[milkcartonkid]

Awesome GT! Congratulations. Have a good week and I'll check back to see what you have when it's all buttoned up

[gtlegs]

So I have both the x and z axes working great, but still unable to get the spindle to turn. I'm thinking it is an issue with the enable not being driven high. I think I started with signals on the lines as I turned the machine on. Also, in Mach, I am not really sure if I am sending a correct m code to get the spindle turninig. I tried both "m3 sXXXX" and "m4 sxxxx" with xxxx being an RPM. Hopefully that is correct.

[gtlegs]

If anyone is reading this, I got the spindle turning, now I just have to figure out the spindle index. I'm not sure that I have mach setup correctly because I setup pin 10 for spindle index, but it has +5v all the time so I don't think it is correct. Any help?

[davidwest]

richjones: i will take a board....

gtlegs: i am still reading.... do you have a schematic of what you have done? sure would like to take a look.... thanks

[gtlegs]

richjones: i will take a board....

gtlegs: i am still reading.... do you have a schematic of what you have done? sure would like to take a look.... thanks

David, if you hear from rich, let us know. I've tried very hard to get in contact with him unsuccessfully. I can email a .pdf of the schematic I created, just shoot me a message with your email address. I have been super swamped with work and haven't had a chance to get any boards made. During my bread board trials I have had limited success with spindle functions and feedback. I have a feeling it is more to do with Mach3 setup than anything else. Are you planning on trying to use Mach3 or LinuxCNC? I have now downloaded LinuxCNC and plan on trying that once I get time, but traveling for work and trying to get my food plots in for deer season are keeping me busy.

[Arjand]

I want to try Siermens 840D control on my PCmill 55. It asks for MSD disk that should contain information about the PLCs. I pointed it to different folders like the machine folder and specificly the folder with the Mill55.Does not go on. Anyone got an idea?

I'm succesfully running Wincam on the pc.

[CNCoperator123]

Hi Guys,

I don't know how active this thread is anymore, but I have a PC with MSD disk (I was told by Chad at Emco, that machines with similar serial numbers would work fine on the same parameters.) and Fanuc software WITH the RS485 card fully functioning that I would be willing to get rid of for a reasonable offer. I'm going to throw it up on eBay for around $1100-1200 if no one from here wants it.

This thread has been a huge help by the way. Thank you to everyone who contributes!

[Arjand]

That seams like a ****load of money for an old pc with a card. Is is for a PCmill 50 of 55?

[CNCoperator123]

Its the ISA card for a 50. I've read that they are now well over 1500 from Emco although I have not verified this for myself. I agree, that‘s insane money, but they are rare and it is eBay we‘re talking about. I'll take MUCH less from someone on here and would rather sell here, in fact!

[CNCoperator123]

As a reference, I ended up very quickly selling the computer and card for $750. I am sure I could have gotten more if I had waited, but that seemed fair to me.

[CNCoperator123]

Don't know how much people monitor this thread anymore, but I have finished my conversion and am somewhat unhappy with the spindle power. I'm taking a cut 0.5" axial, 30ipm, and anything above 0.030" radial drastically slows or stalls the spindle. Some people have said they are able to run their spindle at 200+hz? Mine tops out at 160hz with vector control and a Teco L510 VFD. Is this typical or out of the ordinary?

[AK47]

Can you recall what was computer type? I have everything but motherboard for pc. I have try w98se on Abit kta7 witch have one ISA slot but that wont work. Maybe intel chipset and older notherboard will work?

[milkcartonkid]

I have the computer that came with my PC Mill 50. It's a Packard Bell Multimedia D141 running windows 95. My PC Mill 50 was manufactured in 1996. I want to do a retrofit to my setup so if anyone wants my computer, I'd be willing to sell it.

[mactec54]

Can you recall what was computer type? I have everything but motherboard for pc. I have try w98se on Abit kta7 witch have one ISA slot but that wont work. Maybe intel chipset and older notherboard will work?

I have some Intel motherBoards 486 that are Ideal for these machines some new some used

[AK47]

I have some Intel motherBoards 486 that are Ideal for these machines some new some used

And have you tested those MB with emco software and PCturn 50 (year 1995)?

[Randy Forbes]

Anybody still interested in these types of machines? I have a PC Turn 50 & PC Mill 50, including ALL cables, original documentation (books, manuals, invoice for around $56,000.00__willing to accept less, lol!) plus computer towers and proprietary communication boards.

Listening to offers, picked up as is, where is (just south of Tampa, near Bradenton, FL). Can ship at buyer's expense



Willing to sell mill or lathe separately, but will ABSOLUTELY NOT split up components (computer, comm boards or parts) so please don't even ask.

Some limited tooling included, but since I still have full size machines, I can use the cutting tools, etc.

Depending on interest, I can get some recent pictures uploaded, but this is what they looked like when I got them; only dust and possibly a paint splatter or two has been added.

I no longer have any working computer monitors, so none will be included, just the towers, keyboards (PC & GE-Fanuc for each machine).

Emco_PC_Turn/Mill_50s

Not everything shown in pictures will be included, just shown for illustrating purposes.

I would like to run one (1) more batch of the aluminum blocks shown in some of the pictures, so that could take me a week or two to have them ready for pickup.

Make me an offer, who knows, the money might be worth the trade-off for space!

E-mail preferred: erandyforbes "at" aol "dot" com

Thanks!!

[Arjand]

Can you recall what was computer type? I have everything but motherboard for pc. I have try w98se on Abit kta7 witch have one ISA slot but that wont work. Maybe intel chipset and older notherboard will work?

You need ti use hardware interuos. Did you do that?

[AK47]

I try set free intterrupt for ISA slot. There was several interrupt possibilities at I/O card and some was more free than others when looked from windows. What may be working interrupts that has work for someone?

Fanuc keyboard and pc keyboard communicate with pc, but emco does not react when ask to go zero return or do anything else. There is manual for newer model and it ask to push 3 buttons in fanuc keyboard ( //, ->in screen logo and -> or<- for rs485/rs232). Nothing activate lathe.

Any help to how activate controll?

Working schematic for cables?

[danielliu2001]

Doc Freeman,

First please pardon my delay in getting back with you. Now on to your problem.

I should have had you do another step first.

Starting from scratch, here are the steps to get a PC Mill 50 up and running:
1) Boot the pc and get into the BIOS setup.
2) (For early award BIOS systems) If you have a different BIOS try and find similar setting. If there are no setting for these parameters, sorry to say you need a "new" computer. In reality you need an older PC which is what I needed to acquire before I could get this card to install properly
a) Go to the "PNP and PCI setup" page
b) Change ISA mem block base to CC00
c) change ISA mem block size to 8k
d) Save the changes and exit.
3) Remove any modem or ethernet cards from the system and disable any built in one from within the BIOS setup.

If you have Win98 installed, remove and reinstall the WinCAM or WinNC software. At this point the PC does not need to be connected to the Mill. If the mill is connected and you are no longer getting any errors, great. If the Mill is not connected and you now get a new error indicating the mill is not connected also great. You are ready to try the software. If however, you are still getting the 2520 RS485 not present error go to step 4 below

4) Perform a clean install of Win98
5) Reinstall the WinCAM or WinNC software.

Start the software and check for errors.

If you are still getting the 2520 error please let me know and I will get further instructions to you. I have to go back and duplicate the other error possibilities and provide solutions.

The RS485 card and Emco software are very fussy in that they want to run on older PCs. I had to buy an old PC for $45 to run my system on, everything I had sitting around was too new and did not allow me to make the BIOS changes and without them I could not get this running.

Keep teh faith, if you have WinCAM this is a very sweet and simple CAD/CAM package that can be learned very quickly and get you up and cutting quickly. Once you have everything running on the mill, you can try to reinstall a network card and it should no longer interfere. That is what the BIOS setting prevent.

Good luck and let me know how it is going.

BR,
Lan Brooks

ps. I worked with two other owners, Emco support and some colleagues that used to program drivers for Win98 before I could get my system working. I think I help you through any problems if needed.

This is Daniel, see my post after using your PCI setup below:

I still got error code 2520 after I change the memory address to CC00, so I try to leave the memory address as auto ( this should not be an issue. It does not working neither. the error code was still the same as before.

Instead, I fixed the problem by going to RS485 device list page in WinConfig. Under the RS485 Devices List, click on AC and change the address that different from the one it was shown. My RS-485 address was originally set to "1". After changing it to "0" in my case. You need need to try different address. Now, I fixed the problem and machine is running well.

I will try to use USB to RS495 dongle to see if it will work. Any way I need to use USB to RS495 to send G code to the machine later. Also, I will try use legacy/generic RS485 and will post results once I get there. Stay tuned.

[Slaud]

Hello i am new here!
I just got a emco pc turn 50 and i want tu use a usbrs485 adapter,
I want to write a litle c# programm, to transfer the data i think the original programm would not work,
does anybody know somthing about the protocol,
my programm would be open source!