On Feb 24, 2:15*pm, Ignoramus26960 ignoramus26...@NOSPAM.
26960.invalid wrote:
On 2010-02-24, Pete C. wrote:





Ignoramus26960 wrote:

On 2010-02-24, Karl Townsend wrote:
So, Karl, what would you (with your skills and all) do with this
bridgeport, would you just try to restore its Interact 2 controls?

If you're looking to make some money:

I'd part the machine out. The servos, scales, and head - sold separately -
will bring you about a 4:1 return.

That's a great baseline. I do like to part things out. When I was a
kid, I took a lot of my toys apart.

If you want a CNC machine:

I'd spend a short fixed amount of time, say 2 days tops, trying to make the
old control run. It it works, great, but it won't last long. Either way,
start learning EMC2, you're used to linux so its your best bet.

Karl, I had a huge discussion with a guy at Heidenhain USA today. He
was there for 29 years. We spent 30 minutes talking and he gave me the
complete skinny on Heidenhain controls, fate of the Bridgeport
company, etc.

It is too much to repeat in a short post, but in his opinion, if I can
just swap the display for LCD and that would fix the problem, it is
the best course of action.

He told me do not buy a used CRT monitor. What he says is that after
all these years, the monitors are flaky, but the rest of the control
is good and reliable stuff.

The issue with the monitor is that the monitor is EGA, which is a
completely obsolete standard by now. It is nothing really special,
just an EGA monitor that fits the enclosure.

So really, any EGA monitor will work, and if I can find one that fits
the enclosure nicely, it is a plus.

The Heidenhain guy told that it could be either a bad monitor or a bad
graphics card. He explained me how I can test if the flyback
transformer is working on the monitor and how I can narrow the problem
down. Replacing the card is something that they do, but it is big
bucks and moving to a PC based control makes perfect sense.

I fI can spend $300-400 and get a suitable EGA LCD monitor, I would
rather do that.

Iggy, you're in the heart of a dying industrial machine town. You can find a
professional working CNC machine real cheap. IMHO, spend maybe 5K and get a
real CNC machine. Have Gunner tell you what to get.

I am totally intimidated by their size, and complexity, and cost, and
weight, a Series II is as far as I can go.

i

Been a long time since I messed with EGA, but I recall that was just TTL
RGB and separate H V sync signals? Timing probably well within what any
modern LCD monitor will sync to. I'd think you should be able to adapt
it pretty easily.

Are you saying that I should just plug in a VGA LCD monitor into a 9
pin EGA output? And it will work??? Why all the fuss then? Somehow I
think that the world would not miss something this great. Am I missing
anything?

i

Check this out. They show currently out of stock, but my have more by
now.

http://www.jammaboards.com/store/cga.../prod_291.html

Paul