RS-232 / Dnc, Pc To Anilam Crusader 2 Anybody Doing It?

[jpb6061]

We are a small manufacturing company machinging parts out of aluminum and laminated Phenolic. We have a Haas VF0E with an HRT-210 rotary, and a TL-15 dual spindle lathe with live tooling, live "C", and a bar feeder, and are converting as much of our production over to these machines as possible.

We still run four knee mills (3 Laguns & 1 Bridgeport) with Crusader 2 controls, and have around a hundred production programs. With our dust collection system for Phenolic, and considering some of the drilling and tapping we do, we will probably use the knee mills for a long time yet. The conversational language has been a plus, being a little easier to understand for new operators, and the Anilam conversions with glass scales have proven to be pretty reliable and accurate.

We have setup manuals and mini-tapes - a solution thathas worked pretty well over the years. However, we are now down to one working tape reader, and the tapes which are no longer available, are degrading as well. Now we're on borrowed time....

We have been attempting to establish RS-232 communication to use DNC. There are several different cable recommendations floating around (found via google search) with the most common being a null modem cable. We have been unable to get any communication with that configuration.

A straight through DB-25 to Dsub9 cable has allowed the transmission of gibberish from the control to the PC, no matter what I've set the parameters at (baud rate, parity, stop bit, flow control etc.). I've tried Predator, ConnectCNC, and a DOS COMM program.

If anybody has experience with this, I'd appreciate any help! It's hard to find anybody who even knows what a serial cable is any more!

Regards,

JB

[Al_The_Man]

There is a free program and the RS232 parameters for the Anilam II perhaps may help
http://www.cadem.com/ncnet/dnc-detai...crusader2m.pdf
Al

[CRAZYRICH]

John? Is this you? I think I got that tape recorder to work? I too am trying to get my RS-232 to work....I tried the setup from that site but not the software yet and no good. Supposedly we can't drip feed the Crusader 2 so we are limited to the 999 lines of code. Have you got it to work yet? I've seen the micro cassette tapes on Ebay. Do you want me to send you this recorder back? Rich

[william timm]

Hi JB;

I have the cabling, parameter settings in for hundreds of CNC controls. I would fax you a Anilam Crusader data sheet if you wish.
Bill
CEO WTC CO
wtimm25457@aol.com

[jpb6061]

Thanks for the offer! I should have amended my original post - I currently have three machines communicating nicely, but the fourth is not cooperating.

The one that doesn't work, passed the loopback test, but no combination of settings (baud rate, stop bit, parity, handshake) that I tried would do more than pass gibberish. I'm about ready to pick up a spare control and swap out the whole thing.

JB

[william timm]

JB;

Finding a spare control for parts sound like a good idea.
Bill

[SFA]

Wait...wait! You can get stuff out of the control, that is something. It probably is a setting at the CNC or even in the software. If you are able to punch data out of the control, and it comes back, it is not the cable.

How about some details on what you have currently set at the CNC when you get back the data out? Most of the time, it is a parameter and the PC has to "listen" better. Post what you have set and let's get this running!

By the way, Predator will do the job as well as the other packages. It is just a setting most likely and this can be resolved. Give me a call..

[jsdspif]

you can drip feed with this machine. I used to do it. Instead of punching in 2701 you put in 2711 and you have to have the postprocessor break the program up into pieces , the machine will take a load from the computer ,run it ,then it reaches the "%" in the file it will dump it's info and then suck in another batch from the computer and then start running again. Somehow in the post processor you make the z axis go back to it's home position and you save the x and y then you put the % to end the program ,then another % to start the next batch , have it move back to the prev x and y location (because the x and y may drift a little bit while it sucks in the next batch) then go to the previous z location then have it run the next batch.
The only reason I'm looking into this is a friend started working at a shop and they are running a crusader 2 and that guy told me it's not possible to do this but I did it for about 5 years. Unfortunately , the machine was sold at auction about 4 years ago and we have no record who bought it and the auctioneer only keeps records for 2 years. My dad said he thought it was some oufit in Grand Rapids , MI but that's all he can remember ,but he gets mixed up about a lot of stuff . I think we got $1100 out of the machine including the anicam software. We had a 2 yearold brother hs 50 A wire machine with about 400 hours on it that was $100,000 new and we only got 31,500 for that . We still owed 44,000 on it . I had the idea to just let it go back to brother but they were just going to sell it and still make us pay the difference . We had a good run though ,37 years . It made my dad quite wealthy and we usually only had 6 employees at the most

[Mike Mattera]

Crusader II 's are tempermental for drip feed. But they can do it. The .pdf file listed above is a pretty nice document. It's all about knowing the right Aux codes. The pins 2-3 and 3-2 looks wrong. They way I remember the CruII ( I used to teach Crusader II programming for Anilam in the 80's), they switched 2 & 3 in the control to make it easier to make the cable. Of course having a non standard cable really screwed everyone up. Have you tried a straight cable. I believe that was the reason for switching them.

If anyone is interested I have the original training material for the CruII in DVD format.
http://www.tipsformanufacturing.com/...usader_ii.html

Mike Mattera

[catwan]

I have a crusader II with tape recorder I have just started using. I am not sure that my tape recorder is working. Is there any information for any settings in the crusader that need to be set to use the tape recorder. How do I know if my recorder is working properly.

Thank you,
Christopher Atwan

[jslynn]

catwan in answer to your question.

The crusader II tape recorder needs to use digital tape. This tape has metal
leader on both ends of the tape. This is used by the player to rewind the tape.

This system worked BUT dirt in cassette or other cassette problems caused it to go fail. Bramer made the tape transport system. They stopped making it 15 to 20 years ago.

Short story use the RS232 it is much more reliable.