Age of Orac

rob · Post by **rob** » Thu 04 Jan , 2007 1:27 am

I have just bought an 'Orac' ID plate says it is 1988,the serial no. is AC 1908 B3, the circuit boards have serial numbers 48121414. I have a number of spare boards that came with it, they have serial no,s starting 381---. I have attached a photo, if anyone can come back to me with any info as to whether it is genuine or not.

It came with a 'Hieidenhan ME101'. If anyone has a manual or copy of or even how to operate this.

It came with data cassettes with programmes on which I can download into the 'Orac' and run it. I can write programmes save to cassette on attempting then to reload cassette onto lathe, the screen displays 'insufficeint memory'
Also I cannot seem to connect the computer to the RS232. The computer displays 'sending' and the lathe displays 'ready' but nothing happens. On the forum there are 2 cables, one for IBM PC and the other 'Orac IBM' . Anyone know which is the correct cable, I constructed an 'Orac IBM cable,but with above results.
Any help would be appreciated.

davidimurray · Post by **davidimurray** » Thu 04 Jan , 2007 11:00 am

if anyone can come back to me with any info as to whether it is genuine or not

What do you mean by genuine - it looks like a normal orac.

What is the Heidenhain ME101 - never heard of it before.

Regarding the tape drive there is a good chance that it may not be working - they don't seem to have lasted as well as the rest of the machine!

What software are you using? I can try and check our cable at work if I get time.

Cheers

Dave

Post by **Denford Admin** » Thu 04 Jan , 2007 14:43 pm

Isn't the ME101 a portable micro-cassette drive with adjustable baud rate on the back ?
Basically the same as what used to be fitted to the machines, but in a seperate "portable" box, made by Heidenhain

rob · Post by **rob** » Thu 04 Jan , 2007 17:34 pm

Hi, Dave

What I meant by genuine was, is there anyway of verifing serial, or board numbers with Denford or other forum members. Pictures I have seen do not show or mention the rev counter in the fibreglass belt cover, which is painted blue not white.

The heidenhain is box which enables you to load data programs from the office computer onto micro tape, then download to lathe, and vise versa.

The heidenhain has an identical tape drive as the lathe, Ive swaped them over, they both upload a program to the lathe.
The program will then run correctly for both tape drives.

I have then written a program, saved to tape on both drives, the lathe says its saved ok. I then downloaded to lathe, only to get an error message saying insufficient memory.

And lastly, I have taken an old computer, wiped the hard drive and installed DOS 6.2.
Com 1 is enabled in BIOS. Does DOS have a com port driver,or do I have to install one.
I have the simulation software for the computer, this runs fine.

Many thanks,

Rob.

Post by **Denford Admin** » Thu 04 Jan , 2007 17:50 pm

Does DOS have a com port driver,or do I have to install one

from DOS you can send stuff directly to the COM port (although I never had much success with this)
commands like

Code: Select all

MODE COM1: 9600,e,7,1

should setup the com port and

Code: Select all

COPY file.txt COM1:

should dump a file out (also try PRINT file.txt > COM1:)
Find out more on any of these commands by adding /? or /h after them
eg,
MODE /? (works on XP anyway)

I'd give the industrial text editor a go if I were you
viewtopic.php?t=256

davidimurray · Post by **davidimurray** » Thu 04 Jan , 2007 20:21 pm

Well I've never seen a lathe with the rev counter before - I would have thought that was an addition by a previous owner.

Quick thought, are you turning the machine off between saving a tape and trying to open saved file. Also could there be something else on the tape - i.e. a file that is too big to go into the memory - can you 'format' the tape before starting. To be honest if you can get the PC link sorted you probably won't need the tape - I've never even used it!

You might want to ty the Orac software here -

viewtopic.php?t=172

Cheers

Dave

rob · Post by **rob** » Fri 05 Jan , 2007 1:27 am

Hi, Dave

The tape deck is an antiquated thing, it just contains a record and a playback head. On the main screen, when you select "store on cassette," the recorder rewinds to start then saves, overwriting everthing in its path.

Over christmas ive read almost every mention of rs232 related questions on the forum. It was stated somewhere that the orac is connected Tx to Tx, and Rx to Rx. I have attatched two wiring diagrams, which one is correct.

I dont want to sound cheeky, but if you have a lead, would you kindly run a meter across the pins and pass on.

many thanks,

Rob.

Post by **Denford Admin** » Fri 05 Jan , 2007 12:10 pm

I would stick with the IBM-Orac drawing, and work it out from there.

The problem seems to be that the Orac connector was designed to allow the use of a pin to pin cable, and the TX / RX lines would be crossed over inside the machine.
Normally a cable for PC-Machine would communicate over two 25 ways with pins 2 to 3 and 3 to 2 (crossover)
9 way RS232 confusing things further by having the 25 way function pin 2(TX) on pin 3, so a 25 to 9 crossover cable would be pin to pin (2-2 and 3-3)

see this link on what should be standard RS232 pinouts
http://www.anotherurl.com/library/rs232.htm
As a starting point you know that Orac pin 2 is TX - all you need to know then, is what pin to connect to RX on the other device

Its impossible to say what the ME101 pin assignment is, unless you have the book or its on the Internet somewhere

shakey j · Post by **shakey j** » Thu 11 Jan , 2007 19:12 pm

Denford Admin wrote:Isn't the ME101 a portable micro-cassette drive with adjustable baud rate on the back ?
Basically the same as what used to be fitted to the machines, but in a seperate "portable" box, made by Heidenhain

Any idea what this Heidenhain unit is? It came with my Triac but I can't find any instruction on how to use it.

Thanks,

Mark

Rob did you get the information you required regarding the Orac cable? I have one that I use to transfer programs to and from a laptop which I could take a look at if thats any help?

Post by **Denford Admin** » Fri 12 Jan , 2007 10:52 am

This looks like the next generation (at the time) from the micro-cassette unit

I bet you just put a text program onto the (720Kb?) floppy.
Stick it in the top one, and press the top left button (read disk),
then press start, and the data will (possibly) get output via the RS232 cable.

I think DIR TNC FMT and PRT will be mode selectors - at a guess...
TNC - that will be the Heidnhain only control mode - the Heidenhain could possibly have recognised and controlled an FE unit via a special interface

PRT - will output data to the printer interface (RS232 or parallel ?)
FMT - format the disk ?
DIR - god knows - Directory list / select ?

BTW, could you post details of your orac cable in a new thread for anyone to see and find easily, thanks

shakey j · Post by **shakey j** » Fri 12 Jan , 2007 11:41 am

Denford Admin wrote:This looks like the next generation (at the time) from the micro-cassette unit

I bet you just put a text program onto the (720Kb?) floppy.
Stick it in the top one, and press the top left button (read disk),
then press start, and the data will (possibly) get output via the RS232 cable.

I think DIR TNC FMT and PRT will be mode selectors - at a guess...
TNC - that will be the Heidnhain only control mode - the Heidenhain could possibly have recognised and controlled an FE unit via a special interface

PRT - will output data to the printer interface (RS232 or parallel ?)
FMT - format the disk ?
DIR - god knows - Directory list / select ?

BTW, could you post details of your orac cable in a new thread for anyone to see and find easily, thanks

Thanks for the info, yes I will sort the cable out this weekend.

Denford Software & Machines

Denford Software & Machines

Age of Orac

Age of Orac