Originally Posted by
gizmo_454
I have to agree, but disagree. I agree because if the manufacturer can afford to give the technology with every machine and just turn it off, then why not just turn it on in the first place?
On the other hand, it is technology that costs money to produce and support, so yes, they should charge for it. But how much are you, (we), willing to pay for a machine? Haas' machines are generally at a lower price point because they sell you a base machine, in this case a mill with a spindle, x, y, and z axes. If you want Rigid Tapping, it's extra. M19, it's extra. Etc, etc, etc.
Go buy a Citizen swiss machine. Every option that can be on in the control, is on when you buy the machine. But hold on to your wallet...A 20mm machine starts out at $120K with a barfeeder. 32mm machine starts out at $225K with a barfeeder. Our SL-10 lathe's base price was what? $49K?
I think a good share of us would agree, from a bottom line price point is concerned, we like to be able to pick and choose the options we want on our machine.
As for the "unlock" problem that started this thread, I can see how unlocking options, while morally questionable, may work, unlocking the time limit on the machine would be next to impossible. The machine outputs either a 4 or 5 digit code, to which there is only one correct response, also being either a 4 or 5 digit code. The outputted code is supposed to be random. That being said, from 0000 to 99999, there are 100,000 possible codes the machine can choose to display. For any one code it displays on the screen, there are again 100,000 possibilities. That means that the chances of hitting the write answer, assuming you have the patients to search for the correct code, is extremely slim. We are talking approximately 10 billion combinations. Assuming 1 code per second, and it took until the 10 billionth code to find the correct one, (since we all know it's always darn near the last possible combo to try before we find the right one), it would take approximately 2,777,777.8 hours to find the right code. Even if you could enter 10 codes per second, you'd still be looking at 277,777.8 hours to find the right code. That's roughly 31.7 years at 10 codes per second, 24/7/52.:drowning:
I'm sorry, I'll keep paying for my machine by making parts. It'll only take 5 years to pay for!:wee:
Mike