Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Windows and black boxes

Bert Pirson wrote:

> How about if that "black box" was a PC (no monitor or keyboard) running
> something like TurboCNC under DOS and accepting G code and/or other
> protocols over a serial port from a Window/Linux/Mac/etc. box running all
> the GUI stuff everyone seems to want? Everyone could get a box like that
> for less than $50 and it would be completely open source.

There's nothing new under the sun! This is exactly a drip-feed DNC, which
is what people were doing as soon as PCs came out in 1982 or so.
They'd hook the PC to the serial port of a proprietary CNC control, if it had
one, otherwise they'd hook it to a "BTR" which simulated the paper tape
reader.

I did this with my Allen-Bradley 7320 CNC control.

Jon