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Can you help me find a very old CNC-product

Fanuc_Searcher1

Plastic
Joined
Jan 15, 2022
Hello! I'm new here and wanted to reach out to all of you, because I'm desperately searching for a very old product that was used in Cnc machines a while back.

It's a mechanical keyboard switch from the manufacturer Omron Tateisi Electronics Co. The switch has the part number B2H (-F7W/-M/-S/-E/-ML) and is a clicky hall effect switch. As far as I'm concerned it was used in FANUC keyboards starting with the year 1978. A specific product that has these switches has not been found yet, that's why I'm reaching out to you. The only thing I know is that the Fanuc System P Model G used similar keyboard switches with the same keycaps.

Here you can find some pictures of the switch and keycaps:

FANUC System P Model G - Imgur
Omron B2H-F7W – Telcontar.net

Now if you happen to have a keyboard that uses these switches, feel free to pm me as it would really help me knowing the products that came with them :)
 
Looks like the same keys that were on the control panel of the Fanuc 6T's.

What type of machine did the Fanuc P Model G control?

Brent
 
Thanks for the quick reply, ,,the FANUC System P Model G is a series of luggable computers from FANUC that are part of a complete industrial CAD/CAM solution including a combined printer/punch/reader (PPR) device and a tablet-like input device. Other peripherals include (3D) plotters, cassette adapters and memory expansions.'' so I guess it was a standalone system.

The Fanuc 6T is a great tipp but from what I can tell from this YouTube video (Okuma NC4PS Fanuc 6T Program Loading Problem - YouTube) the switches seem to be an older model which don't have the famous clicking noise when pressed. If you watch the video, the only switch that seems similar in looks is the one under the ,,cursor'' button with the paperclip attached. Do you know by chance when the 6T was produced?
 
No I can't give you a for definite answer but my guess is late 70's early 80's. I just figured they used that style button for a while and maybe they were the same.

Hang around, I'm fairly confident folks a lot more knowledgeable than I will be along shortly.

Brent
 
Clicky keys sound like the old IBM PS2 keyboards. Have no idea if they would be close to the same.

Good guess! The reason I'm asking is because I'm a vintage switch/keyboard collector so I already looked through an entire wiki of vintage switches, and Im fairly confident that Omron only supplied Fanuc with this type of switches.

What would really help is an old product catalogue from Fanuc with all their products from that time, but I cant seem to find that.
 
Just curious, when you say you're a collector of switches and keyboards, are you looking to fix the keyboard in your picture? Or you just want to get your hands on the coveted switches for collection purposes?
 
No-, I hate tearing apart things just to ,,collect'' them. If I happen to get a chance to find a replacement keyboard for those CNC-mills I will try to make good use of it. A lot of people in the hobby separate the keyboards from the machines and I try my best to avoid this.
I don't posses the keyboard in the picture, Im just very curious which products came with the B2H switch from Omron as there is close to zero documentation on this.
 
Just noticed something which might make the search even harder: Almost all Fanuc Keyboards obviously had a protective cover against dust over the switches (Imgur: The magic of the Internet).

Now my search will have to be focussed on the number of solder pins each switch has. The Omron B2H has 7 pins each, 1 of them as a fixing pin.
 
Are you trying to bring a vintage CNC back to life? If you are how about some pictures of the machine. I tried to click your link and nothing happened, could be Windows 7 with slow internet. I think it is amazing when people keep old CNC equipment alive making good parts.
 
Sort of :) I just have huge respect for this old technology and want to understand it better. I would love to study mechanical engineering and by learning about these parts and how they work I kinda prepare myself for university. There is this video about the switch which explains how it works and since then I wanted to find it and learn more about it myself. Because it's very likely to be found in old CNC mills, I thought this is the place I could ask people more about it.


(sorry if that wasn't clear in the beginning! - I'm not a native English speaker so I'm trying my best)
 
The Fanuc 6 didn’t have clicky keys. I have two machines with the Fanuc 6 control and several spare keyboards for them.

I believe the Fanuc 10 and 11 had clicky keys on the versions with the membrane keyboards. It would appear that the Fanuc 10T (lathe) had the non-clicky type of keys with the large plastic key caps but the membrane keys on the 10M (milling) were clicky to provide the haptic feedback on the button. At least that’s how the machines I’ve run with those controls were.
 
That's some great info thanks!! Do you know by chance if the Fanuc 6 was Fanuc's first mill and just named randomly or was there a version 1, 2, 3 etc. ?
 
The "famous clicking noise" is key. I can't think of any CNC control of the late 70's early 80's era that I've operated that had that noise unless you're referring to the noise the key makes when it reaches the bottom of it's travel? In that case most all that style buttons make that noise.

Brent
 
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No most of the controls did not have the clicky buttons. There’s a difference between a mechanical keyboard without tactile switches and one with. The tactile switches are what the OP is talking about- they have a discernable click around 50% of actuation distance. The regular mechanical type non-clicky like on Fanuc 6 and Fadal keyboards aren’t really tactile switches. Don’t get me wrong, they feel great in use.

CHERRY MX SWITCHES AT A GLANCE - Blog - CherryMX

The above is some info on mechanical tactile and non-tactile switches.

As I said above, the Fanuc 6 and 3 of the early 80’s used mechanical switches but not the clicky type. There are definitely clickly/tactile switches UNDER the membrane keypads used on the Fanuc 10M, and would be on the 10T controls if they have the membrane keyboard.

There’s not much rhyme or reason to the Fanuc product line numbers. They started with the Fanuc 5 in the late 1970’s, that was short-lived and then went on to the Fanuc 6A and 6B in the early 1980’s. I had a 1980 Mori Seiki lathe with an early Fanuc 6TA control. No screen, just a dual digital line readout. I currently have a 1980 Takisawa CNC lathe with a Fanuc 6TA but with all the options including a CRT screen. Fanuc went to the 3 control in the mid-1980’s on simpler machines and they had sparse options. Then the Fanuc 10A/B/C/D in the late 1980’s. There’s no Fanuc 4 as that’s an unlucky number in Japanese culture.

The Fanuc 0M/0T was also introduced in the late 1980’s. Very popular control, potentially more widespread than the Fanuc 6 which was a ubiquitous control in the 80’s (probably a coffee maker with a Fanuc 6 on it somewhere).

I also have a lathe with the Fanuc Oi TC from the late 00’s. No clicky keys, just membrane pads and plastic switches. That’s the letter O not a zero like the 80’s control nomenclature.
 
Fanuc started with the 2000 and 3000 series before the '5' series.

Don't know if any ever made to the US, but there were Fanuc controls prior to the 2000 (lathe) and 3000 (mill) controls. When I was in Japan for some training at Mori Seiki we visited Fanuc HQ. There they had examples of 20 and 30 models which were really NC. No memory and no canned cycles. Tool offsets were set by decade switches. IIRC, those were from the 60s to early 70s.
 
Thank you everyone for the information, we've come a far way and I was able to figure out some more stuff in the background.

Currently I'm 90 percent sure, that the switch I'm searching for could have been used in the Fanuc System P Model D. (自動プロ FANUC SYSTEM P-MODEL D|中古機械ならマシンライフ)

It seems like nobody outside of Japan has access to this product so I will probably have to contact some Japanese folks.
 








 
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