Father / son team needs a little help

[JoeFin]

Hi – glad I found this place

Me and my son have been producing a few parts together, (mostly as a hobby) and have come to the point where we needed to go with CNC to keep up. We bought an old Eagle CNC with Anilam GXM control and found this place searching for some information.

I don’t have any formal training in metal working other then what I received in highschool. My son has 2 years of CNC programming classes he took mostly as a “fun” elective

I’ll forewarn you guys – I’m going to have lots of questions.

I have plain run out of hat tricks trying to impress my son and show him the “Old Man still gots it”

[RICHARD ZASTROW]

Fire away, somebody will reply. Maybe more than you want. lol

Dick Z

[IQChallenged]

My contribution (as a newbie myself) is this: Buy some machinable wax (machinablewax.com). Go to Wal-Mart and get a Fry Daddy (housewares). Before committing anything to metal or wood-- make it first with wax. Then toss it into the Fry Daddy, remelt it, pour into wood mold, use it again and again. That system is huge for me.

SheetCam PNG is great. If you don't have a CAM system you like-- give it a try.

[JoeFin]

Hi – thanks for the replies

We just got this machine in 2 weeks ago. So far we have manipulated all the axis, spindle, and jog controls manually with success.

We tried using the “Manual-Edit” function to enter a program and after several attempts were able to save it to the machine. However after several hours the machine promptly lost the program. I’m positive there must be a battery in dire need of replacement buried some where deep down in the card cage control section of the machine.

It does not seem that this controller can run the program from the memory location we placed the program in. It did appear we had to load it on to tape, and then load it into the “foreground” section of memory from the tape to run it.

What the kid really wants to do is use the DNC function on the Anilam GXM controller and manipulate the machine from a PC he bought just for this purpose. Currently he is running “MACH-3” trying to accomplish this task.

I found a .PDF file here that shows the correct pin arrangement for the RS-232 cable – thanks guys.

I’ve also read we need a “Serial Port” from the PC and not a “printer port” like we have tried already. Any additional comments and or recommendations on this subject would really be appreciated.

So any information for running Anilam GXM controls would greatly be appreciated.

[MrWild]

Yes, there is a small triple button cell battery. It is soldered in place on one of the boards. Although it may seem intimidating to change out, it is remarkably easy to do. I found a replacement for mine at "Batteries Plus." a battery chain store.

While my machine worked okay before the replacement, replacing it "turned on" some features that had been dormant. It will also remember possition and last program after shutdown and restart. One of the benifits that replacement caused were a few extra help files that appeared.

[JoeFin]

Thanks MrWild

I'll go looking for that battery

BTW: I started out on a Tech bench in the late 70s. Working on PC boards is not too scary for me at all. Finding replacements for 25yr old ICs and SCRs is.

Pretty much looking at running the Crusader GXM as a "shake-down" to fully asses the machine's capabilities. Once we become more familiar with the machine we'll then consider upgrading the control system.