I struggled to find much info on these before I pulled the trigger, so sharing this in case it is any use to others.
The unit is a small DNC drip feed to rs232 device that acts as a standalone micro PC, it has wifi and USB slots and can download files off the controller, upload them to the controller or drip feed them to the controller.
Seemed a good purchase, as I don't have a PC in the shop, I use my laptop, and didn't fancy drip feeding whilst running CAD/CAM on the same machine in case something stuttered, plus if someone else is running the machines (plans for the future) then I can't always leave my laptop at the shop.
I was considering buying an old PC to do it, but by the time I bought it, monitor, keyboard, mouse, licences for OS etc it would have been a similar price - so I figured I had nothing to loose.
I was fully expecting a horror box of a job getting it to talk to my retro Fanuc OT-B lathe, but I plugged it in, stuck it to the side of the machine using the magnets and it fired up (power off the rs-232 cable) and I downloaded the parameters by only changing the baud rate to the 4800 required by my control.
Uploading a program was just as straight forward, straight off a usb stick in the side of the mico DNC 2, straight into the control.
Need to try DNC a file next, but never done lathe CAD/CAM before (always hand coded) so need to set up tool libraries etc. My test file was about 10 lines long and hand written in notepad on my PC.
I haven't tested the wifi, but a USB stick is super quick, and a workflow I am used to with my HAAS mill, so I am very happy.
£170 well spent.
The unit is a small DNC drip feed to rs232 device that acts as a standalone micro PC, it has wifi and USB slots and can download files off the controller, upload them to the controller or drip feed them to the controller.
Seemed a good purchase, as I don't have a PC in the shop, I use my laptop, and didn't fancy drip feeding whilst running CAD/CAM on the same machine in case something stuttered, plus if someone else is running the machines (plans for the future) then I can't always leave my laptop at the shop.
I was considering buying an old PC to do it, but by the time I bought it, monitor, keyboard, mouse, licences for OS etc it would have been a similar price - so I figured I had nothing to loose.
I was fully expecting a horror box of a job getting it to talk to my retro Fanuc OT-B lathe, but I plugged it in, stuck it to the side of the machine using the magnets and it fired up (power off the rs-232 cable) and I downloaded the parameters by only changing the baud rate to the 4800 required by my control.
Uploading a program was just as straight forward, straight off a usb stick in the side of the mico DNC 2, straight into the control.
Need to try DNC a file next, but never done lathe CAD/CAM before (always hand coded) so need to set up tool libraries etc. My test file was about 10 lines long and hand written in notepad on my PC.
I haven't tested the wifi, but a USB stick is super quick, and a workflow I am used to with my HAAS mill, so I am very happy.
£170 well spent.