Any suggestions for CNC HAAS Repair tech?

[Janger]

Hi forum,
I need a repair tech to work on my Haas mill. I’ve been trying to get the dealer (TSkinner) to come for 3 weeks, I still don’t have an appointment and I keep getting the run around. Well maybe I did have an apt but the wires got crossed on timing. Anyway the key detail is they need to have the haas technician key (a usb drive) to get in to machine parameters to reset the spindle rotation alignment offset. You can’t do it as an end user argh. Can anyone recommend someone in the Calgary area?
J

 

[someidiot]

Sounds like you need to borrow my USB debugger so you can "skim" his flash drive...

 

[Dan Dubeau]

When did they change that? It's been a few years since I've done it, but you used to be able to do that once you unlocked the parameters menu. What year is your machine?

 

[Janger]

When did they change that? It's been a few years since I've done it, but you used to be able to do that once you unlocked the parameters menu. What year is your machine?

It’s a new generation control made about 2020. I think the new gen control changed this.

 

[someidiot]

Sounds like you need to borrow my USB debugger so you can "skim" his flash drive...

Seriously. It's one of these (first photo I could spot):

https://www.allsurplus.com/en/asset/1074/16849

It's a little long in the tooth - not sure whether it does USB 2 (or later, of course), and the software runs on XP. But I should think one could discretely wire from the USB connector of interest's PCB pins out to it and log whatever buddy has going on.

 

[someidiot]

There are also (of course) modern cheapies out there like this. I have no experience with them, but they'd probably do the job.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/286716303518

 

[Tom O]

Seriously. It's one of these (first photo I could spot):

https://www.allsurplus.com/en/asset/1074/16849

It's a little long in the tooth - not sure whether it does USB 2 (or later, of course), and the software runs on XP. But I should think one could discretely wire from the USB connector of interest's PCB pins out to it and log whatever buddy has going on.

Link doesn’t work comes up as rover ebay whatever that is.
Next question what does it do?

 

[someidiot]

Weird - works fine for me. "Teledyne LeCroy USB Chief USB Protocol Analyzer" originally made by Computer Access Technology Corp.

Captures streams of USB data for display, analysis, etc.

Oh - wait - it's not the allsurplus link that's not working for you, it's the ebay one. You quoted the wrong post. The forum software must have screwed up that link and added the "rover" stuff. If you just copy the text of that URL and paste it, it'll work.

 

[Janger]

Well I managed to get an appointment today with Thomas Skinner - and it's all fixed! hooray! He thought the service key would be a few thousand to buy, and his service key expires every 6 months. 😳

 

[someidiot]

That's some boo-shit.

For someone interested (enough), that'd be an interesting challenge: Where is that expiry encoded? It can be simple, or it can be complicated, but it can always be hacked. The RTC is probably in the mill controller, which can come with problems of its own, such as it being in a Dallas (or similar) part with a built-in battery - very nice for designers, not so nice if the battery's eventual failure breaks the controller through loss of date and/or config/calibration data, and even worse if the part becomes unobtanium in the meantime. So that means each service key carries an internal expiry date, and there are a number of ways to break that check so that the expiry is ignored.

Wonder what the controller's based on.

 

[Dan Dubeau]

F1 cars are expensive......Haas parts and service over the past decade have become ridiculous. I've been away from the machines for a couple years now, but I can't imagine it got any better.....

 

[Janger]

Gemini said the controller is windows... I'm not sure I believe that.

 

[someidiot]

Gemini said the controller is windows... I'm not sure I believe that.

I could believe it. Other than the whole "shitty OS" thing, it does open up possibilities for exactly the kind of hacking I'm talking about, because it's a relatively familiar environment for many people - and there are tons of tools available - whereas pure native code or something running on someone's RTOS can be more challenging.

I mean, the first hint would be looking at the controller PCB. Does it look like a PC motherboard and/or have some x86 variant on it (inc. Pentium, etc.)? If so, good chance it's running windoze.