[sanddrag]

I'm a high school teacher trying to get our engineering lab in shape for summer training. We recently acquired an older Techno router with the ISA controller card and the DOS "gcode" program. It all seems to work well except the scale factor is off. It is set to 10160 when I think it should be set to 20320. When I move the machine, it appears to move only about half as much as it should, and it always seems to think it is twice as far as it actually is. The problem is when I change the scale factor and press OK, the DOS program crashes. I'm not sure what to do about this.

Also, I would like to know how to properly set a work offset. Is there any sort of "use current position as work offset" command rather than manually entering the offset.

Any help is appreciated. Perhaps someone has a link to download the last release of the DOS gcode program? The one I have is copyright 1994.

Thanks in advance for the help. The students are anxious to put this thing to use, and so far they love the DOS interface (yes, we have some great kids).

[slowlearner]

I do have one of these. It was bought new in 1998 that was always used running
the Mastercam interface until a couple of years ago. IIRC somebody on this forum or Techno sent me a copy of the software. The only time I experience crashing is when trying to run in windows.

[sanddrag]

I do have one of these. It was bought new in 1998 that was always used running
the Mastercam interface until a couple of years ago. IIRC somebody on this forum or Techno sent me a copy of the software. The only time I experience crashing is when trying to run in windows.

I was running in DOS and it still froze at changing the scale factor. Do you think you could e-mail me or FTP to me the gcode program you have? If so, send me a private message so I can set up an FTP account for you to copy it to.

[psharp1]

It should not matter what program you use to generate the code. As long as it uses the codes the machine knows. They all use the same format to up and download. The codes are setable in the post processor. The machine computer converts the program to a basic language that the machine controls understand.

This means you can use any Cad Cam program to generate the program or even write it yourself. As long as the posted program is what the machine understands. The editing program these Cad Cam programs use will download it to the machine correctly provided you have the interface controls set correctly.

[chris_techno]

Couple questions about your configuration, we can get you an updated DOS program possibly but I need to know:

Are you running this directly from DOS? You will not be able to operate it properly if you're attempting to run a command prompt window from inside Windows.

There is a file called pcservo.cfg in the directory where the application is located. If you can get the file off of there and send it to us we can modify it for you and get your scale factor set to the correct one.

Let us know the version of DOS being used and make certain your running natively in DOS not in Windows.

[sanddrag]

It is running version 1.90 of the GCODE program. Today I was able to successfully set the axis scale factors to 20320, from running it within Windows. The program would still crash at setting these, but it would save the numbers, and I'd force-close it from within Windows, and re-open.

For a while though, when setting the scale factor to this amount the machine would do strange glitchy things such as raising the Z until it hit the limit, when running any program. Then at one point while lowering the Z to the offset value, it would throw an E-stop error for no reason. Then a few times, I did not have any option to jog the Z axis until restarting the program.

I finally got it to behave by powering off the machine itself, and powering back on. I think it's okay now, but I'm still interested if there is a 'newer' version of the DOS program than 1.90.

Thanks.

[slowlearner]

Sanddrag pm me your email and I will send over the software and manual.
No need for an FTP all of it will fit on a floppy. Techno has been very helpful
in the past and would welcome your calls with tech support.

[psharp1]

What is the name of the dos g code program you are using? There are a number of them. I probably have six of them in storage.

I teach CNC programming and from what you are saying, it seems when you enlarge, you are enlarging your offsets also. There is no such thing as a machine that understands only dos. The machines understand Basic. The machines are set to certain commands in text that are actually basic comands. It is not the windows that is your problem. It is how the program is put togather. You can use hyper-terminal to do the up loading or downloading. You can even use it DNC the program.

To actually solve your problem I would have to see both the dos program and the one you enlarged. That would tell me exactually what went wrong.

[sanddrag]

@chris_techno - The computer is running Windows 98 and I reboot to MS-DOS mode to run the 'gcode' program. Is that fine?

Also, I'm still curious if there's a way to set current position as offset.

Finally, I've noticed some of the motion is a little jerky in certain parts. Is this something the PCI card and newer software improves?

@psharp1 - Thank you for trying to help, but I think you are missing the essence of the issue specific to this particular machine.

[chris_techno]

Yes, that's what we recommend for operation. I'll find out the "latest" version (guess I should call it last version) of the DOS gcode software and let you know.

[chris_techno]

Also to upgrade this machine to a PCI interface so you can utilize our latest software isn't a vast undertaking. It is a bit of an investment, though, at about $1300 for the card and cable and then a modern PC would also be required. You can continue to use your existing controller/servos/etc.

When I can dig up our DOS software I can most likely email it to you then you can get it on your PC using whatever method you can (probably floppy depending on your hardware)

[chris_techno]

The latest we have is v1.942. I have it here available but I need to know some details about your machine to make sure I get you the right one.



Please email me at chris [at] technorouters.com
And I can get you this update.

[psharp1]

Perhaps you are right. I am 73 years old and I have followed the way CNC machines think from their beginning. I know what changes they have made as it happened. I know what and how the machines use the information to make the desired parts. I can take one apart, stack it in a pile, and put it back together better than it was. I can reprogram the CNC to understand a completely different type of program. I can do it in Basic, Dos, & Windows for the same machine. I can write a menu for Auto Cad that will write a program for any machine out there from the drawing.

The machine you are using is great machine for doing router work. The programs are about as simple as can be. The essence is you wish to retain an antiquated way of programming and teaching that when your machine is capable of newer ways of doing it.

Perhaps you are right, there are many who believe that what the machine came with is the only thing it can do.

[joejared]

@chris_techno - The computer is running Windows 98 and I reboot to MS-DOS mode to run the 'gcode' program. Is that fine?

Also, I'm still curious if there's a way to set current position as offset.

Finally, I've noticed some of the motion is a little jerky in certain parts. Is this something the PCI card and newer software improves?

@psharp1 - Thank you for trying to help, but I think you are missing the essence of the issue specific to this particular machine.

Jerky motion unless it's mechanical is likely due to having 2 little distance between points or an equivilent of ipb (In positionn band) set too small. If it's happening largely in straight motion movements, odds are one of the carriage bearing assemblies is bunched up and replacement units are pricey. What I do for a repair is to replace the side that's bad, cutting my costs of repair by 50%.

I wrote my own interface to Techno's hardware and would suggest never having an IPB less than 0.0005" and my own software is set to that by default. For typical contour machining I generally set IPB to 0.006" to 0.020"