RS 232 vs. Greco vs. Laptop

[Ballnose Bill]

We curruntly use RS 232 to communicate with our three mills and it works fine. My problem is we have three Cincinatti lathes with Acromatic 850 controls that we currently use tapes for ( thats right currently). We want to get rid of these arcaic things but there is some dicrepency on which way to go. I would like to hardwire using RS232 which the machines are already capable of handling. We have others that want a greco box because it has value I guess. I am also not against using a laptop to transfer files at the machine. This would save on the amount of wires to run and forgo the splitter box that we would need for six machines. Any new machine would be a conversational mazak. Are the greco boxes easily formatted to accept Mastercam and feed to Acromatics. or is there alot more to this than buying the box. Any pros and cons would be appreciated. And thanks for all the great help over the years, this forum is about the best place to find reliable support.

[Allan]

1986 called they want your Grecko box back.

Seriously, to get into the 21st century, you will want Cimco DNC Max, some multiport hardware (no need for switchbox) and some cable.

 

Allan

[Mgrenier]

I agree with Allan,

 

DNC is the way to go...

[Ballnose Bill]

We currently use cimco DNC with our three mills and I agree with the 21st century bit but I cannot give reasons as to why. Are these greco boxes outdated, are they difficult to format? Multiport is what I had in mind. The agument of cable came up because each machine is aproximately 100 feet away we would need twisted cable with devices at both ends to twist and untwist the line. With the Greco or even a laptop there is no need for 500 feet of twisted cable. I guess what I'm asking is what are the cons of the greco, for me it is the unknown. I know I can run the RS232 as soon as I get it without complications.

[ToolMan184]

Get with Anthony at Cimco. He can make you some cables if you already have DNC Max. We have cables we run 100' or more and have no problems.

 

Anthony and Mike at CIMCO are my HEROS.

[htm01]

go wireless

[Allan]

You can easily run 300' of serial cable from your multi port hardware.

If you already have DNC Max you just need to add 3 more ports to it.

The problem with Grecko boxes are that they are expensive and do not give you any benifits, plus they run off of a floppy disk.

 

Allan

[LaszloK]

Your other 2 options will cost more than running the additional RS232 wires to the machines and once those lines are run there will be no need to move the Greco box to each machine. The only time I see that a portable box my be economical is when the entire program fits into machine memory and performs a long production run. Otherwise a big PITA.

[cncfrank]

Hey Bill: I worked in a shop that had the same thing. 3 Cincinatti Lathes and we ended up putting a greko box on all 3. That seemed to work alright. If your in Michigan I can give you a number of a guy who could set it up anyway you would like. Those are nice machines, just need some modern software.

 

Good Luck,

Frank

[Goldorak]

my old Greco holds my coffe in my office

 

be careful with wireless, here we can't use it beacuse we are next to a millitary airport and their communications interfere with the WI-FI signal !!

[Tom Dorgan from American Precision]

GREKO SUCKS!!!

We had them all over the shop at one time and it was always a PITA. They loose format on the disk. Have to have the right boot disk for the right machine. Right cables for the right machines etc.etc. etc. DNC Max is the way to go. Welcome to the 21st century now bring your technology with you.

[bogusmill]

We have a Bostomatic 5 axis that uses punch tape but will accept DNC on a RS232 cable so we use a laptop to send code to it. Boss won't let it go, it's probably the smoothest most accurate machine here. It's probably 25 years old but has about 2.5 years use. It was donated by IBM.