We picked up an old Lagun mill with the Trak CNC2 control at my job earlier this year. It would be a POS for most shops, but we got it reasonably cheap and it works well for the small quantities of small aluminum parts I need to make.
SWI told us at one point that the offline programming software was created by an outside contractor and never did work right and they tried to smother the whole thing at birth. They also told us that the programs the machine uses are encrypted so it is now impractical to write, edit or even store them in a PC. However after some experimentation I was able to transfer programs back and forth to my "netbook" with success MOST of the time. Here is a sample program:
R11000000101030000271000000000000000C4
R23703370100000000008900468200A8000ABE00F90000C800C9FFF47A009000000000B1FFCA4A00D000000000100000000040002801F47FFD00
R2230623010000000400300001000190FFF15A00B000000000F000000000D0000000007FD700
R237033701000000000089000BB800A9000ABE00F90000C800C9FFF416009000000000B1FFC08600D000000000100000000040007801F47FE300
R23703370100000000008800000000A800000000F800000000C8000000009000000000B1000ABE00D000000000100000000040007801F47FC000
R23703370100000000008800000000A800000000F800000000C80000000091001A5E00B000000000D00000000010000000004001F401F47F9300
R23703370100000000008800000000A800000000F800000000C8000000009000000000B1FFC08600D000000000100000000040007801F47F4300
R23703370100000000008800000000A800000000F800000000C8000000009100290400B000000000D00000000010000000004001F401F47FDE00
R23703370100000000008800000000A800000000F800000000C8000000009000000000B1000ABE00D000000000100000000040007801F47FC000
R23703370100000000008800000000A800000000F800000000C800000000910037AA00B000000000D00000000010000000004001F401F47F2A00
R23703370100000000008800000000A800000000F800000000C8000000009000000000B1FFC08600D000000000100000000040007801F47F4300
R23703370100000000008800000000A800000000F800000000C8000000009100465000B000000000D00000000010000000004001F401F47F7500
R23703370100000000008800000000A800000000F800000000C8000000009000000000B1000ABE00D000000000100000000040007801F47FC000
R21E011E01000000008099FF8AD000B9004E2000F90007D000D8000000007F2000
R2230623010000006300300001000D9000000000B000000000F000000000D0000000007FB600
R33200C35000FF3CB0000061A800FF8AD00010000000FFF3E400000000000000000000000000000000000000FF8AD000004E2000F3
R50801000B5D00138800FC
R9
The programs always start with R11 and end with R9, but the only thing recognizable in them is the program number... none of the numbers in the program text ever match the X, Y, Z positions or feed rates or radiuses that the program displays on the control. This format appears vaguely familiar to me... I used to run a SWI MX2 15 years ago, maybe I viewed the code for that at some point and it was the same system?
The upper control box (pendant?) on our machine has a part number 15222R-OL. It is my suspicion that the OL suffix indicates the offline programming option, which I believe is necessary before you can transfer programs through the RS232 port. I think all the CNC2 controls came with the tape capability, but not necessarily with the tape recorder. If you have the recorder, I understand the tapes are special and now crazy expensive if you could find them. Even tapes that appear similar externally probably won't work, as reportedly there is a sequence of holes at the start of the tape, or something else similar, that is necessary for them to work with the CNC2.
The CNC2 machine has a few annoying limitations, and for most purposes I regard any machine that relies on a CNC quill for its Z axis as very lame, but I don't mind running the thing a bit. The parts we make are 2024 aluminum, quite small, the tolerances are not super critical, and the quantities are limited, so we are a good home for this old clunker. It sure beats doing 20 or 30 identical parts manually!
I'm doing all my programming at the machine... which I prefer anyway.
