe but the display has stopped working have been quoted near £600 to repair it was wondering if any experts out there know of a way of using my origianl scales and then buying a more mordern display. The spherosyn scales have round mutli pin plugs.

Tia
Ian

[Ian Campbell 7Participant @iancampbell7]

[Nick HulmeParticipant @nickhulme30114]

If the display is just dead odds on it's the internal PSU has failed, check for blown electrolytic capacitors in the PSU board, you might just fix it for pennies and a bit of soldering work.

Failing that ask Machine DRO if they do anything compatible, they do converters between quite a few scales and displays and may be able to help,

– Nick

[Chris Evans 6Participant @chrisevans6]

I was in this situation last year where my Newall Spherosyn would work but all the buttons became  unresponsive to set zero etc. I was fortunate enough to obtain a used front button/display panel for £70. Failing finding one I would have imported a complete system from China for about £180. That would have been the last resort because I did not want the work of fitting new scales which would mean moving the lathe away from the wall. Enquiries I made at the time drew a blank on any other display working with my existing scales and I did ask several places.

Edited By Chris Evans 6 on 09/05/2018 12:37:56

[OldironParticipant @oldiron]

If you have a local old style tv repair guru take it him it will probably be a simple repair as Nick said. I sold one on Ebay a couple of years ago. They still appear now & then.

regards

[Mark Simpson 1Participant @marksimpson1]

Ian

I had a 2 axis one on my KRV3000 mill where the display died, spent a lot of hours trying to fix it (and then trying to get it fixed)…In the end it was the actual touch display that was defunct and delaminating, no spares available. I also spent many hours looking for a new display for the spherosyn scales; without any success… It's a row of steel balls in the round tube, so I guess some kind of magnetic impulse scale

Sold the display and scales on Ebay as spares or repair – broken and bought a new 3 axis DRO and scales with the money £250…. It seems the spares were worth more than a working install.

Good Luck
Mark

[Ian Campbell 7Participant @iancampbell7]

Had never thought of a tv repairer. Had left it in with an electronic repair centre. It was powering up then after few seconds it would blow the fuse.

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

Spherosyn scales are ace – try to keep them going. They are sensed by a differential transformer and resolver, much more robust than capacitive or glass scales.

[BikepeteParticipant @bikepete]

I'd look for a used working display of similar era on Ebay first but failing that EMS-I advertise a display they say is compatible with the round plug Newall scales via an adapter:

http://www.ems-i.co.uk/ballscale_dro.html

No idea of prices, but I suspect less than Newall

Edited By Bikepete on 09/05/2018 13:55:02

[Clive FosterParticipant @clivefoster55965]

Switch failure due to touch panel de-lamination seems to be "the" fatal issue for Newall systems. Objectively almost certainly not that common, there would be a fix or spares around if so, but a right pain when its your turn to be unlucky.

Hafta wonder how difficult it would be to strip a dead touch panel down and sort out a replacement using ordinary momentary contact switches. The laminated system is intrinsically sealed which is good in workshop environment but ultimately they tend to be less reliable than conventional switches as being unable to handle as many switching cycles. But thats the difference between a very large number and very, very large number something like 1 million as against 10 million.

Agree with John about the inherent robustness of spherosyn scales. In these Arduinio / Rasperry Pi et al and days I'm a little surprised that no-one has reverse engineered the output side of the Newall system. All pretty straightforward so long as you have a decent, stable, drive for the induction side. Think I'm right in saying that all the intrinsically really hard bits are in the scale read head. Differential transformers of any kind are not DIY beasts!

Clive.

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

I think the problem is that to convert the read head output into digits you need a "resolver" (as far as I understand the principle) which basically does an arcsine function. There is an Analog Devices chip that will do this but I'm not sure about the accuracy. The original Newall patent is here.

[John ReeseParticipant @johnreese12848]

I recently purchased a larger lathe that had an OLD Newall DRO. I contacted Newall. They offered a a new 2 axis DRO in exchange for my defunct one. Price is $550.12. I also need cable adapters at $62 each. Maybe they offer similar deals in the UK.

[Chris Evans 6Participant @chrisevans6]

Ian, where in the world are you ? The guy who found me my used panel is based in Walsall West Midlands, I can find a phone number if of any use.

[Ian Campbell 7Participant @iancampbell7]

im in noetheen ireland

[Nigel BennettParticipant @nigelbennett69913]

ems-I do a Newall compatible console. I had a Newall setup on my S7 and the display would occasionally lose 10mm. It was unpredictable so I had the option of a repair job or a new console. Finding an intermittent fault is not easy and so I chose a new console. It wasn't that expensive – £300, I think. I bought another one for the Boxford 280 as I had Microsyn scales on that as well.

**LINK**

Been very pleased with the consoles. Usual disclaimer.

[Clive FosterParticipant @clivefoster55965]

John

Back around 1998 – 2004 I was working on demonstration equipment for a fairly arcane idea involving essentially the same sort of output as a resolver or Newall to a computer based analysis system. There were no great issues in programming the necessary conversion routines. Just a matter of putting the work in.

Which clearly ems-I have done. Cost quoted by Nigel suggest that its hardly worth re-inventing the wheel. Sometimes you have to accept that things cost what they cost and that life is too short to find a cheap / short-cut way even when you know it can be done.

Clive.

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

The Technical Director of Newall some time ago went to EMS.

[Nick HughesParticipant @nickhughes97026]

Give Darren at Goodwin Technology **LINK**

a call, to ask if they can help.

Nick.

[Chris Evans 6Participant @chrisevans6]

Ian, with you being based in Northern Ireland it is difficult to try a used unit on your kit. I do still have my old front panel that I could send over for you to try. The buttons are all unresponsive but it may eliminate the fault so that you know a good panel would be the fix. The £300 console sounds good though because the scales seem bombproof.

[Ian Campbell 7Participant @iancampbell7]

Hi
Ive emailed ems about a console just waiting on reply. Also emailed Newall as well

Ian

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