I'm probably dating myself, but back in 1976 I ran an NC mill for a while at a shop in Detroit. I was pretty young back then. It was definitely not a CNC. You loaded it with paper tapes and hoped that the guy punching the tape in the front office did his job. The guy in the front office read the paper prints and typed the codes into the paper tape punch machine line by line. He was pretty good. The tapes they were using back then were definitely paper and they were fairly easy to tear. No mylar in those tapes.
Dave On 8/31/2016 1:05 PM, sam sokolik wrote: > We resurrected a MilwaukeeMatic IIIb. > > http://electronicsam.com/images/KandT/oldkandt.JPG > http://electronicsam.com/images/KandT/DSCCurrent.JPG > http://electronicsam.com/images/KandT/conversion/frntcontroller.JPG (we > used a 386 as a tape emulator) > > The original control was used well into the 2000's and finally died. We > then converted to linuxcnc (obviously ;) ) > > It was all discrete components - no IC's. It did circular and linear > interpolation (all be it - we never got it perfect - you could see the > faceting..) But worked quite well. Very limited GCODE > > http://electronicsam.com/images/KandT/conversion/cheatsheet.JPG > > I don't know how many cards it had - but it was a bunch... > http://electronicsam.com/images/KandT/conversion/card1.JPG > http://electronicsam.com/images/KandT/conversion/rearcontrller.JPG > (that was only the lower half of the control) > > This was a 2.5 axis + table index machine with hydraulic servos. The X, > Z and B axis all shared the same hydraulic servo. (they are all > separate now) We are still using most of the axis drive train - the Z > axis being the most convoluted. It runs through atleast 5 sets of zero > backlash gears + zero backlash linear spline. We have the backlash of > that axis down to a few tenths. The rest are zero. > > The drawings are dated 62ish and the machine was delivered to a local > manufacturer in the late 60s. > > We still use the beast daily and linuxcnc has given it a new life. It > does things now the designers only dreamed of back then. The machine is > a tank. > > sam > > > > On 8/31/2016 11:37 AM, Jon Elson wrote: >>> On 31 August 2016 at 07:42, <[email protected]> wrote: >>>> Got into a bizarre argument... so of course it was initially "Computer >>>> Numeric Control". I was noting people breaking it down to explain it to >>>> people as "which means it's 'computer numeric controlled'" but that seems >>>> to add nothing to the meaning. In fact it's confusing. >> Before CNC, there was NC (or tape-NC). No computer. The >> Moog Hydra-point control read a wide tape which had the >> positions coded on it with air nozzles, similar to a player >> piano. The position encoders on the machine slides also >> used many holes and air nozzles to encode position. The >> control was entirely pneumatic. The comparison between >> commanded position and encoder position controlled Moog >> hydraulic servo valves to move the machine by hydraulic >> motor and leadscrew. That was an example of "extreme" NC. >> >> GE made controls that were electronic and digital, and used >> traditional (but very limited and concise) G-code. >> These had hundreds of boards full of discrete Germanium >> transistors. It was all functional logic, no computer. >> The basic control did positioning only. If you wanted >> linear interpolation, you had to add a couple hundred more >> boards. if you wanted circular interpolation, add another >> couple hundred boards. There was no CRT, just an LED >> position display and paper tape. >> >> Bridgeport and others had early CNC systems that worked >> about the same way, no CRT, just an LCD display with very >> terse information. >> >> Finally, in the late 60's or early 70's CNC with CRT >> displays came out. >> >> So, the term "CNC" was used to distinguish the advanced >> capabilities of having a computer IN the machine control, as >> opposed to the limitations of the earlier NC systems. >> >> Jon >> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> _______________________________________________ >> Emc-users mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users >> >> > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > _______________________________________________ > Emc-users mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
