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Adapting Vintage Heidenhain Scales to new Chinese DRO

zachmelo

Plastic
Joined
Sep 19, 2022
I've got an old XLO 602 knee mill with an old Heidenhain DRO mounted on it. The DRO itself is acting up and with the low cost and features of a new import DRO, I went ahead and ordered one. My hope was to adapt the old 8/9 pin Heidenhain Stecker plug to a DB9 plug. I've been doing some digging and was able to find this image from elsewhere on the forum:

heidenhain-pins.jpg

My DRO was listed as a PNP device, and has a pinout of:
  1. 5V > Stecker Pin 3
  2. 0V > Stecker Pin 4
  3. A > Stecker Pin 1
  4. B > Stecker Pin 5
  5. R > Stecker Pin 7
  6. NC
  7. NC
  8. NC
  9. NC
Which leaves me a bit confused about the negative leads of the Heidenhain scale A,B,R circuits. I attempted to reference ground with these given the PNP nature of the DRO head unit, but scale movement produced no change on the DRO.

The scale lights up from the 5v connection, so I've got at least that going in my direction.

The one scale I'm working on presently is marked LS 503 962460 E6 D-8225.

My question is this: Can these old scales be adapted to a new Chinese DRO? If not, I'll refit the machine with new import scales, but would love to refurbish the ones that are already mounted if it's not too much hassle.

Referenced thread
 
Last edited:
spoke to heidenhein before, they had adapters to new units, but I just fixed my better heidnehein dro instead. was just caps in the main power board that went bad. replaced it because it didn't want to turn on when cold.
 
spoke to heidenhein before, they had adapters to new units, but I just fixed my better heidnehein dro instead. was just caps in the main power board that went bad. replaced it because it didn't want to turn on when cold.
That's reassuring. I'll start digging into the head unit - but my preferred outcome would be to have the old scales working on the new DRO so that I can take advantage of the functions and calculation tools.

If anyone has information about where I need to get those data lines, that would be helpful. If it's a lost cause with this DRO then I will order new scales and shelve all the old gear for when I've got more time to recondition.

Seems like calling Heidenhain might be a good plan for myself. Thanks BT.
 








 
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