Denford Software & Machines

hi,i have an old version of starmill which has been bought in 1992,does anyone know how the individual parts(control panel,starmill,pc,and ...)connect together withe the cables,some pictures has been added.

It looks like the Starmill was part of a FMS or CIM system originally.

The electrical cabinet needs to be connected the serial port on the computer using a RS232 lead. The electrical box will have a harting plug that connects to the rear of the machine.

Because it was part of a system you may need to fit a dummy plug to the additional I\O socket or link out the remote emergency stop.

It will also need a air supply & the pipes connecting.

The unit sat on top of the electrical box is not required & would have been used to control the rest of the system & interlocks.

Many thanks martin,what about the control panels(the one in front of computer & the one sat on the machine),do they both belong to this starmill?and where should i connect them?

The grey keyboard with white and blue buttons is the Tutor keypad and will be used to control the DOS milling software.
Not sure what the other thing is for, probably something to do with the CIM system or robot ?
Anyway all you should need to connect is
Machine > big black box
Tutor keypad > PC via RS232
Big black box > PC via RS232

Like Martin said, there is probably an additional I/O connector on the big black box which will need a link fitting (it would have been used for an external emergency stop signal in the CIM system) There may be a dummy plug with the link fitted lying around somewhere ?

this is some more pictures from the back of the big black box and the emergency stop.the electrical cabinet has a 7pin connector and a RS232,and some more plugs is at the back of the emergency stop box!!??what's the 7 pin connector for?

Auxilaries & remote emergency stop.

Briliant thanks,if i want to use a new computer instead of this old computer,i will require the RS232 plug,but the new motherboards do not have such plug,what should i do?

You could try a serial to USB converter like this.


http://www.usbnow.co.uk/p47/USB_2.0_to_ ... _info.html

hi,i just did whatever you wrote,however the emergency stop box had a problem & i did not connected it to the big black box,i used a new pc with starmill software v.2.5,but the software could not connect with starmill,the first thing that comes to my mind was that there is a problem with the RS232 cable,i searched the forum for this cable,and i wanted to know is this how the wires in the cable should be connected or not?
and if the rs232 is not the problem,what is the probable problem?

See this diagram and check what you have from one end (PC) to the other(inside the black box)
viewtopic.php?t=544

Hi,there is a problem,when i try to connect to machine with starmill software that i downloaded from the denford site,it says "can not connect to machine, check the rs232 cable" .there is a seven segment in the electrical box which shows a "L"with a flashing dot next to it,what does it mean?

The softe=ware has not been able to connect to the machine.

What Eprom is fitted in the control card?
Have you got the correct the RS232 lead connected.
What version of Windows are you running from?

I did not understand your first question!!
But about the rs232,i made it myself with the drawing i found on the forum,
And the software is the one i downloaded from denford site that was named starmill.(starmill v.2.5)
First i should understand what is the meaning of the "L" (with flashing dot in bottom of it),that i saw in the electric box(seven segment)!!??does it mean a hardware problem?

The main Baldor Control Card will have a Eprom fitted with the version number printed on it. We use what we class as Dos eproms & VR eproms. It may have been updated to a VR in which case the Dos software you are trying to connect with will never work.

Take a look at the following for the display.

viewtopic.php?f=54&t=3167