Bridgeport EZ Path running with G-Code 

It uses servos. Post processors are difficult to find for these lathes. Programming at the machine is very easy once you get used to it. You give it the part geometry and tell it how you want it to cut the part with canned cycles. I ran one at my old job and liked it enough to buy one for my garage.

@@GeneralChangFromDanang is it still possible and nice to work in conventional/manual work mode ?

@@QuebecoisSti I'm assuming you mean with just the hand wheels? I wouldn't say it's the best for that. The hand wheels are encoders so there is no feel to them. There are convenient Do One options that you can run if you don't want to write a program. You can do things like rough, face and drill. Those only take about 10 seconds to setup.

Ok...first off...I found a bug in the drill feeds and speeds...it's outputting the ipm feed, not the feed per rev. You have to change it back by hand, I'll have a fix shortly. Also, theres an issue with some arcs not outputting the correct direction - I have no idea why yet. As to your question - I'm not sure. The problem with a usb to serial interface is that you never know how something's implemented. It may be that there's a delimiter missing on the end of the file preventing the file from registering as finished, or it could be that the serial to usb isn't sending a stop bit. Do you have a gcode file that you've transferred that worked? If so, would you mind sending it to me?

No prob on the bug fixes ill be interested in implementing new post once you have them finished. I don't have any successfully transferred G-code unfortunately. Is a delimiter or stop bit something that the cable sends or are they symbols or imputs in the G-code?

Unfortunately, I haven't worked on the G-Code version in some time. I switched to a conversational post a while ago. If I recall correctly on the G83, I eventually worked around it by unclicking use cycle on Fusion. Not sure if that works on HSM.

@@sabinespeed4146 Is your conversational post processor something you would share? I will also look for the option you mentioned in hsm.

It was an upgrade I used to sell (Brantingham Automation). I have enough parts I think to do one more lying around.

It depends on what you're doing. I've always found more complex parts to be a pain to program at the machine. In addition, there are some cycles that don't have the features I like on the original control - e.g. Grooving using pecking, which is a lot easier to implement via the post processor. Also, a lot of the time I take my work home with me and prep the toolpath in the comfort of my home office so that my runtime at the shop is maximized.

So, I think I found the latest version of my notes. I have G code in there for feed per minute, but I've never tried it. It'd be nice to know if it works though - it'd be great for gear cutting. docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/179aoR9HU7dM253MwMqn7BGDuWHZsuhCowspbWDG4w10/edit?usp=sharing

Sure! I forgot to add a link to it. I'll do that over the weekend.

I'm having trouble adding a link but it's at drive.google.com/open?id=1CDjSFpZres4pO_CkKudaK8jjITo9Pt-T.

Thank you, much appreciated... hopefully I'll get to try this out later this week.

Just be careful. It's very much a work in progress.

Understood.

I've only ever brought it across via 3.5" floppy as .TXT...I've never used the serial port. As for jumbled...I've had issues with the Bridgeport not being able to read it except when pressing the minus key when it's loaded.

Hmmm that’s weird. When I select text files I can only view them not actually run them or edit, maybe I’m missing something

Not sure about what you mean by "jumbled" either but DOS is very picky about the format of its text files so they need to have the correct End of Line characters . If you are using Fusion 360 on Windows I would recommend installing Notepad++ (it is a wonderful, free Swiss army knife for text and code editing). In Notepad++ you can select View -> Show Symbol -> Show End of Line and it will actually show those characters within your text file. If you are running Fusion 360 on a Mac it is likely creating your *.txt output file with only the as the end of line character. If this is your situation I can help further with this.

Josh Dudley it is coming in as a set of funky jumbled characters. All of my other cncs have the % at the start and end of the program. I know this will cause issues if it is wrong but I’ve never dealt with any others. And yes I did send it in as txt file I tried both ways just to play around, and yes I am using fusion and the post this fella linked. It is not a super big deal it’s just my tool room lathe and the programming is simple enough but I’d prefer total control especially with the grooving cycles and just load a program and go ty for your input

I used a 3.5" floppy. I have an external floppy drive that I got from Fry's for something like $25 USD

So, I stalled on this because I made a conversational post, which I'll link below. As far as I can tell, if you don't switch the tool number, you won't be prompted to change tools, but you can still change the offset. This makes setting things up a bit confusing but it should work.

drive.google.com/open?id=1StUFxj74GHOpluGVD7prAUrRuiKMmeB0 is the link to my current post processor. There is still one infuriating bug - the tapping cycle will not import the diameters correctly! It will crash the tapping tool into the stock at 0.0 X unless you hand edit it.

@@sabinespeed4146 Thanks for the info and the link. So in having multiple tools on the machine, as I hope to, I can run a continuous program without a constant "stop for tool change and hit GO", but I will need to edit the tool offsets in the program based on whatever tool is next to be used? I had thought of this the other day...suddenly thinking, "hmmm...is this multi tool idea going to work after all?" Thanks again!

@@ardentindustries So, from what I remember, what you do is either edit the tools in your tool library to all be the same tool number but different offsets or edit the toolchange after posting. From what I remember the prompt only occurs if the tool number changes. Offsets are fair game.

So, uh, yeah, you have it right.