bridgeport BOSS8 R2E3 DNC

[JRS MACHINE]

HEY EVERYBODY,

i have been trying to dnc my old bridgeport mill the mill name is the R2E3 and it is a boss8 control. i have all of the cables. but the software is giving me a problem. i have tried everything i can find about dnc on google. does anybody have any success with this? my main goal is to drip feed prog to the machine. this is so i can do larger pieces and probably some surface and solids cutting. i know it is an old mill but everything on it is good and the control works fine. it dosent have a floppy so everything has been transfered directly through 9 pin serial, using mastercams communication software. i have talked to others about this and they were praticly laughing, saying it is impossible. but any help or advice would help.

 

thanks john.

[crazy^millman]

Wel if the machine does not have tape capabilites then they might be right then. You need the ability to put the machine in a wait mode for the code and if you do not have this it will only run the size of the program you can put ni the memeory. You can try section Chook to break the programs up but then will be wasting tons of time. I realize it is a good machine but might look at a HASS toolroom or Mini mill from HASS or EVEN fadal to achieve the task with the 3d stuff and longer run times. Yeah I know not what you want to hear but just call it like I see it is all.

 

HTH

[JRS MACHINE]

the machine can be in dnc mode it has a diffrent port and everything. my problem is trying to find software that will work with this control. i get it to listen for the program, but i caint get it to actually recive. i have other cnc's , i was just wondering if this could actually work, and if it can is it worth me investing the time. i have gotten the communication specs from bridgeport. but it still wont recive the program. im really trying to find somebody that has already done this.

 

thanks john

[Bill Craven]

This should be doable.

 

Many years ago I set up drip feed for a Boss9 control using EZtalk from CNC Engineering. It is still being used on a daily basis even though it is a DOS program.

 

You might want to contact CIMCO and see if they have a solution.

 

I am not sure about the Boss8, but for the Boss 4, 5, 6 you can use the terminal mode in Mastercam communications and see the response from the control.

 

I recently set up a Boss5 for a customer using the CIMCO editor. I had to add a couple of ASCII codes to the beginning and end of the porogram via the settings in CIMCO. This could also be accomplished in the post.

[Matt Berube at Ferron Mold]

try this free trial of DNC Server. It's simple and easy. We bought several licenses and use it daily on Fanucs and a Fadal. I couldn't get cimco to work on one of the fanucs in DNC mode but this one did the job with no hassles.

 

DNC SERVER

[JRS MACHINE]

thanks a alot guys,

what i forgot to mention is that the machine can also run boss 4-6 post it has two diffrent modes.

so if this sheds some light on anything let me know...

 

john.

[John_Carpenter]

Hi,

 

The Boss 8 controller requires a protocol called Bridgeport DNC Link in order to "drip-feed". There is a CRC (Cyclical Redundancy Check) that occurs after a fixed number of characters are sent between the PC and the controller. Eztalk or Easytalk (the DOS version of CNC Innovations/Engineering software) had this protocol built into it. I do not know if any windows based software packages integrated this protocol or not but I will check with one of my employees later today - who used to work for CNC Engineering - to see if the windows product Focal*Point has it.

 

John Carpenter

 

www.WireFreeCNC.com

[glennwfcnc]

The only company I know that has a Windows based software package that has the Bridgeport DNC link protocol is Focal Point. Contact Dave Archibald with CNC Engineering in Enfield CT and tell him Glenn Castillo sent you.

 

Glenn Castillo