Weird Craig's List CNC Machine I picked up...
Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 11:20 pm
So, meanwhile, I stumbled onto a neat Cartesian robot from craigslist -- and bought it -- I'll post some pictures when I get a chance. -- It's super weird and unique -- it has an acrylic tank that the head moves around in, and a drain -- presumably it can be filled with water (no tooling mounted -- previous owner says it was for ultrasonic inspection) -- the head is all driven by metal "belts" (more like wires) and pulleys and stuff. It's brand is "Multidata" but I can't find a model or anything number anywhere. I'm guessing it was made between the late 70s and mid 80s (probably before the 90s...?).
Its movement area is just under 2' cubed.
I was thinking about turning it into a 3D printer (if I ever finish my H-1 build -- because you could fit a lot of print heads in there) or maybe printing a Dremmel mount for it, and using it as a milling machine if it can handle the force.
I've got a couple of issues -- one is, the Y axis is a little janky, but that I'm just going to have to work out -- more pressing, it has it's own electronics already, and a Male DB25 port -- I suspect that it's actually a serial host port and not a printer port (when I hook up my RS232 kit, I can see negative voltages on some of the RS232 specific pins, I don't think printer ports would do that...). -- Figured that since it's male, it must be a host port and not a client port, so I made a null modem DB9-DB25 host to host cable and hooked 'er up.
Unfortunately, I'm not really sure where to go from there -- I pulled the thing up in hyper terminal at 9600 baud, no parity, simple settings, and It will sometimes send back binary data if I mash on the keyboard a bit -- mostly FF, FE, and a few others... If I move the head around with the toggle switches it doesn't send any binary data back to the main PC.
TL;DR:
Are there any well known binary serial/RS232 protocols for working with old-as-hell CNC machines?
Are there any programs for serial/RS232 CNC machines that I could try and see if they "Just work"?
My main goal right now is just figuring out how to move the head via software. I would hate to have to replace perfectly fine electronics.
Its movement area is just under 2' cubed.
I was thinking about turning it into a 3D printer (if I ever finish my H-1 build -- because you could fit a lot of print heads in there) or maybe printing a Dremmel mount for it, and using it as a milling machine if it can handle the force.
I've got a couple of issues -- one is, the Y axis is a little janky, but that I'm just going to have to work out -- more pressing, it has it's own electronics already, and a Male DB25 port -- I suspect that it's actually a serial host port and not a printer port (when I hook up my RS232 kit, I can see negative voltages on some of the RS232 specific pins, I don't think printer ports would do that...). -- Figured that since it's male, it must be a host port and not a client port, so I made a null modem DB9-DB25 host to host cable and hooked 'er up.
Unfortunately, I'm not really sure where to go from there -- I pulled the thing up in hyper terminal at 9600 baud, no parity, simple settings, and It will sometimes send back binary data if I mash on the keyboard a bit -- mostly FF, FE, and a few others... If I move the head around with the toggle switches it doesn't send any binary data back to the main PC.
TL;DR:
Are there any well known binary serial/RS232 protocols for working with old-as-hell CNC machines? Are there any programs for serial/RS232 CNC machines that I could try and see if they "Just work"?My main goal right now is just figuring out how to move the head via software. I would hate to have to replace perfectly fine electronics.