Ajax VS TraK/ PROTOTRAK

On the Centroid/Ajax subject once again, can
anyone comment on the Southwestern industries TRAK/or Prototrak controls? I have a friend that bought one of their bed mills used, and a customer that has 2 of their Bridgeport type machines (one is new this year). All say how easy the Trak machines are to program, no G codes needed,etc. I'm skeptical....
They may be tooo limted. Ajax/Centroid still seems like the better deal, except I wonder about ease of conversational programming for
1zee-2zee jobs.
And I think there is NO price comparision.
Trak claims their ballscrews are "special"
and will only sell a kit that includes them.
With Ajax, I can use any ballscrews I want to.
And my own motors & encoders too. I have an old XLO BP clone that was a slo-syn machine with steppers. It already has ballscrews in it. I called the TRAK people last week, & they
said "nope, that's one we can't do cause our screws don't fit in it".

Ajax looks like the ticket,but tell me more about their conv. ability. The ajax/cent demo software is mostly useless because it dosen't really work without a control board installed in the PC. Who has an Ajax mill control that can comment on the ease-of-programming for 1-2 pc jobs......?


thanks alot!

dan k

we have a prototrak lathe with an LX2 control. Great for basic short run work, excellent service from Calif. The iron is light and we found some software glitches
that were present in the software at that time. 4 or 5 years ago. If we were in the market for that type of machine we would definately look at their current offerings

dkmc,
I have a buddy that has a ProtoTrak Bridgeport and lathe and he does the old forehead slap everytime he thinks about turning handles the old world way.
Carl

I used the prototrak 2D system while at college. It was easy and make light work of some fairly intensive jobs...ie jobs that would otherwise have required involved setups. I just settled on a MillPwr controller over the prototrak, mostly because of the interface. I don't think the Prototraks are a bad way to go.

I have friends that ran Prototraks and really liked them. I usually run Ajax/Centroid controls and like them. Their Intercon is easy to use. I dont think you could go wrong with either one. Terry

Trak products have been very good to me. They are well made and very reliable. I wish rapids were faster, 100 IPM was OK for awhile but now it seems very slow. I think the new ones are 200 IPM and color crt. I have two 2 axis kits on Lagun mills, one MX2 and one A.G.E.2. I do allot of work with them. Sometimes I need Mastercam, but 95% of my work can be done on the control. Mastercam goes right in to the machine and makes it do stuff the Mastercam way. New versions of the control can be put on any older ones for around 6K. New ones have more canned cycles and more computing power. I use Acu-Rite scales instead of the wheel resolvers and I have to honestly say the only mistakes they ever made were due to me.
I am now learning my Okuma lathe and compared to the Prototrak it is like trying to learn to fly the space shuttle. The Traks are like flying a kite. The Traks are easy for non CNC type personalities. The Traks are G code in the background, but you will never see it.
Did I mention Reliable? 5 years and no problems what so ever.
Definitely not a limited compromise, and that may have something to do with there choice of motors and screws.

Proto Trak will machine anything within the envelope and axis limitations from the basic to the complex using a cnc indexer on a 3 axis model. They will output to rotary products.

Having said all that my next machine will be a center. Tool changers are a good thing.

I’ve got an early Trak CNC 2. It’s an early conversational with LED readout (no monitor). I use my computer to organize the program so programming is not a problem.

But talk about losing your work origin and tool heights! You have to do your initial setup in just the right sequence or else have to set it all again.

Another downfall when running in auto is the readout shows only increMental. Drives you Mental. Just try to prove out the program and you don’t know where the tool is!!!…but it has another inch to go.
It seems that I got it to read in absolute while in “auto” once but don’t know how I did it. I can’t for the life of me get it to do it again.

I wish it held more than one program………sigh.

It can be a real pain in the arsh once in a while, but don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to have it.

Does anyone have a guess on the age of this unit?




[This message has been edited by Super Dave (edited 07-07-2004).]

Just a guess but I say what you have there is about 1986-1990ish. I think the MX 2 or 3 axis was the next one up from yours and sold for several years until the AGE 2 or 3 axis model. New model (not sure what they call it) is spiffy and about 2 years old now.

We have a Lagun Mill with a Prototrak AGE 3 controller on it. I understand that you can program it, and then save the program to the floppy disk for later re-use. My question is, is there any way to do a design in autocam or some other program and write it to a floppy on a PC and then take the floppy to the AGE 3 and run the program? I'm thinking maybe Prototrak makes some kind of software to do this?

I understand that I can hook a PC to the controller via RS232 cable and download a program from autocam, but this is less practical if I can use the floppy approach.

Perhaps someone has figured out the file format used in storing programs on the floppy?

Thanks much!

Heck yes you can. Save in Mastercam or what ever with same extension .MX3 after using the post. If you buy Mastercam they will hook you up and won't leave until it works perfect. Proto makes a bunch of stuff and all the new stuff is compatible still. You can wire up your machine direct to the computer on your desk. I do not have it but sometimes I get things that are to hard to do by hand so I go to a buddy and he takes the drawing (could be a file) and puts it in MC and gives me a floppy with the program. What you see is the same mill events that you would see if you did it on the machine, just allot more of them. Very cool.