General Dyna Mechtronics info

[Caprirs]

Since there is now a forum for Dyna Mechtronics, I figured it might be helpful to provide some general info about the company and machines.

The company's formal name is Dyna Mechtronics. They often put a name plate on the machines that stated DYNA MYTE. Dyna Mechtronics has nothing to do with Dynapath, DynaCNC, DynaTorch, or other "Dyna"s. Their website is http://www.dynamechtronics.com/ and they are still in business.

SKIP control machines. SKIP is Single Key Input Programming. Pretty slick in the '80s, very limited by today's standards. The SKIP control can hold about 999 lines of Dyna's proprietary conversational code. If the program is longer than that, it will have to be drip fed/DNC'd to the control. Dyna used to sell software called Dynacom for communicating between the control and a PC. I do not know if it is still available from Dyna. I think it is possible to drip feed from other software, but I have no experience with this. All SKIP machines use stepper motors for the axes. The weakest areas of these machines are the circuit boards and wiring.

Benchtop mills with SKIP control:
2000
2100
2200
2300
2400
2800
2900 (2800 with ATC)

Benchtop lathe with SKIP control:
3000

Full size with SKIP control:
4000
4400 (same as 4000 but with ATC)

Full size with Mitsubishi M3 & M520 controls. Dyna started moving into the bigger machine market in the late '80s with the SKIP 4000/4400 but recognized the SKIP control was a big handicap. They started using Mitsubishi M3 controls which were much more powerful than the SKIP controls and allowed for rigid tapping and much faster feed rates and rapids. Mitsubishi also used servos which were faster, more accurate, and more powerful than the steppers. Mitsubishi still supports and services the Mits components. The most common failure on the Mitsubishi is battery failure resulting in loss of parameters.

DM4400M (same mechanicals as 4400 but with Mitsubishi M3 control)
DM4500
DM4800
DM4800C (re-badged Johnford mill with swing arm ATC)
DL3300 lathe

PC3 controls running 4M software. In the mid-'90s, Dyna started working on their own PC based control to replace the Mitsubishi. The first handful of machines built used an industrial 486 based PC with a monchrome LCD display. Shortly after introducing the PC3 control, Dyna switched to a Pentium CPU with conventional PC mainboard, 16MB RAM, off-the-shelf hard drive, and 3.5" floppy drive. All machines ran MS-DOS 6.x with some of the later machines offering limited ethernet.


Benchtop with Dyna's PC control:
DM1007

Knee Mill with Dyna's PC control:
EM3116

Full size with Dyna's PC control:
DM2016
HF3016
DM3220
HF4020
DM4322

[CNCinCal]

I have a DM2900 with ATC and the PC control. Looks just like the 1007, but the machine is red and the enclosure is off white. I think it may have been an early version of the 1007.

Roger

[Caprirs]

Yes, there were a few made under that model. Dyna changed the models to reflect the travels of the machines when they switched to the PC control. Thus, the 2900 got renamed to 1007 (10" X and 7" Y). Is the display monochrome or color?

[CNCinCal]

It had a pendant control, with a 486 pc with a color monitor. I moved it over to a pentium 2 computer myself.

Roger

[dammachines]

Hey Caprirs,

I think we "spoke" here once a long while ago about the Dyna Mechtronics machines. You worked for them at one point if I remember correctly?

I have the 3000H model lathe retrofitted with an Ahha controller.

I was wondering could you tell me what the differences are between the 3000 and 3000H models? Other than one being desktop and the other being a standalone machine. I've seen a 3000 in person, but it's been a while. I remember the 3000 being smaller than mine, but perhaps it just seemed that way and the work envelope is similar?

If I remember correctly, the 3000 used leadscrews whereas the 3000H has ballscrews.

Thanks for any info you can share,
Dave

[Caprirs]

Originally Posted by CNCinCal It had a pendant control, with a 486 pc with a color monitor. I moved it over to a pentium 2 computer myself. Roger

Dyna replaced several of the early 486 PCs. If I recall, they were called Winsys or similar. The OS was burned to an eprom. Did you keep it running MS-DOS?

Originally Posted by dammachines Hey Caprirs, I think we "spoke" here once a long while ago about the Dyna Mechtronics machines. You worked for them at one point if I remember correctly? I have the 3000H model lathe retrofitted with an Ahha controller. I was wondering could you tell me what the differences are between the 3000 and 3000H models? Other than one being desktop and the other being a standalone machine. I've seen a 3000 in person, but it's been a while. I remember the 3000 being smaller than mine, but perhaps it just seemed that way and the work envelope is similar? If I remember correctly, the 3000 used leadscrews whereas the 3000H has ballscrews. Thanks for any info you can share, Dave

I do not know what if any differences there are between the 3000 and 3000H. Neither model was being produced when I worked for Dyna. In fact, there were almost no Mitsubishi machines left, everything was PC control.

[CNCinCal]

The control was a regular desktop pc with hard drive. I just copied the software over to a pentium 2 and put the ISA card into the new one. I also upgraded the software with their latest version that runs my machine. I had to replace 2 eproms in the machine board to do this. I had to send them a photo of my original PC in order to purchase the upgraded software. My led indicators on the pendant quit working at that point, without a solution from Dyna.

Are you in the Silicon Valley area?

Roger

[Caprirs]

I am located in the Phoenix, AZ area.

You replaced two eproms on the big board in the back cabinet, presumably the DRV and PLC chips. Did they not supply new chips for the keyboard as well? If you open the front pendant and look on the back side of the keyboard, there should be two more chips with stickers with checksums. These would also need to be replaced depending on which version of the software you were running and which you upgraded to.

[CNCinCal]

No, they didn't supply those. I'll post a picture of the pendant. I may have a one off machine...?

Roger

[Fastest1]

I believe you are correct on the difference of the 3000 & 3000H. It seems Roberto confirmed the 3000H did have ballscrews. My 3000 has leadscrews.

[MichaelHenry]

Caprirs,

Thanks foir the details on the various models that were sold over the years. It's hard to find this sort of thing unless someone like you takes the time to make it available.

How many lathes that could take 5C collets did Dyna make? From my brief search on the Internet it looks like the 3000 and 3000H were in that class - were/are there others?

Mike

[Caprirs]

CNCinCal
You might have a one-off machine. There were some issues with assuring that machines were consistent when they left Dyna in the early stages of the PC control. It would be worth contacting Dyna to request that you be sent the corresponding eproms for the keyboard. They should have been included with the eproms for the big board in the back cabinet.

MichaelHenry
The DL3300 will also accept 5C collets although it was not a benchtop model. The spindle was equipped with a drawtube so that either collets or a jaw chuck could be used. The 3300 was a Mitsubishi controlled machine with either L3 or 520.