[Coco] leading to that CNC Coco machine

Wed Feb 6 23:13:12 EST 2008

I also use Mazatrol at work. I stay away from it as much as possible. Hate 
those machines. :)
When I can , depending on the part, I prefer to use our HURCO machines for 
conversational programming.
Have you ever used a HURCO? You would absolutely love it. It is the best 
conversational mill control I've seen.
This new version looks much better than what I use:
http://www.hurco.com/Hurco/English/Products/Controls/
Truth be told you can't beat the power and control of G code programming.
However G code programming requires knowledgeable people to be done right.
I had a kid write a G code program to face a block of steel in a 8" wide 
KURT vise.
Well, long story short he put a rapid move down in Z as -3.0 it was supposed 
to be Z-.3...
So the Cincinnati Arrow rapids at 2100 ipm. **BOOM** cracked the 40 taper 
face mill and holder in 2 pieces.
Also tore the drive key right from the spindle. He was supposed to have me 
check the program before run.
Oh well, believe it or not all we had to do was stone out the spindle taper 
a little and the machine was fine.

So, what you are describing below, the coco would basically pre-render the 
program and then feed it to the machine
with all the math done already?

"George Ramsower" <georgeramsower at gmail.com> 
wrote in message news:002001c86934$5583b550$08b8b1d8 at house...
> When I worked in a machine shop and used Mazatrol on Mazak machines, I 
> learned that it really was quite easy... just a lot of stuff to learn.
> Mazatrol isn't anything like basic, but it looks like it wouldn't be 
> difficult to make a B09 program look like Mazatrol. However, I had 
> intended to make mine use G codes, but as I get into this, I see it may be 
> easier to use my own protocol.
> The coco takes WAY too much time to do the math while in operation on the 
> mill. So I intend to build a file generated from the desired  plans to be 
> loaded and used by a smaller program to make the machine do what the file 
> indicates... much like the original paper tape NC  machines did. It would 
> be my own code, since mine would be a lot simpler. I don't need to do 
> "rapid moves", control feed rates and things like that. It's too slow 
> already and all I need to do is just tell it where to go.
> I haven't actually tried this theory yet. I'm still working on completing 
> the mechanical part of the mill. Right now, I'm finishing the X axis lead 
> screw assembly which is making my brain ache. Only photos can explain this 
> and I'll get that onto my site as I feel the propensity to do so or, if 
> people start hounding me for the details.
> http://coco.thetinbox.com
>
> From: "Charlie" Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2008 7:29 PM
> Subject: Re: [Coco] leading to that CNC Coco machine
>
>
>> George, I work with CNC machines everyday. I do programming, setup and 
>> lead-man work.
>> I mostly work with Cincinnati Milacron machines. Our a2100 controllers 
>> run WindowsNT4 and touchscreens.
>> The programming for these is very advanced, and if you can believe it, my 
>> experience with coco and mc-10
>> basic has made me a very good programmer on these machines. Some times I 
>> laugh when I browse
>> through the 500 page prgramming book, looking at all the similarities to 
>> basic.
>>
>> Anyway, I think your coco CNC is very cool. Keep it up!
>> -Charlie
>>
>> George Ramsower" <georgeramsower at gmail.com> 
>> wrote in message news:006b01c86797$6872dd60$a6b8b1d8 at house...
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>>> From: "George Ramsower"
>>>
>>>> Most of the inaccuracy in the total length is because of the way I was 
>>>> doing the math when I move it in such a way that leaves fractions of 
>>>> steps and those steps were getting out of sync with the real position 
>>>> and the cheap lead screws which are nothing more than "all thread 
>>>> rods". So, I'm working on converting actual, desired positions and then 
>>>> converting that number to the stepping of the motors to get to that 
>>>> point. This will help, but will not compensate for the threaded rods.
>>>
>>>
>>> Okay. The way I finally fixed this problem with accumilating errors was 
>>> to use simple addition to a REAL variable that adds the positive and 
>>> negative move requests to the axis. Then I simply convert the actual 
>>> desired inch position to a number that relates to the stepper motor 
>>> position.
>>> The current stepper motor position is stored in another REAL variable.
>>> So, If the stepper motor isn't where it is wanted to be, the routine 
>>> just moves it until it matches the desire position.
>>>
>>> Any errors with fractions are eliminated and the axis always goes where 
>>> it is supposed to.
>>>
>>>
>>> The following is just a testing routine to work out these little 
>>> problems. It's not pretty but I'm getting the problems worked out with 
>>> it. This routing moves the Z axis and nothing else.
>>>
>>> PROCEDURE zinches
>>> DIM zstep(8):BYTE
>>> DIM answer:STRING
>>> DIM stepz,z,inchz,posz:REAL
>>> BASE 1 \ POKE $FF60,0
>>> inch=12816 \inchz=0
>>> FOR x=1 TO 8 \ READ zstep(x) \NEXT x
>>> DATA 1,3,2,6,4,12,8,9
>>> x=1
>>> 10 (* ------------------------------ Start Here
>>> inchz=0
>>> posz=0
>>> PRINT "Zpos - "; posz
>>> 20 (* ------------------------------ Loop begins
>>> POKE $FF62,0
>>> PRINT "inchz = "; inchz
>>> PRINT "Stepper should be at "; inchz*inch
>>> PRINT "Stepper is at "; posz
>>> INPUT " Move (use - to go away from home) ",answer
>>> inchz=inchz+VAL(answer)
>>> stepz=inchz*inch
>>> IF stepz>posz THEN GOSUB 100 \ ENDIF
>>> IF stepz<posz THEN GOSUB 200 \ ENDIF
>>> GOTO 20
>>> (* ---------------------------- End Here
>>> END
>>> 100 (* ----------------------------- stepping PLUS
>>> WHILE stepz>posz DO
>>> z=z+1 \ IF z>8 THEN z=1 \ ENDIF
>>> POKE $FF62,zstep(z) \posz=posz+1
>>> ENDWHILE
>>> RETURN
>>> 200 (* ------------------------------ Stepping Minus
>>> WHILE stepz<posz DO
>>> z=z-1 \ IF z<1 THEN z=8 \ ENDIF
>>> POKE $FF62,zstep(z) \posz=posz-1
>>> ENDWHILE
>>> RETURN
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> George
>>>
>>> --
>>> Coco mailing list
>>> Coco at maltedmedia.com
>>> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
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