I am working on a program that is essentially like Welsoft's WelEdit. I recently bought an Emco Compact 5 and the DOS software did/does not cut it. I started reading about the serial settings & code formats, and it didn't sound like anything I had not done before. I was about 1/2 way done when I wandered across the Welsoft program online and I was shocked to see how similar it was to what I wanted, except for the fact that it costs nearly a hundred bucks.
I use the mscomm control to talk to com 1 at 300 baud. I used a listview control to keep track of the individual lines. I ended up using basically the same layout as the Welsoft program, except for mine is free! (and I can customize it however I want to!) If anyone is interested, I can send you a copy once I get it all tweaked out. I have successfully created, transferred, and run a simple program with it. This evening I was able to write a short program on the machine, then upload it to the program, and successfully save it to disk.
I'll attach a screenshot so you can see what it looks like.
If you have any questions or comments, please let me know.
Thanks, Mike

I am very interested in that software that you have written... hopefully it will solve all of my problems with this machine.... Def send it to me tintedtbird@hotmail.com Thanks alot.

Yes, I would be interested too. Haven't worked with the lathe lately but would like ot give it a try.

Thanks,
mc_n_g

mc_n_g@yahoo.com

Hi I am Marcel I have an emco compact 5 cnc machine can you tel me how to save a program on the cassette from the controle, also how to stop the cassette tape fron running.
Thank You Marcel
Email is: mrcchampagne@aol.com

Hello-
I haven't messed with this thing for a while- or visited this site. Too busy. Anyway, if anyone wants the source code, send me an email and I will send you a copy of what I have in its current state. I will all but guarantee the drawing of curves is messed up, at least it was the last time that I dinked around with it. Makes you wish you paid more attention in geometry class. The edit/upload portion does work fine though, I have used that part a number of times. I can also compile it into an exe, but without creating an install package, I cannot guarantee that any given machine will contain the necessary dependencies, etc.
I have emailed the source to one person and I am curious to see if someone other than myself can get it to work.

As far as cassette tapes go, I have not been able to get mine to work at all. That's one of the reasons I wrote this thing- so that I could archive various programs on the PC and edit/transfer them easily to the machine.

Thanks, Mike

OK Guys, Here ya go
http://members.cox.net/mnorth1b/
Pretty utilitarian, but it did work! Do what you will with the source code, I'm not too sentimental.
If anyone gas good/bad luck, let us know.
If someone wants to take it from here and enhance it, that would be great.
Thanks, Mike

I really like this software. I havn't tried it on the machine but its really cool so far. The drawing of the code is great. I wish someone could fix the rendering of the G02, G03 and the arcs. This program will be great for my students to see what they are programming. As it is it only draws the straight lines correctly. Can anyone take this fantastic program and finish the rendering?

thanks
Charlie
Van Nuys High School

Thanks for the hint, i will find out how it works and will add some thinks to it, first study the source an eventialy add the G02 and G03 to it.
Give me some time.
Greatings

I'm working on it and i just add some futurs to it like G02 and G03 working fine, als add G92 and saeching on G90 and G91.
How can i upload the adjust file to You so someone els can use it?
regards

I would contact mikkojay as he posted it on his site and it is his original creation.
Most likely he will post and host it. If not we should be able to find a shared location for it.
mc_n_g

greetings!
i just had the oppurtunity to work on a compact5 cnc,the thing is it has not been used for the last 10 years and no records are available for reference purposes. can you help me on this?please send any information to get_348@yahoo.com.thanks

Go to teh yahoo groups. Some of the manuals are there.
mc_n_g

I'm working on it and i just add some futurs to it like G02 and G03 working fine, als add G92 and saeching on G90 and G91.
How can i upload the adjust file to You so someone els can use it?
regards

I know its been almost a year since anyone posted anything about this, but maniso posted that he did some updates to this program. Does anyone have the latest update with G02 & G03 capibilities? If so, could you please send me a copy at: terrydoucet@eastlink.ca

TY

It allmost more than 6 monts that i dit something on the programme but it had some serius futurs, it is allmost finish.
If someone is interest pse let me now.

I am interested if you have something new available.

Dan

I'm just back from holiday and i will send the latest file to You if i had Your mailadress.
Pse let me now the mailadress.

PM sent,

Thanks for you help.

Dan

What did you end up doing to it?

Nothing that I could tell but maybe something behind the covers.

As i can see is there back some interesting in the Compact 5.
I will atach the self installing utilitie to use te simulationprogram and communication to the EmcoLatch.
Hope that i can help more persons whitch are wane use it.
Have fun .

I just bought a Compact 5 PC lathe and could really use a copy of the old DOS software that originally came with the machine. I will look at the recommendation for newer stuff after getting it working on the original. Any help appreciated. dwilson@linkline.com

Hi,
Just got 3 emco small lath. I have everything with them but looking for something more windows like.
Nice project. Find the serial code and make an win interface that send words to the emco its funny. I did with an old plotter far in the past :-).

As i can see is there back some interesting in the Compact 5.
I will atach the self installing utilitie to use te simulationprogram and communication to the EmcoLatch.
Hope that i can help more persons whitch are wane use it.
Have fun .


Could you send all that you have, thanks?

Jess1313-@-charter.net )Take out the two dashes in the Email for it to work. THis way all the spybots want get my email.


Thanks, Jess

Is there some one ho can explane how i can add a attachment to the message?
i try it before withe no succes.
Thanks.

Hi Maniso,

if you can't upload your update version of Mike's interface, is it possible to send it by email?
I am really interested in your work.


As i can see is there back some interesting in the Compact 5.
I will atach the self installing utilitie to use te simulationprogram and communication to the EmcoLatch.
Hope that i can help more persons whitch are wane use it.
Have fun .

Are You interesting in the exe-file or in the source-file, becours i add some things to it and do net have the time at the moment, someone ho can finisch it up and put it on this forum so more can injou it.
Send me You mailadress.

Hi Maniso,

please send me all files.

I would like to see if I can finish your work.

I have sent you my email address through the personal-message system.
Please let me know if you received it.

Hi Maniso,

thanks for the files.
I will let you know.

Mike's Free Interface for EMCO C5CNC has been updated by Maniso.
He added/fixed the Toolpath Preview:

G02/G03/M99 (partial) Arcs
G24 Radius programming in absolute mode
G25 Jump to SUBroutine
G27 Jump
G33 Threading
G90 Absolute mode
G91 Incremental mode
G92 Set Zero Point
M17 Return from SUBroutine

I created a setup.zip for this update.
I will send you the file if you want.

Henk

I am working on the next updates.

You can dowload the latest version from the Mike's Free Interface pages:
www.mikesfreeinterface.com

Henk

Hello to all,

well all, just the owners of non retrofitted Emco C5CNC machines.

If you are like me still using the original Emco controller,you could either be clever or download the newest version of Mike's Free Interface.

I am starting to understand how the program works, so now I can update the program as I like.

If you have any ideas, let me know (or just wait for me to work through my todo list)

Anyway, 1.2.1 is now ready for downloading.

Just to let you know, update 1.2.2 is on the site for downloading.

Thanks to some input of users, V1.2.3 is getting close to finish now.
If you wish, you also may put any feedback or requests on the forum of
www.mikesfreeinterface.com

Henk

Now V1.2.3 is ready. It has automatic M99 calculation, at the moment for just one quadrant at a time . Next step would be to have it calculating more than one quadrant and to allow the desired angle as an input.

The idea is that when defining a partial arc, you must know start and end of the
arc, and either center coordinates or radius or angle.

While Center Coordinates being the standard Emco way, MFI now offers also M99R, which is the radius method. In the future M99A (for Angle) method could be a useful addition.

I also added some other features too.

Henk

Help. Please send me a MK2 file.

I need a little help now.
Up till now MFI only works with MK4 lathes. Now I want to make a MK2 option in next version, but I don't know how a MK2 file looks like exactly. So please, can someone send me a MK2 file, just an example with a few different G codes in it.
Please send it to hank.varschuran@... (replace each "a" for a "e" to make the email address work)

Latest version 1.2.3 (www.mikesfreeinterface.com) now has these features:
* M99R, automatic M99 CALCULATION
* TOOL POSITION display
* AXIS PROPERTIES window
* ARC PROPERTIES display
* AUTO COMMENT option
* AUTO M30 adding
* AUTO RENUMBERING
* FEED PRESET / FIND & REPLACE
* MATHEMATIC INPUTS
* CALCULATOR
* CONVERTING mm <> inches
* RUN option right from the editor
* EMBEDDED DEBUG COMMANDS
* PARAMETER CHECK running in the background
* VIEW RADII will visually show the radius
* AUTO FIT sets Scale and ZeroPoint for best fit

Now MFI has MK2/MK4 option.
When creating a new file, you can choose in the settings for MK2 or MK4. When opening an existing file, MFI will recognize the format itself.
MFI can be downloaded from www.mikesfreeinterface.com

www.mikesfreeinterface.com V1.2.5 has now French, Dutch and English user interfaces.
Users may add new languages as they like.

Henk