Hello Everyone

This might be the longest time anyone has tried to build a 6 axis servo motor driven gantry milling machine measuring X 5m, Y 2m, Z 0.3m Z axis. I started this in 1998, when I purchased a 6 axis NEE AMC Controller (North East Electronics) which runs on Windows 1998 and Dos platform. I have had it running ok many years ago. This cost a lot of money at the time.

At the moment I trying to machine an aluminium casting by using 3 sets (6 axis) of electrical Camco Varipak units with on and off switches on each axis movement. It all works but and it is a big but, you cannot make any curved cutting movement and nine times out of ten, I touch the wrong switch at the wrong time and the job is lost.

So it is time to get the NEE controller up and running properly.
I now have one motor on each end of the Y axis that drive the whole contraption along the X axis tracks.

The North East Electronics 6 axis controller has a "following beam" facility within the their software i.e. you are able to attach one motor to the other across a beam, so I am told, I have yet to find out if this is true. This does reduces the 6 axis to 5.

However before I can get this far I crashed into a nasty software problem when the "purchased" licensed dongle stopped working, after being plugged into the parallel port in the back of the computer.
I have no idea why. Without this dongle working you cannot import G code etc into the controller because NEE in their wisdom, encrypted any imported file into their own file format i.e. .wrk.

I can get their own work files (wrk) into the controller via the Firmware commands but this is not any good to me as my castings are all different shapes. However according to the NEE manual if their "HEX" file is above V2.12.26 it can read G code directly in the controller

Q1 Does anyone know how I can get the computer running Windows 98 to see the dongle via the computer parallel port?

Q2 Does anyone have and updated version of the HEX file above V2.12.26, that they are willing send me?

I would appreciate any help that anyone can give me.


kind regards

Montegoman