[bbuonomo]

A local Machine shop recently donated a very well kept Bridgeport Series 1 CNC (BOSS 5) Mill with teletype and tape reader. I have the original documentation and the machine is perfect working order (as far as I can tell manually)

Originally I was looking at connecting via the 20mA current loop interface, which is connected through a round Amphenol connector, that used to be connected to a teletype machine.

I was told by a Camsoft salesperson that this machine can be connected directly to RS-232 without any special HW or cabling. All I need is one serial connector and one Amphenol connector. Catch is he would only pass along the required information if I purchased their SW ($$$). Software was donated with the CNC, so now I am just looking for anyone who may have the wiring diagram.

I was also told that the 20mA current loop does not work 100%, so that is even more motivation for me to find the necessary RS-232 wiring.

We compete in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition in Science and Technology) Robotics Competition (www.usfirst.org) and the 2004 Robotics season starts tomorrow and we are in dyer need of getting this machine connected to a PC.

Thank you for any help or information you may be able to provide. If you have any information that can help, please contact me:

Brian Buonomo
Technology Teacher / 871 Team Leader
West Islip High School
1 Lions Path
West Islip, NY 11795
631-8932-3250 x224 Office
631-893-3269 Fax
[email protected]

[motomitch1]

All ya have to do is buy there softwear that was nice of them

[motomitch1]

You might want to try OneCNC They have a program called NC-LINK FREE That shows how to hookup boss 5 [free download] http://www.onecnc.net/index.htm

[HuFlungDung]

Hey Motomitch, that's not fair. You read the help file and made us all look bad Good find!

[bbuonomo]

hahaha.. Thank you sooo much!

The original owner was in today and gave me a nice little training session.

The only problem that I may have now is wether or not this machine does support RS-232, the owner was under the impression that RS-232 was optional and I may need to use a 20mA current loop converter. at about $60 from B&B Electronics, I'm not that upset.

I'm hoping to have everything setup and running sometime this week. I'll post the results when it is working. Thanks again for all teh help guys.

Brian

[motomitch1]

[c_nut]

I am taking a class at a local college and a Boss 5 is being revived. The card in it that talks 20Ma current loop has a connector that needs to be moved to get RS232 to operate. It was in the docs that were available. I can get them copied but class is not until Tuesday. We did not succeed due to lack of an operating manual.
I will check before I go to see if you still need the info. I think there was a wiring diagram for the cable as well. We did not get it working as the class was canceled. We still have a manual machine class going.

Oh yes the college is Delgado in New Orleans.

c_nut

[bbuonomo]

I;'m not sure if I ever posted this here, but I found someone who makes cables, instructions and has the software to connect a Bridgeport Series 1 CNC. He has the instructions on how to convert the system to RS232 nd where to wire the cable. Instructions were so good, I was able to have my students (17 year olds) do it on their own.

Search eBay for "Bridgeport RS232" and you should get this link:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...sPageName=WD1V

Cost is about $65-80

[machintek]

Unless someone replaced the ERS board with a different one, the machine should communicate using either the 20ma current loop or RS232.
20 ma was used by the type 33 teletype. The type 43 could go either way.
The AMP connector is a round 8 pin reverse sex and can be found at Newark Electronics and such.
Pins 1,2,3,4 and 5 were used for 20 ma.
Pins 5(shield connected at one end only), 6, 7, and 8 are used for RS232. Baud rate is set on the ers board using DIP switches 1,2,3 and 4. Remove the large rectangular connector on the ers board and let it hang for Rs232.
I usually use PROCOMM, or EZ-UTLS from BPT to comm with the machine.
Typically use 8 dat bits, 2 stop bits, no parity and X on Xoff enabled.
Machinemanuals.net has books on CDrom for this machine as well as a comm kit with cable and software.

George W.

[c_nut]

Geroge
Thanks a lot for the info. I found a operations manual on Ebay no less. Had to get it sent from England and they must have quit usind or upgraded ittheirs as this was the orginial manual with Bribgeport on the plastic comb holding the pages togther.

The rs232 with xon\xoff enabled is the importasnt part. I have Procomm so it should be fairly easy from here.

We woke up a Dyna Mite 3000 lathe while I tried to get the info for the mill and that has been an experience. The turret quit and after almost giving up on it the loose wire showed itself. Now the mill we be on the front burner.

We also have a Dyna mill same age as the lathe any info on that? I do not even have a operation manual on it. I do not hold out much hope for it as it was in a hanger for a few years and has some mositure dammage on the electronics.

Thanks again for the info.

c-nut

[harolda]

to find out if supported you must see if all the parts are in board .you must
pull the plug on one of the boards it is a k labeled i can not remember the one i did all that stuff .

[MMRC]

I have this same mill and bought the same cable kit, and it works perfect!!!!!! The only complaint is it only holds about 800 or so lines. My program starts with 100 and it will hold up to 9XX. It makes me have to break up a program into alot of small ones. If anyone knows how to improve this please post it, M&M Race Cars

[SFA]

I think you have to send a K to kill the memory on this control and then load in the rest of the NC program. I have a name of a company that had written some software to DNC to the control but not sure if they are still around. I have it in the office.

I was also told some customer used Predator with File Block Feature that allowed a specific # of lines, send a control character, like "K" and then send the rest of the data. You are welcome to download a copy from our site and give it a try at no charge.

[machintek]

How do you generate a program? By hand or with a CAM system? This machine supports loops and macros (what they considered macros back then). I could take a 8 page program generated by EZCAM and shorten it to about a page and a half by eliminating unneeded lines and using loops. The exception is 3D programs. Those are just huge.
The concept of using "K"ill to erase the existing program, I have never tried but then you would have to switch to the edit mode and drop out of the run mode. So the operator would still be necessary.
Bridgeport did make a DNC loader which is a very rare item to find. Do a google search for "behind tape reader". There are a few companies that make these devices (parallel interface). This would be the way to use large programs with no intervention of an operator.

George

[Jim Estes]

Im I to understand that drip feeding to the Boss 5 is not possible? With rs-232 you can only upload programs completely and they can only be 800 lines or so? I have a friends who bought a Boss 5 and he is wanting me to help him get it going.

Thanks,

Jim

[machintek]

I believe this was answered in another heading. But, DNC is only possible on a BOSS 5 with the optional DNC loader or with a more modern device called a BTR (behind tape reader). William Timm has a post about this.

George

[harolda]

Heres what i do with the boss control SCRAP IT .... Put on stepper drivers
You probly did not want to here that .I ran a 38,000 line program to mill a picture i need more work on that part. Before i did that i blew out all the drive transsitors so i did the transformation to the drivers .