EMC interpreter was Re: BoBCad Question

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@y..., cnc002@a... wrote:

> Ballendo:
> It was / is the missing features such as subroutines, etc.,

to which I

> was referring when I said it was a hobbyist type interpreter. Now

that you

> tell me it came from an old Allen Bradley control it makes more

sense as

> those older Allen Bradley controllers were seriously behind the

times with

> respect to anything other than the bare bones G-codes and in many

cases did

> NOT support the extended features.
> This is one of the main reasons those very A-B controls are

being

> removed from the machines on which I am working and we are

replacing them

> with PC based controls using CNCPro which does have most of those

features.

The Allen-Bradley controls were actually ahead of the times, compared
to their competition. The 8400 that I run almost daily is vintage
1989. It has continuous contouring in all 3 axes simultaneously,
with look ahead, achieves 200 IPM on a 30 x 15, box way bed mill, and
supports subroutines, subprograms, extended canned cycles (like
pocketing), helical milling, and parametric programming. The cutter
comp works perfectly. It also includes graphical tool path display,
multiple dry run options, and can start any program anywhere in the
middle by searching for text strings in memory. If you are advising
any customers to remove this model of controller and going to CNC
Pro, you are giving very bad advice. The items included in the
controller were optional on competitive controllers, but were
standard on this series.

Best Regards,

Fred Smith
IMService