23 Dec
2009
23 Dec
'09
12:15 p.m.
On 23 Dec 2009 at 9:50, Ray Arachelian wrote:
I wonder if there's another possibility though,
how about a network
interface? If you can get an ethernet interface, anything with an
RJ45 plug will do, even 10mbps, and set up some way to transfer the
instructions, say over tftp or ftp, you'd have removed the obsolecense
factor by quite a bit.
I've thought about it some and am thinking about using a Vinculum
coupled to a microprocessor to provide a USB host interface to a
variety of devices. So if one wants to use a traditional USB floppy
drive or a flash drive, accomodating it should be easy, as most of
the "smarts" are in the Vinculum firmware. There's even a second
"USB slave to PC host" connector for direct PC connection.
I think a lot of vintage collectors don't realize that there is a lot
of vintage gear in CNC controllers. I recall seeing a vacuum-forming
rig powered by an Imsai 8080, for example.
The Excellon CNC-6 that I inquired about has a Multibus card cage in
it with a Z8002 CPU card and a disk controller (WD1793 and 8085 CPU)
made by Advanced Micro Computers, the ill-starred joint venture
between AMD and Siemens back around 1980. I doubt that few of these
have survived outside of the CNC arena, but supposedly there are
still about 2,000 of the CNC-6 boxes still in the field. Excellon
reports that there are far more of the CNC-6's in use than the PC-
based CNC-7.
Somewhere, I have an inquiry from a customer with a Mitsubishi CNC
rig that used the CPU board and OS from the Mitsubishi Multi-16.
Many Japanese CNC setups are based on the NEC PC9801 architecture.
--Chuck