[johnydii]

Hello all,
I am a newbie and over whelmed by the terminology of the CNC World.

Does anyone have a Weber and Sons CNC/Crafter or info?

A friend bought a used one and we are trying to get it going.
I know computers and he knows model making and between us we are getting nowhere.

Software came installed and it worked 2 years ago when he bought it. It was a deal he could not pass up but he had no place to use it until now.

It uses Ability Systems Indexer LPT ver.4.06 year 1999
and CNC-LPT ver. 2.4b year 2000 and was supplied by Machine Techs.

Weber and Sons and Machine Techs both seem to be out of business.

Started the diagnostic program ixdiag.exe and got an error that drivers not installed.
I don’t know what drivers it wants.
Windows reports the 3 printer ports are installed and working correctly one on mother board and 2 added ones.
The CNC-LPT instructions instruct me to disable the printer in setup that did not help.

I got a section of ixdiag.exe to work and found that the program is seeing the four limit switches when they are toggled. So I am pretty sure equipment is connected correctly.

Any bit of help would be appreciated.

[gmfoster]

There was a lot of talk on this stuff a few years back on REC Crafts Metalworking Newsgroup.

I think all the old stuff is still on line somewhere. DeJavView of something like that.

The talk was about the software and not the specific unit you have...

You can always just go with a new control program, most if not all the hardware ought to work with Mach, Turbocad or others if you can't get there...
Garry

[johnydii]

Thank you for your suggestionb I am searching for it now but not much luck.

Thank you

John

[ger21]

Have you tried contacting Ability?

http://www.abilitysystems.com/

[johnydii]

I am not so new now. I am using Mach3 to run the Weber and Son CNC.
And now I am decideing what CAM and CAD software to use. Does anyone know of software that will take a line drawing as a jpg or bmp and convert it to a vector drawing as a dxf.

Thanks for your time.

John

[nolemags]

Hey there - I inherited one of these a few years back and haven't had any luck finding new software to get it going. My great uncle may have used it once or twice about 12 years ago. Were you ever able to get yours going? I would appreciate any advice.

Thanks

Mike

[datac]

I recall using Indexer LPT in and about that same era of 1999... the time when the OP claimed his software was from. It would be PURE MURDER trying to bother with it these days, thats for sure. Todays controls would just blow it away for features and ease of use. It did have excellent motion capability with ultra smooth CV/Lookahead though !

Ability themselves did not offer a G-code interface at that time, but there was a DOS interface offered by Machine Tech. I've personally hunted years for a copy of that Front end Gui when I was running IndexerLPT. No luck. They came, they went !

I did have Indexers HPGL interface. Frankly, they were somewhat on the cutting edge of open source, windows based controls to the point that they did not restrict anyone from developing a decent GUI for their motion control Back end. Problem is, no one did.

The HPGL GUI at the time was somewhat clunky to say the least. You could get along with it because very few other companies at the time had CV, and you kind of fell in love with the motion itself (Flashcut would have been one of the very first to offer a hobby level, Windows based control with CV).

I still have a complete copy with manuals of IndexerLPT with the windows HPGL gui. I just never had the heart to let go of it yet ! It still would make a neat general "motion control", if I ever got off my duff long enough to actually learn some programming languages.

Well, back to your particular issue.....

To my knowledge, Ability Systems has finally focused on creating a DECENT set of windows based G-Code Gui's as well as improvements to the motion aspect. You certainly could use their product on this machine if you wanted. I have heard some good things about it over recent years, though Machx seems to drown out a great deal of the controls in this market simply because it is only around $150.

Your mission is not really all that difficult. You can select one of a dozen or so step and direction control programs and for starters, interface it with the drivers you have (if you have them). Of Course there is machx, LinuxCNC, Flashcut, Eding, Planet, and more than a dozen others....

Ability was big on using some big old Anaheim drivers back then. I have a large router that I use Flashcut to send signals to those old drives and it runs very reliably.

If this is all very new to you, you need to find a general overview drawing of how software "connects" to motor drivers. For the most part, "signals" are sent from the control software to the motor drivers. Its these "signals" that tell the motor which way to go, how far to go and how fast to go there. All of these "signals" are low voltage and very easy to get connected. Its not all that challenging after you have seen the big picture. I know I have some general overview drawings but you should be able to find some on the web.... perhaps at sites that sell stepper motor drivers (like the popular Gecko).

Let us all know how you get along with your machine !

[johnydii]

Hey there - I inherited one of these a few years back and haven't had any luck finding new software to get it going. My great uncle may have used it once or twice about 12 years ago. Were you ever able to get yours going? I would appreciate any advice.

Thanks

Mike

I am using Mach3 to run the Weber and Son CNC. BUT a big BUT I had to rewire the LPT board to get them to work. Mach3 uses different pins outs than the Webber. It has been some time that I did that and don't remember the specifics. The machine is not mine anymore. I will contact owner to see if he kept all my notes.