50/50 Pin Cable Connector
Connects the SCU Interface Board to the PC Interface Card.

Upper Adjusting Knob
Also know as Reverse Threaded Knob. Controls stroke depth of spindle.

Accessory Outlets
Located on back panel of SCU; auxiliary power, vacuum chip, vacuum table.

Air Cylinder

Adjustment Valves
Located on the back right side of engraving table; controls flow of air to air cylinder and blow off tube. Excessive air flow to the air cylinder causes the cutter or graver to "slap" the engraving surface. Excessive air flow to the blow off tube can overwork smaller air compressors, and restrict air flow to air cylinder causing inadequate pressure to get the cutter to the engraving surface.

Air Solenoid Connector
The solenoid connector attaches the air hoses to the air solenoid.

Air Solenoid Port
Connects air solenoid/cutter (Z-axis) and Solenoid Drive Board.

Auxiliary Power Outlet
Located in back of SCU, allows an external device to be activated when the spindle leaves the HOME position. It is controlled by the AUX. POWER switch. Earlier models with only one AC power cord in the back of the SCU must be upgraded for proper use of the Auxiliary Power Outlet.

Bridge Rectifier
This diode bridge does rectification to change the fluctuation of positive and negative voltage received from the transformer to only positive voltage.

Bridge Assembly
The cross member on which the spindle assembly rides. The Bridge Assembly can be raised up to 6 in in height accommodating larger, irregular objects under the spindle.

Bridge Support
Two upright bars which guide the up and down movement of the bridge.

Bridge Support

Bristol Spline Wrench
Cutter wrench used to adjust set screw in cutter knob.

Calligraphy Kit
An accessory used for engraving on metal. Includes an assortment of engraving tips which are inserted in place of your diamond tip in your diamond graver. Works best when used with calligraphic style fonts. Kit includes 4 jewelry gravers, 4 chisel gravers. Requires Diamond Kit.

Capacitor
Located on the Power Supply. It filters the flow of current from the Bridge Rectifier so that it is even and constant.

Carriage Assembly
Major assembly which travels along the X-axis bridge. Components on the System 100 table include the carriage base and v-wheels.

Card Cage
The metal frame inside the SCU which houses the CPU, RAM, Interface, Stepper Driver, and EPROM Boards. All of these boards plug into the Mother Board. See also S-100 Mother Board.

Card Cage Connector
Cable connecting Power Supply to S-100 Mother Board.

Coupler
See Helical Coupling.

CPU Board
(Central Processing Unit) The CPU is the SCU’s processor. Without the CPU Board, the SCU would not operate. Using a Z80 microprocessor, the CPU Board is the second computer used to operate the System series engravers. It is configured by the system program EPROM’s located on the RAM board. Information is transmitted from the PC to the Interface Board, to this microprocessor, and stored in the RAM board.

Cutter Controls
Located on the front panel of the SCU; controls up and down movement of the spindle (Z-axis). The DELAY switch regulates the time it takes for the spindle/cutter to reach the engraving surface.

Cutter Down Speed
The speed of the downward motion of the spindle. The rate is regulated by the adjustment value for the air cylinder. Excessive pressure causes dimples in metal plates when using the Diamond Graver. Many operators confuse the air controlled down speed with engraving pressure.

Diamond Graver
Early name give to the "Diamond Kit", but actually refers to the diamond tipped tool which fits the holder.

Diamond Kit

An option for scratch, drag engraving on metal. It includes the holder (similar to a rotating spindle, but solid, and a a special diamond tipped tool called a Diamond Graver. With the Diamond Spindle and Graver you can produce quality engraving on all your trophy brass and coated aluminum plates.

Engraving Motor

These motors are used on the System 300/500 and Mark 12 Tables.

Engraving Motor Replacement Brushes

Engraving Pressure
The downward pressure of the the Diamond Graver, or the nosecone of the rotating spindle, against the engraving surface. This is controlled by the pressure exerted on the Spindle Pressure Spring by the Engraving Pressure Adjustment Rings. Don’t confuse engraving pressure with cutter down speed. Excessive engraving pressure when burnishing will damage the cutting tool as well as the engraving plate. Insufficient pressure while using a rotating cutter can cause uneven line depths.

Engraving Pressure Adjusting Ring
The black threaded rings used to adjust the downward spring pressure on the spindle. Also called Knob Pressure Adjustment.

EPROM Board
Up to 3 EPROM Boards may be used in the system, with different hard-wired bank selects on the board indicating in which order they are to be read. Up to 24 fonts, 23 EPROM fonts and 1 font 9, may be used in the SCU. Normally there is only one font board in an SCU. The number one EPROM Board contains the program EPROM’s, or boot-strap program. It tests the control unit for proper function of all of the internal boards, and loads the system program from the RAM board. Additional EPROM’s following the system program EPROM’s are the font EPROM’s. These contain all the information required for the engraving of letters in different styles. There are normally three EPROM, or font boards with 16 chip slots on each.

The proper sequence of EPROM fonts is as follows:

From left to right beginning on bottom row of sockets.

Do not start a font on one board and continue to the next EPROM board. A single font must begin and end on same board.

The old font & logo books had the number of chips required for each font on page 17. The SCU uses as many 4K font EPROM’s as there are empty sockets, or until the total number of fonts equals 23. The SCU font chips are also used in the System 2 control units.

File extensions
Different file name extensions used in the SuperPro engraving environment include

FT9 Font and logo files.

LGO Old model Logo Maker digitizer "smoothed" file.

DIG Logo Maker digitized pattern file.

JOB Complete layout specifications including text.

LAY Layout specifications only-no text or fonts.

TXT Text only .

FNT .FT9 file converted for use with SuperPro 3.10.

Helical Coupling
Cylindrical coupler between stepper motor and leadscrew on the engraving table.

Home Position
The starting position of the spindle/diamond that is referenced by the engraving program.

Interface Board
The Interface Board serves as a communicator between the computer and the SCU. The newer version can be identified by a large ‘piggyback’ addition, which serves as an added buffer. The ‘piggyback’ is required to run any version of SuperPro over 2.12. Information is sent back and forth between the CPU board and the PC. Data from the X & Y Stepper Motors and Air Solenoid (Z-axis) is sent to the Stepper Mother Board for transfer to the Stepper Driver Board. The data is read directly from the position or status of the switches (i.e. cutter delay) on the SCU front panel.

Interface Card
See PC Interface Card.

Leadscrews
Threaded rod attached to the stepper motor which moves the X and Y-axis.

Leadscrew Coupling
Metal cylindrical connector between the leadscrew and the stepper motor. Also know as Helical Coupling.

Leadscrew Nuts
Connects the respective X & Y assembly to the leadscrews. Nylon.

Limit Switch Connector
On back panel of control unit. Connector between the SCU and the table limit switches. Not all tables are equipped with limit switches, thus no connection required.

Linear Bearings
Located behind the cutter spindle; controls the vertical movement of the spindle assembly. Requires no maintenance or adjustments. Replaces ball slide assembly used on earlier models.

Lock Knobs
Located on back side of Bridge Support; used to lock Bridge Assembly in place to prevent up and down movement. Earlier models used a less rigid clip that was easy to shear.

Motor Belt Tension Screws
Adjusts tension on motor belt - 2 small screws on backside directly beneath engraving motor assembly.

Motor Brushes
Control current to the engraving motor. System 100.

Mother Board
Located in SCU directly beneath the card cage, this is the main board into which the Interface, CPU, RAM, and EPROM boards are plugged. See also S-100 Mother Board.

Motor Driver Board
Translates low current microprocessor signals received from the Interface Board into high current signals to drive the Stepper Motors. See also Stepper Driver Board.

Octopus Assembly
On System 500, consists of potentiometers and relays which control the manual and auto modes of both the cutter motor and auxiliary outputs, as well as, the cutter down feed. It also contains straight through wiring from the X & Y Stepper Motors, the cutter down solenoid valves and the limit switches; to the Motor Driver Board.

PC
This general purpose micro-computer is used as the input machine for the System series. A program configures the PC as to what its functions are, and how it is to be the input device. When loading the system program, initialization takes place in which a test is done to see if the PC is hooked up to the control unit. The font width table is loaded from the control unit into the PC during the initialization process. If your control unit is not attached during initialization, you cannot draw out your layouts to the screen. However, you can input the other specifications for your job.

Information is transferred between the Control Unit and the PC through the 50/50 cable. Information concerning jobs to be engraved are entered into the PC, and all job information such as table parameters, font condensation and scaling, etc. are computed, then sent to the Control Unit.

PC Interface Card
Communications board between the SCU and the PC. The Interface Card is connected to the SCU via a ribbon cable.

Potentiometer
Small square shaped electrical component used to adjust for voltages for different electrical motors (i.e. Stepper Motors for cutter delay).

Pneumatic Cylinder
Located in Spindle Assembly. Controls up and down movement of the Reverse Threaded Rod which moves the cutter up and down.

Rails
Guides the movement of the bushings for the X & Y axis.

RAM Board
(Random Access Memory) This is a 64K RAM board, used by the CPU board for temporary storage of jobs and disk, or Font 9 logos from disk. All stored information is lost when a power-down occurs. A new one costs about $800. It also contains the program for the slew and diagnostic test functions.

SCU RAM Board

Reverse Threaded Knob
(Also know as Upper Adjusting Knob). Controls the travel of the Reverse Threaded Rod. This is usually the culprit for "uneven tables". The knob loosens and moves down the rod toward the Pneumatic Cylinder, restricting the downward travel of the spindle. By setting this knob, you can control the depth of the cut when a nose cone cannot be used. Or, the knob can be set to prevent the nose cone from dropping below the engraving surface on the inside of large rout-out letters or logos.

Reverse Threaded Rod
Located in Pneumatic Cylinder of Spindle Assembly. Linked to the Spindle to provide up and down movement. Travel controlled by the Reverse Threaded Knob.

Reset Button
Located on the back of the SCU Control Unit. Small green switch used to clear RAM Board of job storage and fonts loaded, but system remains initialized. Job has to be re-computed before trying to engrave, and font 9 has to be reloaded.

Resistors
Located on the Stepper Driver Board. The resistors cut down or limit the flow or current received from the capacitor, and extra current is given off in the form of heat.

Scale Bars
Graduate bars on top and left side of table which aid in aligning or clamping the engraving plate.

SCU Interface Board

Slew Button
On back side of SCU Control Unit. Performs pre-programmed text of X & Y axis. Newer model Slew Switch was inside control unit.

Slew Test
This procedure will test all three axis (X Y Z) of a system, by moving all three axis. The spindle will move diagonally to the bottom right corner, the spindle will go up and down, and the spindle will return diagonally to the upper left hand corner. This test is used in diagnostics for mechanical problems.

Solenoid Drive Board
Controls Air Solenoid for air controlled Z-axis. See also Stepper Mother Board.

SCU Solenoid Drive Board

Solenoid Connector
Located on the back of the engraving table. Air flow to the Pneumatic Cylinder is controlled through the Solenoid Driver Board.

Speed Controller
For System 100 8x 12 table, USES 8AMP SLOW BLOW FUSE

Spindle Controls
Located on front panel of SCU, these regulate the status and speed of the engraving motor.

Spindle Pulley
On top of spindle; holds the motor belt to the engraving motor in place.

Stepper Driver Board

SWITCH SETTINGS

PARKER BOARD - Locate a part number on the board. It is 39-74111 on the back of the board, you will find the name Dahglren on it.

2.9 AMP Motor switch settings are 1-off, 2-on, 3-off, 4-on

3.9 AMP Motor switch settings are 1-on, 2-off, 3-on, 4-off

4.6 AMP Motor switch settings are 1-off, 2-off, 3-off, 4-off

API BOARD - On the front of the board at the bottom left corner and underneath of the heat sink, you will find the name AMERICAN PRECISION INDUSTRIES

1 AMP motor switch settings are 1-off, 2 off

2.9 AMP MOTOR switch settings are 1-on, 2-off

If you have an old parker board, and how do you know if it is an older parker board: By looking at the resistors located on the board at R-11 and R-30 the value should be 820 OHMS, R-10 and R-31 the value should be 180 OHMS. Dahlgren does not ship this type of board anymore. In the event that you have to with the setting this type board, following are the instructions:

1 AMP motor switch setting are 1-off, 2-on, 3-off, 4-on

2.9 AMP motor switch settings are 1-on, 2-off, 3-on, 4-off

4.6 AMP motor switch setting are 1-off, 2-off, 3-off, 4-off

On is the ‘UP’ position toward the top of the board.

Spindle Travel Adjustment Knob
Small split ring screw on the Reverse Threaded Rod under the Air Cylinder Adjustment Spring used to adjust the spindle and table clearance. 100.

Stepper Driver Board
Located in SCU. They translate low current microprocessor signals received from the Interface Board into high current signals to drive the stepper motors they control.

Stepper Mother Board
Located in the left rear section of the SCU directly beneath the Stepper Drive Boards. This is the main board into which the individual Stepper Boards are mounted. The Solenoid Drive Board is also inserted into the Mother Board.

SCU Stepper Mother Board

Stepper Motors
Electronic signals or pulses received from the Stepper Driver Board charge its coils with a magnetic charge, causing the Stepper Motors to rotate. Stepper motor dampers muffle the noise. They also work well as positioning knobs to turn the leadscrew coupling when manually setting Home position.