Hi,
New to the forum and just taken delivery of an ageing but very sound Easimill 3. I started looking for tapes for the tape drive and have drawn a bit of a blank. I have found a very expensive source from which one tape has been purchased. I am still poking around for alternatives, does anyone have any ideas?
Plan B would be to swap out the tape drive for something more current with easily available media....I have some info in the machine manual that might enable me to have a go at this but has anyone done this already?
Easimill tape Drive
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I'm not sure what tape you have - is the old paper tape or the more modern 
micro cassettes ?
If its micro cassette then try this topic: https://denfordata.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=199
Either way, your best bet is to replace the unit with, say an old PC from the car boot which you could use to stream programs out from, either way the interface will be RS232 or possibly parallel.
There have been other posts about a suitable bit of software to do the RS232 transmission of programs - search for Denfords DOS industrial text editor.
micro cassettes ?If its micro cassette then try this topic: https://denfordata.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=199
Either way, your best bet is to replace the unit with, say an old PC from the car boot which you could use to stream programs out from, either way the interface will be RS232 or possibly parallel.
There have been other posts about a suitable bit of software to do the RS232 transmission of programs - search for Denfords DOS industrial text editor.
Hi and thanks for this. The machine has the micro tape and I will follow your link to see if I can find out a bit more.
Connecting up an old PC sounds a far superior solution to me, the machine does have an RS232 connection on the back. I will go searching for the DOS industrial text editor next.
Thanks again
Connecting up an old PC sounds a far superior solution to me, the machine does have an RS232 connection on the back. I will go searching for the DOS industrial text editor next.
Thanks again
Ian
Hi again,
Found the industrial text editor and loaded this up on an oder PC we had lying about. I have made up a connecting cable as per the diagram and had a go at getting things going. I am loading the IndEdit batch file with the PNC configuration as described in the readme file but getting error 1010 when I try and comminucate with the Easimill. Anyone know what error 1010 is about?
Found the industrial text editor and loaded this up on an oder PC we had lying about. I have made up a connecting cable as per the diagram and had a go at getting things going. I am loading the IndEdit batch file with the PNC configuration as described in the readme file but getting error 1010 when I try and comminucate with the Easimill. Anyone know what error 1010 is about?
Ian
error 10 on the easimill is PNC memory full, from the easimill manual there is no 1010 code.
I am having trouble downloading into the PNC controller, with just about 4000 bytes available maybe its just not worth the trouble, our cad / cam software like to generate a mass of G codes for the easiest of tasks.
chris
I am having trouble downloading into the PNC controller, with just about 4000 bytes available maybe its just not worth the trouble, our cad / cam software like to generate a mass of G codes for the easiest of tasks.
chris
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I think you could be right - cut your losses and upgrade to something that will run new electronics and on new PC'smaybe its just not worth the trouble
Struggle on with the old stuff if your on a really tight budget and are just tinkering, but I think you'll get more satisfaction upgrading like davidimurray has done.