I just purchased two Haas mill simulators from a guy who said he was going to use these to control his home built router. My question: Is this possible? If so how would a person go about hooking everything up to the simulator itself? What kind of home made drives etc. would you need? I have a friend who built a cnc plasma table and was wanting to build a bigger one. I thought maybe the simulators could somehow be used. Since I already have a Haas VF-0 and know the control fairly well the learning curve wouldn't be that bad. Thanks for any help I can get. Curtis.

I hate to tell you this but don't waste your time attempting this.
The reasons are numerous.
1. Haas won't even give out wiring diagrams for their rotary table hook ups. the retrofit you describe would be 100 times more complicated than that and without detailed documentation would be nearly impossible.
2. I wouldn't be suprised a bit if the stand alone training modules were somehow disabled to prevent someone doing exactly what you want to do.
3. HAAS control is custom designed and proprietary. You still have to buy motors, drives, possibly PLC, limit switches, spindle drives, etc. etc. and you have to figure out if all that hardware is compatible with your control, if it worked.
4. There are complete, fully documented, well designed CNC retrofit packages out on the market with detailed instructions and full technical support. Depending on your type of machine you can retrofit anywhere from $500 to $10,000 or more. Start small if you've never done a retro-fit before. it's a lot more work that it looks especially on a full size machine with tool changers and spindle controls, etc... You also need a friend with electrical/computer skills if you don't have any.
I would go to a tech school or training facility and try and unload those stand alone controls. They are only good for training, depending on how old they are....
If you need help on the control retrofit there are many many groups out there and many many products. Try Yahoo CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO group to start.
Joe V.

Joe, thanks for the reply. I was thinking that it wasn't as easy as the guy had described. But it doesn't hurt to ask, right. Anyway the simulators will be fun to play with just the way they are. Thanks again.

Curtis.

If they are the old simulators with the monochrome display they may have a value for spare parts. The monitor can be used on a machine and I have been told some of the processsor cards can be transferred into a machine.

this is out of subject , but I`ve build my own indexer and I joined my electronic with haas with succes, I can rotate them from haas controll by a "C" keyword.