On 2013-11-05, BottleBob wrote:
On Monday, November 4, 2013 8:38:21 PM UTC-8, DoN. Nichols wrote:
It
runs from a 6502 (what was used in the Apple ][ and the Commodore Pet
[ ... ]
Don:
Since it cuts better in metric... have you tried to cut inch threads
in their metric equivalent? Like 20 Threads Per Inch = an inch pitch of
.050 OR a metric pitch of 1.27mm.
Whenever I want serious accuracy (at least, as serious as it can
provide), I do convert to metric, and program it in that mode.
As for the "as serious as it can provide" part -- among other
things, while the maximum resolution is 0.01mm (or 0.001"), when
turning, that it the radius value, so the diameter goes in steps of
0.02mm or 0.002" (plus or minus conversion limits in the inch mode. :-)
Here's a site with a list of pitch conversions to metric.
http://www.newmantools.com/tech/pitchconversions.htm
I just always keep a HP 15C calculator handy, and do the
conversions on the spot.
And the program format is insanely picky. Decimal point
location is implied, not displayed. and if you lose a space out of a
line of code, everything is multipled by 10 because of the position.
Here is what the start of a program looks like:
Heh, yeah. If memory serves, that's the old NC "Full Address" format.
So -- it has a name other than proprietary to EMCO-MAIER. :-)
Sometimes they had following zero suppression, and sometimes leading
zero suppression.
Leading zero here -- but if you don't have the zero, you better
have the space to take its place. :-)
Just be glad you don't have to use a Flexiwriter and
punch your programs out on paper tape and THEN take the tape over to
your machine and feed it into your tape reader.
Well ... I used to have (and use) a Friden Flexowriter. And
among other things, it did not use ASCII (which the Compact-5/CNC does,
at least.) I used it on my first home computer as the output half of
the console. I had to write MC6800 assembly code to convert ASCII to
the nearest equivalent in the Flexowriter's character set.
What that code *is*, apparently, is a BCD implementation of the
EBCDIC code used on some mainframes. Except that it was also an
electric typewriter, which had shift-up and shift-down codes to select
upper or lower case. Great fun driving that thing. I had to send it a
sequence on "boot" (power-on -- no OS to boot) to make sure that it was
in a known state. That was my first serious programming project, to
allow me to use the computer for other things (until I finally got an
ADM-3A terminal in kit form. The computer was an Altair 680b, FWIW, and
I still have it.
And some Flexowriters used a 6-level tape, instead of the
8-level that the one I had used.
Oh yes -- while it does not *use* ASCII, it could (and did)
duplicate punched tapes in ASCII -- I used it to make several copies of
the BASIC interpreter tape -- and finally punched a Mylar tape which did
not wear out like the others. But it *did* nearly burn out that punch. :-)
Ahh the good ol'
days... Just kidding, those days were miserable compared to modern
machines and CAM systems that do all the grunt work for you.
But doing that work in assembly language (and having to hand
assemble it at that) certainly taught me a lot about the inner workings
of computers. The sort of thing that you are "protected" from these
days. :-)
Enjoy,
DoN.
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