12 May
2020
12 May
'20
9:10 a.m.
Turns out the "The Director" tape reader I purchased last week was
defective and I got a refund. So I thought I'd try my hand at the FANUC
TAPE READER A860. I may need to make a serial cable (?) to connect from
the internal connector don't know yet. Or maybe the internal 50-pin port
from the photos is for the punch. Don't know yet,
thus the need for the
manual.
I checked bitsavers.org but there was no manual there, anyone here have a
PDF or URL of the PDF for the FACIT tape reader A860-0056-T020?
Thanks in advance.
Bill Degnan
12 May
12 May
9:12 a.m.
<snip>
I checked bitsavers.org but there was no manual there, anyone here have a
PDF or URL of the PDF for the FACIT tape reader A860-0056-T020?
<snip>
Sorry FANUC not "FACIT"
b
10:16 a.m.
On 05/12/2020 11:10 AM, Bill Degnan via cctech wrote:
Turns out the "The Director" tape reader I
purchased last week was
defective and I got a refund. So I thought I'd try my hand at the FANUC
TAPE READER A860. I may need to make a serial cable (?) to connect from
the internal connector don't know yet. Or maybe the internal 50-pin port
from the photos is for the punch. Don't know yet, thus the need for the
manual.
I checked bitsavers.org but there was no manual there, anyone here have a
PDF or URL of the PDF for the FACIT tape reader A860-0056-T020?
A860 is a Fanuc part number, not Facit. So, if Facit made
the reader, you should look for another
part number somewhere. Fanuc, way back when, did make
excellent manuals with full schematics,
so there might be a schematic available somewhere in a huge
book of Fanuc schematics for
that vintage machine. but, you'd need to know about what
vintage of Fanuc to look for.
Jon
10:59 a.m.
Bill D. wrote:
So I thought I'd try my hand at the FANUC TAPE READER A860. I may need to make a
serial cable (?) to connect from
the internal connector don't know yet. Or maybe the internal 50-pin port
from the photos is for the punch. Don't know yet, thus the need for the
manual.
Fanuc was in the business of making NC and CNC controls for machining centers.
I suspect that Fanuc purchased the paper tape reader assembly through an OEM agreement
with a peripheral company that specialized in making such devices rather than designing
one of their own, though it is possible.
You might very carefully look around the unit to see if there are any signs of
identification of the original equipment manufacturer...a company like Facit, Decitek,
Friden, Roytron, Digital Equipment, Creed, Teletype, etc.
If you can find out the original manufacturer, it might be easier to find data on the tape
reader.
-Rick
1:33 p.m.
They made their own, and it is very definitely a Japanese design
You have to be careful with the motors, many are 220 though it looks like they are 100v in
the pictures of that model
on the web
I went through the excercise of trying to find reader schematics a couple of years ago for
Japanese CNC readers and
never really found anything down to the PCB level
You also need to be careful that the pinch rollers haven't gone soft
1:42 p.m.
Al,
Here is the Ebay auction, I hope the manual is included assuming the 50-pin
port is the output port.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/GUARANTEED-GOOD-USED-FANUC-TAPE-READER-A860-0056-T…
Bill
On Tue, May 12, 2020 at 4:33 PM Al Kossow via cctech <cctech at classiccmp.org>
wrote:
They made their own, and it is very definitely a Japanese design
You have to be careful with the motors, many are 220 though it looks like
they are 100v in the pictures of that model
on the web
I went through the excercise of trying to find reader schematics a couple
of years ago for Japanese CNC readers and
never really found anything down to the PCB level
You also need to be careful that the pinch rollers haven't gone soft
1:47 p.m.
On 5/12/20 1:42 PM, Bill Degnan wrote:
Al,
Here is the Ebay auction, I hope the manual is included assuming the 50-pin port is the
output port.
? there isn't a manual shown
the 50 pin connector is the I/O
you can find descriptions of the pinout online from people making paper tape reader
replacement devices
1:59 p.m.
Not expecting a manual (but I did ask), looking to see if anyone has one,
I.have been searching
Bill
On Tue, May 12, 2020, 4:55 PM Al Kossow via cctech <cctech at classiccmp.org>
wrote:
On 5/12/20 1:42 PM, Bill Degnan wrote:
? there isn't a manual shown
the 50 pin connector is the I/O
you can find descriptions of the pinout online from people making paper
tape reader replacement devices
Al,
Here is the Ebay auction, I hope the manual is included assuming the
50-pin port
is the output port.
3:43 p.m.
check on mr plc forums
On Tue, May 12, 2020 at 4:00 PM Bill Degnan via cctech <
cctech at classiccmp.org> wrote:
Not expecting a manual (but I did ask), looking to see
if anyone has one,
I.have been searching
Bill
On Tue, May 12, 2020, 4:55 PM Al Kossow via cctech <cctech at classiccmp.org>
wrote:
On 5/12/20 1:42 PM, Bill Degnan wrote:
? there isn't a manual shown
the 50 pin connector is the I/O
you can find descriptions of the pinout online from people making paper
tape reader replacement devices
Al,
Here is the Ebay auction, I hope the manual is included assuming the
50-pin port
is the output port.
8:36 p.m.
Following up on the results of my searching around. The FANUC A860 reader
with A20B controller (the normal set up) has a 50 pin output port. There
is a device one can buy that receives the signal from the FANUC's 50-pin
port and converts to into 25-pin RS232. The device is called a behind the
tape reader or BTR. There are models of BTR made for FANUC. I found the
Memex MX1000 and MX1100, Sanyo RLC174 and DOSTEK 440A. I am sure there are
more.
So...one needs some sort of BTR to make the FANUC A860 (also referred to as
FANUC 6) connect to a PC for the purpose of archiving papertapes.
There are vendors who sell these used/new. fanucparts.com/btr/
texas-industrial.com and others.
Bill
On Tue, May 12, 2020 at 4:55 PM Al Kossow via cctech <cctech at classiccmp.org>
wrote:
On 5/12/20 1:42 PM, Bill Degnan wrote:
? there isn't a manual shown
the 50 pin connector is the I/O
you can find descriptions of the pinout online from people making paper
tape reader replacement devices
Al,
Here is the Ebay auction, I hope the manual is included assuming the
50-pin port
is the output port.
13 May
13 May
10:08 a.m.
On 05/12/2020 10:36 PM, Bill Degnan via cctech wrote:
Following up on the results of my searching around.
The FANUC A860 reader
with A20B controller (the normal set up) has a 50 pin output port. There
is a device one can buy that receives the signal from the FANUC's 50-pin
port and converts to into 25-pin RS232. The device is called a behind the
tape reader or BTR. There are models of BTR made for FANUC. I found the
Memex MX1000 and MX1100, Sanyo RLC174 and DOSTEK 440A. I am sure there are
more.
20+ years ago, I resurrected an Allen-Bradley 7320 CNC
controller. I didn't want to deal with paper tapes, and had
to modify the program a bit, anyway, and had no punch. So,
I built my own BTR. The interface on this one was a 12 V
logic standard, but quite simple. 8 data bits and a strobe
came out, and there was an input to advance to the next
character. (These old CNC controls had bi-directional
readers, and the control could move forward and backwards on
the tape. But, I didn't need the reverse feature.)
It was a pretty simple thing to set up and connect through
the computer's parallel port.
Jon
12 May
12 May
3:26 p.m.
Here is the Ebay auction, I hope the manual is
included assuming the 50-pin
port is the output port.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/GUARANTEED-GOOD-USED-FANUC-TAPE-READER-A860-0056-T…
Perhaps try the IndustryArena CNC forum at https://www.cnczone.com/ they have some FANUC
postings there at the moment.
Steve.
13 May
13 May
6:27 a.m.
On Wed, May 13, 2020 at 2:32 AM steven--- via cctech <cctech at classiccmp.org>
wrote:
Once I learned that there is a "BTR" that the machine tool industry used
to
migrate from papertape to computer storage I was able to track down what
route and part options I had for interfacing with the FANUC interface
board. Mine is A20B-0004-0270. This is a pretty common reader they're all
over Ebay, etc.
I read through posts on the subject, the most useful post was this one:
https://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/cnc-machining/drip-feed-fanuc-6mb-226…
I also took a careful look at the control board. Determined the name of
the connector, searched the web for references to that 50 pin connector and
found that there are vendors who sell interfaces to it. Botta bing.
Bill
Here is the Ebay auction, I hope the manual is
included assuming the
50-pin
port is the output port.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/GUARANTEED-GOOD-USED-FANUC-TAPE-READER-A860-0056-T…
Perhaps try the IndustryArena CNC forum at https://www.cnczone.com/ they
have some FANUC postings there at the moment.
Steve.
2001
days inactive
2002
days old
12 comments
6 participants
participants (6)
-
aek＠bitsavers.org -
billdegnan＠gmail.com -
elson＠pico-systems.com -
rickb＠bensene.com -
steven＠malikoff.com -
tdk.knight＠gmail.com