Bridgeport Upgrade

[jaztau]

Hi Everyone

I have a Bridgeport Series 1 Interact with a TNC 145 control, i was wondering how much of a probleme would it be to upgrade this kind off machine with new controls ?

Regards
Jan

[polaraligned]

How much money you want to spend?
Any control in mind?

[NC Cams]

DO a mill retrofit on CNC zone. There are many such upgrades/retrofits documented. SOrt of like asking "what ist he price of a tire?" STil perplexed, check out Ajax CNC.

[TOTALLYRC]

Try this.
http://www.vitalsystem.com/web/motion/dspmc.php

I am using it on my machine and it is a nice piece for the money.
It is near the end of beta testing, as they are working out the last few bugs.
I will try to post my pics this weekend, I burnt out a junk box Zmotor and I need to rinish the install of the nice SEM that I picked up.
By the way, what is your budget?

[jaztau]

Do you mean ..do a search on CNC retrofit?...I dont have a spesifick budget, i just want valeu for money and the same ease off use s the TNC 145

[TOTALLYRC]

Originally Posted by jaztau Do you mean ..do a search on CNC retrofit?...I dont have a spesifick budget, i just want valeu for money and the same ease off use s the TNC 145

Yes, I think he was saying do a search for mill retrofit on the cnczone.

Are you looking for a pc based retrofit?
If so look at Mach3 or EMC2 for the control software.

[gridley51]

Why do you want to retrofit it?
Mark.

[jaztau]

Well reason number 1 is that the TNC145 is getting old and it gives some problems every now and then and to repair those controls are impossible here in South Africa..the Heidehain agents just say they are obsolute..other problem is memory..the TNC 145 aparently dont drip feed from a laptop...

[gridley51]

I thought you could drip feed them using Tcremont.Suggest you have a look at the interfaces manual which you can download from here.
http://filebase.heidenhain.de/doku/o...76/N13776.html

Additionally these controls are quite reliable.Are you having problems with the control or the machine side?
Mark.

[jaztau]

Thanks Mark i will have a look at the manuals, i now have 2 off these machines cause they are very sturdy and relaiable but im having iretating problems with one of them, for the last week my Z axis is giving trouble when the machine does its setup routine in the bigining, when the Z axis has to go over the refrence point it keeps on giving this message wrong ¨reffrence point¨ and you have to turn the machine off and on again and only when you let the Z axis move very slowly over the refference point does it register and carry on with the other axiz...Heidenhain has no clue why the machine does this.

[TOTALLYRC]

Originally Posted by jaztau Thanks Mark i will have a look at the manuals, i now have 2 off these machines cause they are very sturdy and relaiable but im having iretating problems with one of them, for the last week my Z axis is giving trouble when the machine does its setup routine in the bigining, when the Z axis has to go over the refrence point it keeps on giving this message wrong ¨reffrence point¨ and you have to turn the machine off and on again and only when you let the Z axis move very slowly over the refference point does it register and carry on with the other axiz...Heidenhain has no clue why the machine does this.

Retrofit the most annoying one first while you use the other one.

Mike

[NC Cams]

Re: post 10 situation description.

Computer interfacing with analog industrial switches can be problematitc, especailly as the switches age/corrode/ get gummed up. The PC/controller is looking for a clean ho/lo or lo/hi signal change. "switch bounce" or a lazy choppy signal can't won't be processed properly by the controller.

Solution" replace the switch with a new, sealed unit. Don't use the cheap electronic/electrical microswitches as they easily get crudded up in a machining environment.

Check out the sealed Honeywell units, They are pricey unless you find some on Ebay but priceless when it comes to reliable operation.