acramatic 2100 control

[greg b]

Hi guys im not sure im in the right forum but anyway,im thinking of buying a cincinatti 150 hawk with a acramatic 2100 control its a 1997 model.I was talking with some guys over here and they reckon the controll is one of the most unreliable units they have owned and hard to work with,am i hearing a isolated incident or is this common,as theres not a big dealer support over here and parts may be a problem.How is the pricing and availability in the states for these things. regards greg

[yoopertool]

The control is actually quite easy to use in my opinion, but yes, there have been some fairly widespread issues with this control. The Most common one which I hear of is having the hard-drive quite. I have worked on some with absolutely no issues, and worked on some with fairly common issues. I overall like the controller, but I guess that it is a bit of a gamble.

[greg b]

thanks mate for your advise on that 2100 control is there any upgrades and are the parts expensive for them ,the last thing i want is to have to work on a machine all the time,it sounds like a good machine lrt down by bad electronics regards greg

[philserveng]

Don't touch it, Vickers owned Cincinatti-Milacron and Acramatic at one time and the control was well supported. It had some nice features, but unfortunately since Siemens of Germany took ownership this control is now DEAD, they have no interest in it and support is zero. Buy Fanuc or Meldas, but don't waste your money on this redundant system. Sorry to be blunt.

[greg b]

Thanks for that imfo mate on the 2100 acro control,sounds like there a real problem ,did you own one yourself or here about the problem with them.From what i understand it appears to be the hard drive that causes most issues could that not be coppied onto a hard drive of better quality.There were 2 of these machines in service where i was looking at buying ,and they were supposed to have run for 9 years without any probs the shop was closing its doors.

[philserveng]

I am an electronics service engineer and have installed/serviced machines with this control in the past, that is why I know about a little about the history. This control was developed in the mid-ninety's and at the time was one of the first windows based systems. If you want to buy machines with this control, I can't stop you. If they are cheap enough and well looked after, they may well be worth a punt. But please bear in mind the support aspect, make sure you have a ghost of the hard drive and save all system parameters and your programs, If the hard drive falls over you could be in trouble.

[greg b]

Thanks again for your advise i will take it on board,there appears to be a few controls with these sort of issues.

[philserveng]

Absolutely Mate, that's why its best to stick with a control with almost bullet proof reliabilty, if you are a little guy on a budget. This type of control could well turn into a money pit.

[greg b]

Is it just the hard drive that quits on this control or are there other serious problems within the control that regularly fail regards greg

[philserveng]

the touch screen can also be a problem, and a real pain to replace. never use the screen with scratchy gloves on. quite pricey to replace too.

[kevmor]

Problem with cincinatti milacron arrow 750, z axis does not move , cannot access jog wheel button on pendant, z feed axis buttons do not work in minus but does back home, also data reset button cannot be acessed? Z moves in mdi mode, eg g1 f100 z200., and it moves in programme, could it be a faulty pendant?

[Jacob2000]

Have seen some posts about people having problems with their acramatic controls and their hard drives. Here are some facts about the acramatic control and the benefits of cloning the hard drive to a industrial flash drive.
Done plenty of these. Easy to do and a great insuranc policy. Check it out.
http://www.jacobsonmachinery.com/Wha...0/Default.aspx