[ryanpierce]

I'm part of a makerspace / hackerspace in Chicago that recently acquired a Bridgeport Series I Interact with a Heidenhain TNC 151 A controller. The machine wasn't really functional when we bought it, and we had a good number of problems to work through. (Having to locate machine settings because the memory was gone, repairing an ERO 115 encoder, replacing a bad capacitor in the TNC 151 power supply, etc.) But now the machine is starting to come alive, and I'm at a point where I'm not sure if something is wrong with the machine or the operator. :-)

1. The X/Y Joystick. There's an outer sleeve to pull out to make it move. That alone doesn't let me move the table. Pulling the outer sleeve + pushing the button in the center does let me move the table, but it moves it at max feed rate, which is way too fast to even think about positioning anything. I would have thought that maybe lack of center button would be a slow move, but that's not true. It's rapid or nothing. The up-down stick on the quill does have a slow downward move but only a rapid upward move. So is there some way to change this via software? I can't really conceive of anyone using a machine like this otherwise.

2. The Handwheel. In the Handwheel mode, I can select an axis, but the handwheel is entirely non-responsive, regardless of what interpolation mode I'm selecting. I'm guessing another bad encoder, but I'm also guessing there's something wrong with the joystick configuration, so maybe something software related could be wrong here, too. I wanted to check before pulling the encoder and digging into it. I've also heard these are glass, and fragile, so I'm a little nervous.

3. Machine parameters. There's got to be a way to edit them after they've been initially configured, but I'm not seeing it in the documentation.

4. Rapids. I'm starting to learn the Heidenhain conversational language. I know G-code has separate commands for a rapid vs. a line at a feed rate, but with the Heidenhain, there's just a Line command with a feed rate. Am I missing something here?

5. Software tool path recommendations? I know you can use serial to load programs into the TNC 151, but you're limited by its rather small memory. Is there any way to send G-code in real time to the machine and get around this? What do most people with a TNC 151 do for a CAM package and G-code sending?

Thanks,
Ryan

[gus]

there is a parameter to control feedrate in manual mode. you can also use the feedrate override on the front of the control

there may be a parameter that enables the handwheel, I cannot remember they are pretty solid so I would not expect a failure

code number 95148 opens the parameters for editing

on the 151 there is no rapid feed command, it is just the max feedrate of the machine, 2000 in this case later controls use do have a max feed command

I have never done drip feed as I never needed it. I program most things at the control. Free software from heidenhain TNCRemote should do this.

there are parameter sets for this machine in this very subforum that may be useful to compare to yours