[DMahalko]

I am a wikipedia technology hobbyist with an interest in CNC.

I have noticed that Fanuc has a large number of different models going back many years, but there's no really clear, easily-searchable distinction between them on the web.

I have started a section about various models in the FANUC article on Wikipedia, but really I don't know where to look for more information. The Fanuc America website itself does not appear to be very helpful.

FANUC - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Perhaps some people here might be ablea to help flesh it out? Doesn't need to be at all detailed... just sum up the historical technical model differences.

[Al_The_Man]

Dan Fritz would be the one to tell you quite a bit about the history, he was a Fanuc engineer, you may get some info from his previous posts where he had listed the systems in chronological order, but I have not noticed him posting of late?
I believe the 10 was the first to have FAPT conversational language option available, but it never seemed to cotton on as well as Mits/Mazak conversational.
All the systems you show had the various options built in and just required a option bit set to obtain it, although there were some options that also required a board etc.
The early control prior to the 0, the 3 and some 6 required an external PLC for S,M,T codes etc, the later systems had CNC/PLC co-processors that used a common backplane bus called a BMI, Basic Machine Interface, for communication and displayed ladder logic for PLC diagnosis, I believe some of the early 0's however, did not have the capability of displaying the ladder, just I/O status binary words.
Al.

[tc429]

almost all the fanuc controls were offered as 'M' for machining centers, 'T' for turning machines, 'TT' for twin turning (4 axis and/or dual spindle lathe with 2 simiultaneous toolpaths), 'P' for turret punchpresses, and 'G' for grinding machines.

Fanuc Robotics (later GMF) also had robot controllers- the old common ones I'd seen were R-C, R-H, and R-F. R-C was analog, later ones were digital servo.

If youd like some OLD original General Numeric pictures, Ive still got some of the product flyers for the P-G, the zero-A, think the 10/11/0-C too, but not sure where...I also had a original flyer for a Mark Century 100 GE control- WOW, talk about old...they had the little 'pixie tubes' I think they called them for numeral display (each tube had basically 10 filaments shaped like a digit!), and a hoard of thumbwheel switches for each offset, probably several miles of wirewrapping in the 'backplane' which was simply a massive card rack of wrapping pins/sockets...

The system 3 was what I would consider the first of the more 'modern' CNCs with CRT/PMC, most of the stuff needed to run a machine tool without a lot of extra stuff. the 6 had a lot more options, especially the 'level-up' version they later referred to as the 6B-2 model- it was really a workhorse...the 3 reminded me more of a zero with its 3 (might have been 4?) axis max capability, smallish MDI/CRT, was mostly found on machines just a tad bigger than a knee mill, the 6B-2 would do a full 5 axis by just adding an additional axis card /firmware/option bit, and second connection unit...WHY they decided to put the extra axis decel inputs on the second card was beyond me- the two 5 axis machines we built with 6MB-2 only had 2 or 3 wires to the additional card IIRC...to me the 6B-2 was to the CNC world kinda like a F150 to the work truck market- wasnt overly fancy, was fairly reasonably priced and dead reliable- especially the later ones with the 6050 AC drives...probably my favorite control really, as we probably bought over 100 of them, and rarely had any troubles- if we did they were separate PCBs for every function, easy to repair...the I/O card reed relays, op amps, rs232 driver chips were available at Radio Shack for like 89 cents apiece. dont recall the average cost per control, but think in 1985 dollars a 6TB-2 with a pair of 6050 size 20s sold for under $15K...as they became obsoleted, a size 20 amp/motor listed for over 5K alone...Ive still got our old price sheets from General Numeric, just stumbled on them the other day.


The 6*B-2 had a standard CRT, a separate ROM card, option for a second i/o board ('connection unit'), the 'North American Freestanding' cabinets were
the refrigerator sized ones we bought a boatload of at work- they came pretty much pre-cabled from General Numeric(they were the original USA reseller of Fanuc/Seimens CNCs). they also offered 'unbundled' (loose boards), and 'machine mount' (small master board rack only cabinets- were very commin to see on Daewoo/other asian equipment) cabinets that came as a partially wired module- Freestanding and machine mount boxes were all probably almost equivalent to a NEMA 12 box, they all featured air/air heat exchangers so the cabinet was basically a sealed unit, and the cable entry was thru a sliding steel plate with thick foam- youd pull in cables with ends pre-attached, then 'pinch' them in the foam to seal the cabinet. after about 3 years with coolant mist, the foam crumbled(mice will also eat thru it we found) and the controls started breathing- not good.

the weakest part of the 6 series IMO was the i/o 'connection unit' card used microminiature reed relays that looked like a 16 pin DIP, with the center 8 pins missing...actually were true 5 volt relays...in ours I found 90% of the time, a 'repair' on a 6 involved taking a plastic screwdriver handle and gently strumming across the relays to dislodge the contacts- extremely common issue as the controls got to be 3~4 years old, pretty much a guarantee on any still running they will intermittently have the issue...one of the nicest features on the 6 family, was they were some of the first CNC's to feature magnetic 'bubble memory'...guarantee I could go pull a bubble off the shelf from the 80's it would still have intact data. Hilarious part was the bubbles were tiny even by late 80's standards- a optional 1 meg bubble listed at over $15,000.00 !!! last bubble I bought was out of a training department, bought a box of 50 cards still sealed in the static bags for 200 bucks, half were 1 meg, 4 bucks apiece...my how times changed. Bubble devices were imperfect at time of manufacture, if reinitializing one (very very rarely needed) you had to hold in some keys at bootup, then type in the data printed on each PCB to tell the control to map the 'defect loop data' addresses to avoid- by the end of the 6, most of the bubbles only had 3~4 defect loops tagged, early ones ofen had three or four decals with pages of them to type in...

the PC-A/B were programmed with a suitcase type box- looked like a movie prop for launching the nuclear missles in a 50's movie programming was all in Mnemonic language- powerful as ladder, but kinda cryptic to read- somehow Japanese OEMs had ladder printouts, I never could figure out how to do it...I usually wrote/printed our ladders on a 'System P-G' terminal, printed to a serial printer at 300 baud- took hours to print a long ladder-, then printed the Mnemonics and hand typed it into the suitcase.

the 6/10/11/0-A all offered analog axes. the 10/11/0-B/0-C/0-D standard used digital axes.

(Zero-C offered analog axis interface option the first couple years they were out- IMO that control with 6050 AC drives was still the highest performance control they ever offered- the 486 driving analog allowed system gain to be pegged out without oscillation, darn near no following error...we bought about a dozen of those, they were awesome little 3/4 axis controls)



back to the fanucs- the Six series PMC- model A shared the main processor, think the 6 used a 8086, but dont recall for sure- I know the Zero-A used a 80186 (NEVER heard of one used in a computer) the -B went I think to a 80286, then the -C to a 386-40, later -C and -D got a 486-20 (a slower clock to meet C-E electromagnetic compliance crap I was told). The 6 series PMC-B had its own PCB with a dedicated processor...a PMC-A typically might have had a 32msec scan time, where the PMC-B would be 8~16, even with a longer ladder. think PMC-A was limited to 1 or 3K steps of ladder, where the B would handle like 10K...would have to be a pretty poor ladder to be that big, but ive seen a few...
In the 10/11 controls the PMC was I/J depending if integrated or dedicated processor (they advertised a PMC-K, that was basically a PMC-J without the CNC, to be used as a stand alone PLC, but I was told it was never sold in the USA).
In the 0, the PMC was L/M.

the 6(t/m)B-2 was a major step up from the original 6 (then it was referred to as a 6-A. The 6-A had about 20 rom sockets on the master pcb for the firmware, had very limited options, and a lot of quirky stuff- like if you moved from position screens to diagnostic screens, it always went back to the first page of the diagnostics, was kinda irritating. Also the 6-A CRT was OPTIONAL- they had standard a LED/keyboard thing that was similar if not the same part used on the failure prone 5 series...you had to use a cursor key to select GMSTXY then type the number, then insert- was a PITA to edit programs in. the A supposedly offered the PMC-A also, although the few we ever had at work used external PLCs.

There was a model 6M-F with the built in FAPT (Fanuc Automated Programming Tool I think that was a acronym for), we had one on a Hitachi-Seiki, had a special monitor with 2 big cards along side- and the biggest single chip I'd ever seen...was like a inch wide and three~4 long...it acted up, we put a standard ROM card in it and put a 9" MDI CRT back in its place.

The 10/11 was more tha Cadillac controller- it offered a boatload of capabilities, huge memory options (by standards at the time), even offered three PMC interface setups, to make migration up to the newer models for OEMs, they offered the FS3/FS6/and BMI Al mentioned. if a OEM had been providing a standard machine with the soon to be obsoleted System3, you could offer a shiny new 10/11 with almost no development cost if they used the available FS3 interface, although Ive only ever seen one machine that didnt use the far more advanced BMI interface...I think the address list for BMI was at least double what FS3 or FS6 offerred, was kinda silly to put a high end control on and leave its hands tied...

The last, latest/greatest, and in my mind the absolute best control Fanuc ever built was the 15-A series...it was the last to feature steel framed cards, DIP chips that could be swapped by anyone with basic desoldering equipment, had a fast/powerful PMC- they changed around the alphabetic naming a little bit, they offered PMC NA/NB, these were the last of the old school PMCs. the 10/11 PMC-I was the first to display text in the ladder display- maintenance guys loved being able to 'read' the ladder rather than just a address list in the 0-C ladder display- but the PMC-I was pathetically slow to update on the screen. Now the PMC-NA in the 15- it was like realtime- was really a sweet control...the 15A was capable of being configured for up to 15 axes, several simultaneous toolpaths, etc, made it capable of controlling complex CNC dial/transfer line type setups.


later controls were all the newer style little yellow boxes with honda 'PCR' series connectors that were no fun for a maintenance guy to deal with...we had to start buying factory cables as the ones we were making up were having issues. The 3/6/10/11/0/15A were all setup with Honda MR series plugs- those were perfect, easy to make cables, repair/add wires/etc...personally I hated the cheap plastic boxed controls, the tiny PCR connectors, pretty much everything about the newer controls- except software. the 16/18/20/21(think there was a 15-B early on too?) all features massive improvements in software...PMCs shifted to RA1/RA2/RA3, very soon though they 'changed' the names to SA1/23, then SB345...never did exactly know why...byut by then we had slowed down building at work- we has some issues with newer controls, and eventually started buying scrap machines dirt cheap for the controls and 're-retrofitting' them


will try to touch on the servos a bit:

original axis amps Fanuc offered were eventually called 'black cap' DC motors- motors were tagged 'Gettys/Fanuc' and were all 8 pole brushed, the drives were ugly, early ones were discrete screw in SCR's the last ones were modules- not sure if three phase SCR bricks or early transistor modules- but guessing SCR as I think the topcards were the same. they kinda sucked as the left drive had the only power supply integrated into its PCB, the other drive(s) were unpopulated, and had a IDC connector ribbon cable spanning from the supply. they didnt like overcurrents, and the 8 pole motors pulled some juice. they were also phase rotation sensitive.
the 6047 DC drives were incredible- one of the most reliable drives they ever made. the 6047 used 'M' series servos made 100% by Fanuc, they were all 4 pole brushed, and pretty darn reliable. the only problems we had with M motors was if overloaded, the glue cementing the magnets to the shell would let go, the shield/keeper bonded to the magnet face would ride on the rotor like a brake shoe until it snagged a lamination on the rotor- the lamination would twist cutting into the rotor windings destroying it. the last ones we bought, we actually epoxied hydraulic tubing over the studs to give the magnets a self supporting arch shape- they never failed.

the first AC (or DC-Brushless as many folks called them) became known as 'red cap' motors. Amps were the 6050 series, and they were even better than the DC ones reliability wise. DC brushless requires commutation control to tell the drive where the rotors magnets are, so it knows which pole to fire which polarity...DC had brushes/commutator to do that. Most other servo folks at that time would put hall effect switches in their motor with wiring to the drive to indicate position- the problem with that is, if your encoder died, the drive still had control of the motor- they could 'run away'...Fanuc built the commutation into their encoders- it required 'timing' the motor poles to the encoder, but other than that very slight inconvenience, they basically could not run away...if you lost the feedback, you lost the commutation, the motor couldnt turn more than one quadrant...we never ever had a 6050 Fanuc drive run away, and we had tons of them in use...during works heyday we probably had hundreds of CNC machines in 6 facilities- everything was Fanuc, and 6050 was the most common drive type. they were reliable, easy to work on, and reliable - did I mention they were reliable

About the time the 10/11 came out, the 6057 amps came about- the first all digital control, the encoder went to the axis control PCB instead of leaving some signals at the drives like the 6050 for commutation, now the commutation tracks were decoded on the axis card, and PWM was sent directly to the amp...the amplifier was now pretty much just a big transistor array, not capable of driving without a Fanuc PWM signal...not too long after 6057, the 6058 came out...6058 was the first drives mounted in plastic frames instead of steel, and they used 220 volt input instead of the 185 that dated back to the old 6047 DC units...guess higher voltage transistors were coming down in cost. After 6058, Amps got kinda weird...Serial encoders were coming out, the new amps were 6066 series (my absolute least favorite Fanuc product- we probably had 500 failures between cncs and R-J robots over the years). 6066/'c-series' amps were soon followed by the first 'alpha' amps- similar, except available with serial servo interface. later amps took on the shape/size of the 16/18/21 control 'yellow boxes' , made for a very clean looking installation- but IMO snap together plastic was a step backwards from the old steel framed industrial hardware- but its Fanuc, folks still trust and love their stuff.

The 'i' series controls came along last- they were more like a 'laptop', entire CNC was integrated into the display unit, just a couple simple cables to the i/o rack/spindle/servos...weve never bought even one of these for a retrofit yet, and doubt we ever will.

The past few years, some of the facilities kinda shifted gears, started buying machines rather than purpose building them...so now weve got a lot of standard machine tools, a hodgepodge of everything...okuma, mori, daewoo, okk, haas, others...some are Fanuc, some are not...the newer Fanuc stuff weve got is mostly 18 and 21, and while I gotta say for the most part the software is awesome, I personally dont care for the hardware. the keyboards on the new controls no longer have switches in them, just a printed mylar thing the key pushes into another sheet of printed mylar...yeah they work, but weve got greasy old 6's still running we bought in 84 or so...I cant think these will be around in that many years. to me amost all the new stuff on the market looks throwaway compared to the old stuff.

When the 0-C went to plastic framed cards, we started seeing trace issues- look at most 3/4 axis 0-Cs youll notice the axe card looks kinda like a banana- double stacked plugs on a plastic frame bows the pcb, tension on traces is not good...yes they are supposed to be supported, but even with cable clamps, they are pretty universally bowed. that steel frame couldnt have cost pennies more than the plastic one, yet can ruin a thousand dollar board. that is sad.
For some reason the Memory cards on 0-Cs tend to have a lot of RAM parity issues, 90% of the time its one of a few bad traces on the cards...almost always the same ones- looks to me there was just simply not enough copper on those cards...the copper in one penny could probably beef up 100 boards...
The old 0-A/3/6/10/11/15-A very very rarely had and problems with traces or connectors... the big old Honda MR plugs and the steel framed cards with DIP chips were so heavy duty and easily serviceable...

my favorites are still 'dinosaurs' to most folks- the 6B-2 and the 0-A with 6050 AC amps...


Tim

[DMahalko]

Um, wow, this level of discussion is quite unexpected. I will see what I can distill for the Wikipedia article.

[stevo1]

Dan Fritz would be the one to tell you quite a bit about the history, he was a Fanuc engineer, you may get some info from his previous posts where he had listed the systems in chronological order,
Al.

Wow Al do you think that Tim here could be Fritz Jr?? I have not seen him post in some time either. I talked to him on the phone about 8-12months back but that was the last time. Wonder what he has been up to.

By the way I like the new Avatar.

Steve

Sorry Tim. Kudos to your detailed information....well put.

[Leblondmakino]

I have a Fanuc 6ML on a Beaver Machine centre with a Specher and Schuh microprocessor controller.

The 6ML is fully conversational with on screen graphics for things such as pocket milling, drilling/boring etc, facing and side cutting.

It has Siemens 1HU DC servos with tachs and encoders.

The tachs go back to the axis drives and the ecoders back to the 6MB11 motherboard.

It has a 14" colour monitor just like the 11 control.

Anyone know anything about the 6ML nothing comes up in a web search!

What type of spindle drives will work with the 6B11. Is it a +/- 10v analogue command from the motherbord?

The Beaver has a Contraves ABDF DC drive with tach on the spindle motor.

Thanks, John

[injunear]

The first Fanuc controls I saw were 220's. These were paper tape driven, and the offsets done by thumb wheel switches.

Then came the 2000/3000 series. 2000 for 2 axis lathes, 3000 for 3 axis mills. The paper tape needed to be loaded each day on the early versions, the later had battery backed memory, so loaded only once.

This developed into the 5T and 5M, T turning 2 axis, M milling 3 axis. Sold in Europe as Seimens 5, but this was just a re-badged Fanuc.

Then there was a system 2, a simple low cost control.

Along came system 6TA and 6MA followed by 6TB and 6MB.

As already mentioned there was a system 3, and with the desktop FAPT system incorporated into the control it was the the 3TF versions.

Then came the system 10,11,15 as already described.

For some reason, low cost I think, system 0 was introduced, it was like an updated system 6. Lots of system 0 versions about.

Then we have system 18 and 21.

Actually I should look back through my stuff and sort more data and time lines for the Fanuc stuff, and build a bigger picture.

[Dan Fritz]

Stevo1: I'm still here! Tim's info is pretty much all correct.

In my years with General Numeric, I serviced these controls with the GN or Fanuc nameplates:

Fanuc 20 (on a few imported Mazak lathes). They had tape readers and open-loop pulse motors.

Fanuc 200A, B and C. They had magnetic core memory, big exec tapes, and were used on some Amada punch presses and Elox EDM machines. Some used pulse motors directly, and some Amadas used a pulse motor to drive a hydraulic servo.

Fanuc 2000C A lathe control with closed loop analog DC servos and resolver feedback. This control did not have a microprocessor. Instead, it had a descrete CPU board and used ROM chips on a "memory board" for all it's executive memory. Some had static RAM memory for part program storage, and a few had CMOS memory with battery backup.

Fanuc 3000C The mill version of the 2000C. It could be fitted with a 4th axis, and it also used resolver feedback or Inductosyn scales

Fanuc 5T and 5M The first 8-bit microprocessor control Fanuc sold here. It used DC servos with pulse coder feedback, had EPROMs for the executive and had optional CMOS memory with battery backup. There were many 1000s of these sold. Some imported machines had 5 controls even had a PLC for all interface connections.

Fanuc 6T and 6M The original 6 had no CRT. It used an LED display similar to the system 5, but internally was the same 6 that we came to know and love. It used an 8086 16-bit microprocessor, had bubble memory and used DC servos with pulse coder or resolver feedback. The 6M-B was the first control I know of that had FAPT as an option with a large CRT. Two types of built-in PLCs made retrofitting relatively easy.

Fanuc 7M A very limited number of these were sold on EDM machines and punch presses. Some 7Ms came from Europe after they were sold to European machine builders. Personally, I think this control was the Fanuc "spin-off" of the Seimens 7M control.

Fanuc 3T and 3M. Similar to the system 6 in design (with an 8086 processor) but somewhat limited in capability. It had CMOS memory instead of bubble (to keep cost down), DC servos and pulse coder feedback. A few had FAPT with a large CRT.

Fanuc 9M. A rare bird. This control was very similar to the 6M, but it could handle more axes. It had bubble memory like the 6M. Only a few were imported on large machining centers.

Fanuc 0T and 0M. This was, I believe the most popular Fanuc model. It was relatively low-cost, and was used on zillions of machine types. It has CMOS memory with battery backup, and the A, B, C, and D models went through a long evolutionary history.

Fanuc 10T and 10M. The start of a new family of controls consisting of the 10, 11, and 12 series. These were "higher end" controls from the 0T and 0M because of a faster processor, larger memory, and more options. The 10 still had CMOS memory with battery backup, and it had a PLC interface that would let it replace a 3 or 6 series control with very few changes.

Fanuc 11T and 11M Similiar in design to the 10, but it had bubble memory like the system 6. Lots of options were available on this model, but I believe that it was limited to 5 axes total.

Fanuc 12M A step up from the 11M in capability, because it could manage up to 15 axes (parallel axes, synchronous axes, etc.). This control replaced the 9M, and you might find just a few of these on really big machining centers.

Fanuc 15T and 15M. The "big kahuna" control. It had all the options and "bells & whistles" of the 10/11/12 series, and it could handle a lot of axes like the older 12M.

Fanuc 16, 18, 21, and the i-series of controllers came out after I was long gone from GN. These (and the new i-series) of controls are what you mostly see nowadays.

What's even more fascinating is the evolution of Fanuc servo and spindle drives. But that's another story ...


Notice that no Fanuc models include the number "4". That's an unlucky number in Japan.

Dan Fritz

[tc429]

Cool Info- a pleasure hearing from a old GN guy- IMO you guys are what made Fanuc fly in the USA.

I wasnt a big fan of GEF- our old GN Rep was Ron Chiocchio, when they let him go then replaced him with a new guy I got a bit upset...we'd bought hundreds of controls prior, never bought one after- both because we'd slowed a bit, and also just because that really irked me, so I scrounged used/surplus stuff just to avoid spending money with them. it saved us money so it was all good...but what irked me was that without guys like Ron and all you GN guys, GEF never woulda had a customer base or ever came into existence.
big corporate tactics I find upsetting all too often...as companies boom they tend to forget their roots- hire too many spreadsheet gurus that know how to fix things that arent broken by following the competition's latest management acronym, and toss out any competitive edges they learned on their way up- then they fail...seen it happen on a smaller scale where I work(still), and on huge scales with some of our customers...invest big money on a 'new' plant- with all the latest physical and management tools available/lose their butt/ wonder what went wrong...if your plant runs the same stuff everyone else does, wheres your edge... companies that grew up the hard way should not forget how they did sucessful things, and improve on that.
Sorry for the rant- I miss companies like General Numeric, even if they might not meet todays ISO/TS/QS/5S/TPM/whatever the latest acronym might be- they were simply a good company to deal with from a customers standpoint.

[injunear]

Dan,

I said 220 when I meant 20 and 200, saw them in the UK mainly on the Fanuc Tape Drill. The motor was the table, floated on the magnetic field and worked as a stepper motor.

A few 7Ms in the UK, I have a set of drawings somewhere, not worked on one recently.

A 9M? Rare indeed I have never seen one.

[memoryman]

Great stuff.
My experience in nc/cnc started in 1975 with GE, was trained on Mark Century 100, 7500, 550, 1050 series. Worked after I left on many other controls.
Still designing new products for older controls (coming out this year with 2M memory for FS6 controls with on-screen display of ladder!).
Noticed a number of errors/omissions in previous posts: FS9m was only used on
mills and had a tracing option. Worked on quite a few of them.
What is the best way supply/edit the Wikipedia info? I will be happy to contribute- let me know how.
Bill Peiman

[Leblondmakino]

Memoryman - Fanuc 6 with viewable ladders and 2M memory thats going to be amazing!!

[barbter]

Fanuc 0T and 0M. This was, I believe the most popular Fanuc model. It was relatively low-cost, and was used on zillions of machine types. It has CMOS memory with battery backup, and the A, B, C, and D models went through a long evolutionary history.

I was told only a couple of years ago by Fanuc UK, that there are more 0's in the world than the rest of the model ranges combined (total).

BTW - Good information here for us anorak's!

[dresda]

The machine of choice in the early 80's in Detroit & Windsor was the Yoneda Copy mill and they all had system 9 very powerfull, we also had a lot of Makino's up here in Canada with system 7.
I have a question for Dan. Will the Fanuc Ac 6050 drives work on single phase?
I am having lots of problems trying to run them with a phase converter.
ray.

[tc429]

I'll chime in

6050s will run on single phase...

185 three phase goes in on the bottom left terminals A-1-2

if you pull the third phase from '2' and just jump terminals 1-2, it fools the phase detection. at full power you will overload the 3 phase bridge (I think), but with moderate acc/dec (say 150 msec) they seem to run ok. I made up a 120 volt box with boost transformer to a drive/pot for manually folding up a bunch of robots that we had to put in a elevator to put in storage, it worked...use at own risk

as the DC buss will be low on single phase(I think), might try to adjust taps for closer to 190 volts...if you get LV alarms on acceleration

Tim

[Leblondmakino]

Is this the Fanuc PC programmer that was used to write the ladders on the Fanuc6?

Fanuc PC Programmer A13B-0067-B002 on eBay (end time 25-Apr-11 20:11:49 BST)

John

[tc429]

Is this the Fanuc PC programmer that was used to write the ladders on the Fanuc6?

Fanuc PC Programmer A13B-0067-B002 on eBay (end time 25-Apr-11 20:11:49 BST)

John

3 and 6...if its the one in the ebay store, its been on there for months-dont think its worth 950 anymore. Ive got one at work, know another local guy with one for sale(he mentioned the ebay one to me~maybe its his?). very very few of these still exist. folks didnt know they had batteries inside, heard of a couple that corroded enough to be ruined.
I wrote a little BASIC program years ago to decompile the raw binary file if youre just looking for getting a ladder out- of a 6, but never finished it to give graphical ladder output, only gives mnemonics, but its readable. requires a eprom burner capable of 'unsplitting' the hi/lo byte roms into one file to get the data- ive got a old needhams electronics ISA socket one, it works fine for this stuff...


funny story- I had to go back to Tennessee to finish up a testrig I built for a friend there(had to fly home earlier- son had major medical issues...long story there), took mine on a airplane- I'd uncased mine, made a mounting plate, put in one of those nice yellow plastic tool kit boxes (looks 'new' to this day, even if not original). this was '98, long before the TSA stuff of today, but still, when I opened it up, you shoulda seen the looks...luckily I had the manuals with me, to show it was a real unit, as it did look like the prop from a 60's movie the president would use to launch missiles


Tim

[Leblondmakino]

Thanks Tim..950 does seem a lot...notice this one isn't powered up as well.

I recently got a quote from a company offering a software upgrade to my Fanuc 6 so it would drip feed using a soft key on the screen, no extra hardware needed! No idea what language the software is written in just know it's very reliable!

One thing I never see is a list of what software version does what on the Fanuc 6. I have a few spare Rom boards on the shelf all with different software versions..

Would like to make copies of my ladders for safe keeping but i'm sure I would mess it up then I would be stuck

All this info is normally on a need to know basis..great thread!

John

[tc429]

you can add DNC to most sixes(all as far as I know) by just the option bit and maybe adding a wire to the 'tape' mode they called it back then...most standard operator panels had 'tape' mode prewired- and most if not all oems with a custom ladder would have written it in already, even if not in their panel wiring for mode select.
worst case add a wire/move the end stops on the mode select switch to add another combination on the switch... we found using the old fanuc disk drives('floppy cassette adapters' they called them) that when it went to reread to refill the buffer, it would put a dwell mark in the parts- never tried a Greco box, but imagine it might be similar- but using any old laptop with a old version of procomm works fine- just need the program on the harddisk, not on a floppy.

youre probably already aware, but the Tulip electronics 'fanram' cards that replace the bubble are a fairly reasonable way to expand real memory, think theyll go to a couple megs.
the mention above about onscreen ladder/2 megs I'll be real curious to see...weve got a ton of sixes in storage, if they had that, might be able to talk the boss into reusing some...they were really cool old controls. I wrote a ladder to decode the fanuc operator panels from the zero, heck we could even make it look like a zero from the front...the last sixes we did, I gutted the connection units, rewired all that stupid little blue wire for a m1/m2 plug so it would interface directly with existing zeroes we had online- think we only did 4 that way, but they worked fine. I did find the message display function didnt work on some firmware versions, that kinda sucked, and only one version would support 5 axis. funny thing is, if youve got blank chips to return as cores, last time we bought firmware it was like20 bucks a chip with like 15 core charge - getting 'latest edition' firmware was pretty reasonable to say the least- been years ago though, not sure if they still sell updates or not.

[Leblondmakino]

Thats what I thought Tim about the 6 only being upgraded with a bypass tape reader to drip feed but Memex now do a softwre upgrade which adds a dnc/drip feed key onto the screen on the setting page so it will drip feed through the RS232 port... like the O control you just switch it on or off to drip feed through the RS232.
They asked for my software version and said they would need my eprom chips off my Rom board to modify them.

When I have the money I think I will go for it..I already have a Memex 512K memory board (the max 6 will do as far as I am aware) and it works really well.

Have a Fanuc drip feed board but have never sused out how to wire it up!
John