[makezilla]

I have a friend who bought a running 1991 Bridgeport CNC with a DOS operating system and I am trying to get it running for him.

Cover of the manual:

~Bridgeport CNC
BSX
___________________
Programmers Manual
SX15 CNC
Operators Manual
September 1991

I can home, position etc. I can load a program, BUT I cannot run the program. Is there anyone who knows or even remembers the magic keystroke(s) to RUNNING a program?

Willing to use PAYPal to reasonably compensate for time and expertise.

Thanks!

[Al_The_Man]

Is it a Bandit controller?
Al.

[John Bennett]

Al
I believe the control he is talking about is the SX15 Bridgeport control with a FMDC board and Dos 5.0. This control was used on the V2XT and other 1990 machines and was eventually replaced with the DX32 control.

[makezilla]

Gentlemen,

Thanks for the quick reply! I'm optimistic I can make chips with this thing eventually.

I will scan some of the manual and take a few pics of the machine to help remove the questions.

Regards,

Matt

[machintek]

A picture of the electrical cabinet would be a big help.

George

[makezilla]

pic of the head of the mill and the booted controller. Again, I can load a program, home the axis, jog and position the table, but I cannot run the program. I've got a couple suspicions but would like to talk to someone who KNOWS or KNEW this controller. Again, glad to pay for it as well.

Thanks!

[John Bennett]

Attached files will get you started. Looks like a V2XT , would need to know if it has a hard drive and a FMDC board or BMDC board.

You say you can load the program but it does not run. What does the program look like and what are you trying (steps) are you doing to get it to run?

[makezilla]

Thanks so much for the file. I am reading here right after I post this reply!!

A pic of the inside of the cabinet. It does have a Hard Drive. I can load the program. It gets started and stops. What I really want to do is run just the XY without spindle, but I don't know how. There appears to be a logic to the colors.

[machintek]

FMDC version V2XT.
If you run a program, you may need to put in TLOs if you have Z axis moves.
Also typical program format has a tool call so when you start a program, it will stop for the tool change. then you have to continue running the program. The machine will do rapid moves but will not do a feedrate without a spindle ON.

George

[makezilla]

Ah, okay. To be sure you're talking about tool offsets, right?

Thanks again!

[John Bennett]

What George is talking about is "Tool length offsets" (TLO). The control needs to know how far the quill, will have to lower the tool, to reach your set Z zero point. Look in the full manual or the Coles note manual for instructions. This also assumes that you have set the XYZ.

[makezilla]

John/George,

Tool offset length. That makes sense. I am going to the shop later in the week or weekend.

I have quite the to-do list...just when I think I know what I'm doing, I have to prove it! I love learning new things and helping.

Thanks again for all the help guys.

Matt

[NEATman]

Hi Matt-
FYI there is a V2XT Yahoo group as well - I have one made in 93 that I had converted to Mach3 about 5 years ago. It has been running great ever since.

I believe the files section of that site has all the manuals for both mechanical and programming.

Keith
(NEATman)

[yourout]

I know I am kicking an old thread but I just bought a used Bridgeport Apollo II and will likely be giving it a Mach4 upgrade with a CSMIO /IP controller.
What I really could use is a set of schematics for the current setup which is a V2XT I believe.

Anyone know where I can get them?

[machintek]

The Apollo was actually built for the military. It was a Interact 4 with a DX32 control. Different from the V2XT as it had a Electronic spindle drive, a power draw bar, etc. Try machinemanuals.com or EMI for schematics.

[yourout]

The Apollo was actually built for the military. It was a Interact 4 with a DX32 control. Different from the V2XT as it had a Electronic spindle drive, a power draw bar, etc. Try machinemanuals.com or EMI for schematics.

I am striking out on finding schematics. Does anyone know if the sx-15 used encoder feedback or resolver feedback?

[lmasutti]

Hello.

Can you send me a copy of your software SX15? Im buy recently a Bpt machine but my diskettes are damaged

thanks for Help Leandro [email protected]

[fredhh47]

I know that interface screen. I had the same software on a Discovery 308-Sx bed mill (incidentally, it was a piece of cr*p machine, but that's a story for another forum).
It is quirky, and not in a terribly good way. You can run just the XY, but you have to find the right button on one of the screens, probably in setup . Look for something that says NO Z.
Also check to make sure the program is in the right format, or the machine is in the right mode. In the upper right hand corner on that screen, in the far right, is a reading of the format setting - it may say something like Boss8/9, there is a toggle somewhere in the many screens to set that for a couple different formats, One of the important features of the format setting is how it sees things like feed rates. For instance in BOSS 5/6 mode, it may read them one way, in Boss 8/9 mode it may read another. It looks like that machine is setup for Metric (see the FPM - Feed per minute - it is reading in mmpm, or millimeters per minute. If your program is not written in metric, you need to change that setting. There are a truckload of other settings that need to be checked.
This software has more weirdness than Al Yankovich. You need to go thru all the screens and try all the buttons to see what happens. One of the big things is you must enable and home the axes before anything else. If it has not been homed, it will not run. You CAN run programs in setup, but I wouldn't suggest it. Check that all axes move manually before attempting to run a program. A dead axis should keep it from booting up, and throw up an error message, but it might not. There is an override in the machine settings for the rapid traverse. Slow it the heck down, especially if you don;t have the machine firmly bolted to the floor. Our machine was capable of 400 ipm, which we lowered to 200 because the 6000pound machine was walking across the floor every time it rapid traversed. We didn't think bolting a 3 ton machine to the floor would be necessary, but we were wrong. Also, even though it is capable of going that fast, I can assure you it is putting one heck of a strain on those 25 year old servo motors. I suppose you already found out that most of those blue box choices along the bottom are bogus. You cannot access some of those functions, it just wasn't written into the software.
Our machine read both the encoder and the resolver and compared the reading. If it didn't match, it went into shutdown mode.

[lmasutti]

Hi Fred

can you send me a copy of your software SX15 to make a test it?

thanks in advance. Leandro [email protected]