[imwllc]

i am looking at buying a older bridgeport cnc mill for some small second operation stuff. im told it was converted from tape with a greco mini file and im not real familiar with these. can this be ran with a pc? can programs be saved from and transferred to these, i have griffo brothers data transfer here i would like to use. the machinery dealer doesnt seem to know to much about this. thanks

[machintek]

Bridgeport sold a smart disk drive (back then it was a 5.25 inch floppy) called a EZFILE. The same thing as a Greco. The newer ones had a 3.5 inch floppy. I would not be surprised if a more recent version had a hard drive.
It was a stand alone serial port communications device with a small LCD display for parameter setting and file opening/closing that could transfer files to and from machines. A PC is a lot more versitile.

George

[imwllc]

Do you have any idea how hard it would be to put a pc on this and use

[machintek]

Communication between a PC and a machine is usually not difficult. It is a matter of the correct software and the correct cable (assuming the machine supports RS232).
You said "older Bridgeport" but have neglected to say what. What BOSS version, or what Heidenhain control?

George

[johnnyrichards]

Sorry to resurrect such an old thread, but I have a similar problem with one of my Wiedeman 3050 turret punches.

The existing Minifile plus has been acting up for a year or so, and I have been tasked with getting rid of it. Ideally, we would like to go with a networked PC but unfortunately, the Minifile also contains the operator interface for loading/changing programs.

I would like to maintain the operator experience of using the Minifile input device to run his machine while upgrading things "behind the scenes". I understand a USB floppy emulator can get the job done - would it be possible for me to run a cable to a remote mounted PC, accessing a USB drive acting as a floppy?

Any and all help is much appreciated.