Park Street Mill
The photo above shows the old control panel which had a tape recorder for saving the GCODES (which are manually entered on the keypad). The mill did not have any way of uploading or saving data to a computer so was almost useless.
The shop teacher Tom Carr asked if it was possible to convert it over to current technology. I am in the process of removing the old controller, and updating it with a Piker4X controller with a P233.
As of July 15th the Piker 4X was assembled and tested.
August 8th, 2002 disassembled the controller to remove redundant parts. Several circuit boards and cable assemblies were removed (FIA 114 001 Keypad, Video board, stepper driver board, tape drive, tape controller). Tested unit and found all functions were working as expected (except the now missing CNC part). The mill powers up, has variable speed, and is keyswitch enabled. The eStop kills power to the mill as well as AC outlets.
August 12th, 2002 ordered current limit resistors for the 5V, 2A/phase steppers. Resistors were ordered from Abra Electronics and are special order.
August 12th, 2002 custom 5 pin DIN cables were manufactured for connection to the new Piker4X controller.