We’re currently putting the final touches on our Mitsubishi M65 Ethernet Bridge, designed for Raspberry Pi, PC, and similar systems.
The bridge provides full support for MDS-B-SVJ2 / MDS-B-SPJ2 servo drives as well as the original Mitsubishi I/O boards, enabling seamless integration of 25-year-old Meldas M6x control systems into LinuxCNC.
While the original hardware is still very capable—especially the servo drives—the spindle performance (typically around 8000 RPM) can benefit significantly from modern control. With LinuxCNC, you gain improved motion planning and look-ahead, resulting in noticeably better overall machine performance.
Also the system won't require a battery anymore, and it's not required to set up any options since LinuxCNC is unrestricted and fully open.
Our initial target system is a 3 Axis Manford VMC1100 (7 tons) CNC
https://manford.com.tw/product/detail/164Supported Mitsubishi IO Devices:
FCU6-DX341
FCU6-DX351
FCU6-DX450
FCU6-DX441
(and probably more)
Mitsubishi Servos:
MDS-A-SVJ2
MDS-A-SPJ2
MDS-B-SVJ2
MDS-B-SPJ2
Status Updates:
The retrofit is 95% done.
Current Topics:
- Submitted PCB design for Manufacturing (13. May 2026)
- Designing new integrated Circuit Board (80% done) (9./10. May 2026)
- Sourcing parts (9./10. May 2026)
Open topics:
- Homing, use encoder index after touching the endstops, all we need to do here is a LinuxCNC modification.
Supported:
- 8 Skip inputs are supported (8. May 2026)
- Spindle Orientation (7. May 2026)
- Tapping (synchronised motion between spindle and Z axis) (7. May 2026)
- Oiler (7. May 2026)
- Umbrella/Turret toolchanger indexing (7. May 2026)
- Spindle Cooler
- Overtravel Protection
- Homing (using dogtype, without using the spindle index at the moment)
- Alarm Sensors:
* Low Air
* Low Oil
* Emergency Stop
* Toolchanger Motor Overload
6th May 2026:
- submitted patch for dog-type homing to LinuxCNC
Github Dog Type Homing- implemented tapping support (theory, not tested yet)
- implemented spindle orientation support (theory, not tested yet)
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The original Meldas M65 controller worked properly for several weeks, however the backup battery has died 3 times in a row requiring a complete setup of it again.
The motivation behind reverse engineering was to get rid of this unreliable dependency.
Imagine you turn on your CNC in the morning and Japanese kanji are showing up - you already know the machine will have a downtime of several days again.
With LinuxCNC exactly this situation will not happen anymore, neither will you have to call a Mitsubishi support person or drive to Mitsubishi to put in the options again (this requires a special cardridge in the M65 controller and can only be done by Mitsubishi or the system integrator)
All that has to be connected to our ethernet adapter - F010-CF10 -- One cable that rules it all
A very initial test of the motion system via ethernet and linuxcnc:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41AABZ7gTYADiscord Chat:
https://discord.gg/AR5QJhyNnw
The PLC backup (ALL3) can be used in several cases to determine the pinout.
For example:
https://sundtek.de/support/meldas_m65_y_outputs.pdfhttps://sundtek.de/support/meldas_m65_x_inputs.pdfOur current LinuxCNC module is exposing 256 inputs and 256 outputs. The pinout numbers are the same with LinuxCNC (0 - 255)
Since our hardware supports two Mitsubishi remote IO (RIO) busses, we can address up to 512 inputs and 512 outputs.
The Push-Button and LED outputs will not be needed, LinuxCNC can be controlled either via touchscreen or Keyboard and Mouse.
There are cheap USB pendants out there which are more powerful than the original pendant which comes with the Mitsubishi Meldas systems.
The pendant we are using is XHC LHB04B-6 - wired USB cable version.
Our Meldas M65 interface is client / server based, linuxcnc will read the settings from a default interface, the user can also query the machine status
via command line:
$ ./melclient
Mitsubishi Meldas M65 Client
Usage: ./melclient [options]
Options:
-h, --help Show this help
-i, --initservos Initialise Servos and Spindle
for safety reasons the controller will only
allow to initialise the Servos one time
To re-initialize the servos please power cycle
the CNC machine first
-s, --settool=n Set current active toolnumber
-c, --changetool=n Change Tool
-C, --chipconveyor=[off|cw|ccw] Chipconveyor off / cw / ccw
-k, --coolant=[on|off] Enable/Disable coolant
-w, --worklight=[on|off]
-t, --toolclamp=[on|off]
-S, --statuslamp=[green,orange,red] Set status lamp indicator
-x, --shutdown Turn off machine
after shutdown you will have to switch
the main power switch of the CNC
-e, --enablemachine=[on|off] Turn on power stages for amplifiers
-a, --airblow=[on|off] Turn on/off air blowing
-l, --lubricationpump=[on|off] Turn on/off lubrication pump
-K, --coolantpump=[on|off] Turn on/off coolantpump
--connect=[IP] Connect server to cnc
--shutdownsrv Shut down server
-r, --readstatus Read status flags
MELDAS_EMERGENCY_STOP
MELDAS_X_HOMED
MELDAS_Y_HOMED
MELDAS_Z_HOMED
MELDAS_X_OVERTRAVEL
MELDAS_Y_OVERTRAVEL
MELDAS_Z_OVERTRAVEL
MELDAS_TOOL_CLAMP_OVERLOAD
MELDAS_SPINDLE_ALARM
MELDAS_LUBRICATION_LEVEL_LOW
MELDAS_AIR_PRESSURE_LOW
MELDAS_TOOL_UNCLAMP_STATUS
MELDAS_TOOL_CLAMP_STATUS
MELDAS_AUTO_CLAMP_SWITCH
MELDAS_COOLANT_TEMPERATURE_LIMIT
MELDAS_COOLANT_SYSTEM_FAULT
MELDAS_MAGAZINE_MOTOR_OVERLOAD
MELDAS_MAGAZINE_CHECK
MELDAS_MAGAZINE_BASE_SWITCH
MELDAS_COOLANT_TANK_LOW_LEVEL
MELDAS_COOLANT_TANK_HIGH_LEVEL
MELDAS_CHIP_CONVEYOR_OVERLOAD
-R, --readregstatus Read register status
Dump Xn/Yn registers Meldas style
Please note some settings will be protected during runtime
meldasclient will help to test features directly on the terminal
it's a swiss army knife for the CNC controls
melclient restricts the toolchange feature for saftey reasons, this can be unlocked via configuration file (for those who really want to use it)
$ ./melclient --readregs
76543210 HEX 76543210 HEX
X 0000 00000000 0 Y 0000 00000000 00
X 0008 00000000 0 Y 0008 00000000 00
X 0010 00000000 0 Y 0010 00000000 00
X 0018 00000000 0 Y 0018 00000000 00
X 0020 00000000 0 Y 0020 00000000 00
X 0028 00000000 0 Y 0028 00000000 00
X 0030 00000000 0 Y 0030 00000000 00
X 0038 00000000 0 Y 0038 00000000 00
X 0040 00000000 0 Y 0040 00000000 00
X 0048 00000000 0 Y 0048 00000000 00
X 0050 00000000 0 Y 0050 00000000 00
X 0058 00000000 0 Y 0058 00000000 00
X 0060 00000000 0 Y 0060 00000000 00
X 0068 00000000 0 Y 0068 00000000 00
X 0070 00000000 0 Y 0070 00000000 00
X 0078 00000000 0 Y 0078 00000000 00
X 0080 00000000 0 Y 0080 00000000 00
X 0088 00000000 0 Y 0088 00000000 00
X 0090 00000000 0 Y 0090 00000000 00
X 0098 00000000 0 Y 0098 00000000 00
We’ll be sharing more details, technical insights, and availability information over the coming weeks.
The adapter is designed in Taiwan and manufactured in Austria and Taiwan, support is available in German, English and Chinese.
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