CNC control units

[Bruce]

Hello all,

 

What are the pros and cons of using either ISO or Conversational programming. I have two machine one uses both the other only takes conversational. However I have only programmed in conversational. Some machine builders offer a range of controls others only one. I am considering of upgrading both machines but first must decide;

 On which language to use and why one is better than the other.

 If I choose ISO how hard it will be to learn from scratch.

 

Regards

Bruce

[JAMMAN]

ISO is harder to learn but more universal.Some M codes still differ from controller to controller, so still learn on a per controller basis. I vote ISO. I've never seen 2 even similar conversational interfaces.

[BernieT]

I vote with Jamman.

 

BerTau

[bryan.davis]

conversational vs ISO

 

1. With conversational you are often limited in application by the flexibility engineered into the conversational language, where with ISO a competent experienced programmer can do anything he wants, and I mean anything, you want to turn your CNC lathe into a quick broach...NP, want to pull a load of shortcuts to reduce your cycle time to a fraction of current...NP, want use your CNC mill as an impromptu lathe...NP, fit a power drill to your CNC lathe to give you Heath-Robinson driven tooling ...NP, there are few if any conversational languages that can accomodate this kind of trickery.

 

2. With ISO you are far more likely to xxxx it up, especially if you are limited on experience, youve got to think through every line of handwritten code and double check it then dry rune etc...

 

3. If you are using a CAM package then its ISO all the way, Ive written posts for conversational languages, but its far easier with ISO.

 

4. ISO is ISO (more or less), you know ISO then you have the keys to 95% of the worlds CNC machinery wheather its lathes, mills, wire cuts, EDM the lot work on more or less the same code, conversational is machine/controller specific, and you often need to learn a new language for each one of them.

 

ISO from scratch :-

 

G00, G01, G02, G03 -all linear and arc moves

M06 toolchange

M03, M05, M05 spindle commands

M08, M09 coolant control

M30, M02, M99 program termination

 

thats about it, understand these codes and youve got 80% of ISO cracked and can do practically anything, the next 10% are your drilling and threading commands (lesson 2) and the last 10% is everything else, dig out your machine manual dont get put off by the breadth of G and M codes in there because most of them you will use rarely, just quickly read the description and then only re-read the section if you think you may need that command to solve a particular problem.