Hurco KMB-IS CNC update

Attempting to figure out the RS-232 ports.

On the quill cover on the front of the machine, there is an engraved plastic label that says "KMB-1m". Machine has what I call a J head which matches pictures I see on the web labeled "KMB-1M'. I think the -1S machines have the rectangular heads.

Documentation that came with the machine is for the -1S.

But... I can't find any RS-232 connections. There is a single round amphenol connector on the back of the control cabinet. Its clearly a hacked in feature. There is no J5 on the MPU board.

I found some documentation for the KMB-1M on the web. It clearly says there should be two round amphenol connectors. Doesn't say RS-232 is an option.

Kinda weird. Maybe my machine is some sort of in-between bastard?

Ok, just able to fire my computer back up... were getting some crazy bad lightning. Were use to it, as we get thunderstorms everyday, but today has been some bad stuff.

Ok give me a bit to respond. If the lightning get's bad again, I will have to shut down and come back later.


Robert

_big_ wrote: Attempting to figure out the RS-232 ports.

But... I can't find any RS-232 connections. There is a single round amphenol connector on the back of the control cabinet. Its clearly a hacked in feature. There is no J5 on the MPU board.

Ok what does the plug at the end of the Amphenol wiring plug into or is it just sitting there not plugged into anything?

Ok since there is no J5 connector on the MPU board, it could be the possibility that the board was a repair trade in or another board from say a SM1 model. The MPU in it may not be the original that came with it. I know back years ago when I was searching for info, I came across 3 guy's that were in different parts of the country and they would trade parts and info among themselves to help each other out. I know they traded several boards. So keeping an open mind, it may not be the correct board, but would "work" for the machine. I remember seeing a large Hurco VMC that had the identical card cage setup and the electrical setup was really close to the right hand cabinet in our machines, because I remember remarking to my Dad that we could retrofit it really easy.... so there is probably a lot of these boards that floated around from different machines.

Ok another thing is if the Amphenol plug is unplugged and the wiring is not wired into anything, then you may have the upgrade MPU board. 2 things make me not believe this as 1 you had the original Hurco master tape in the machine., and 2 the machine fired up asking for the master. If the MPU was upgraded to a burned ROM, then it should have fired up without needing to run the master tape. With the tape in the slot makes me believe they were still OEM and loading every time. When you have the setup like you have, every day that you fire up the machine you would have to run the master tape and load the parameters so you could operate. Some shops just left the machine running 24/7 to eliminate doing this, but any small shop that turned the power off everyday had to load the master every day. This is why the AMTS and CMC MPU boards became so popular as you did not have to go through the loading process each day.... plus it had the DB9 for DNC.

Ok, I am positive I have seen other machines like yours that had only 1 Amphenol connector. I will go back through pictures and see if I have one saved. I am positive they did have some that only had 1 connector and not 2. Hurco seems to have a few different models that must have been built specific for some of their bigger customers as I cannot find info on them and you see them from time to time.... Just like having the ATC, super rare never seen one ever on a KMB1, but they were out there.

Ok will look and respond to some of the other next.

_big_ wrote:
Documentation that came with the machine is for the -1S.

Ok, myself I haven't seen a model with 1s at the end.... But you have documentation from Hurco stating it's a 1s, so that must have been another machine model that I have not came across.... weird.... and I would be curious what the "s" stands for. Just hard to find info for 40 years ago, especially when it was not on the web to begin with.

I have seen KM1, KMB1, KMBx1, and KMB1-m and SM-1 during this time period. (early 80's).. the MB-1 is the bed mill so didn't list it.

This is how the sequence should be:

KM-1........(was the original first Hurco NC mill in 1978)
KMB-1......(B control added - got .001 resolution)
KMBx-1....(BX control which added one more digit to the resolution - .0001)
KMB-1m...(Non-programmable manual spindle speed control)
SM-1........(Lot of variation.... some were standard manual sm1 knee mill with added servos, and some models look just like my KMB-1, also some with 1 cabinet on right side, some with both on each side... this had the most variations of any model that I saw)

Then in 1984 they introduced the Ultimax 1 control... so ours is definitely around 1980 - 1983 for sure.. maybe stretching into 84, but not much.... I know my manual states 81 for the one I have been uploading pictures of as I remember originally miss informing you thinking it was 83 back several post.

Do you have any documents with pictures of the machine on it?... or just some spars documents that they did at least give?



Robert

_big_ wrote:
I found some documentation for the KMB-1M on the web. It clearly says there should be two round amphenol connectors. Doesn't say RS-232 is an option.

Ok yes I believe all models came with at least 1 Amphenol plug, except maybe some of the basic style SM-1's... Plus, I am positive that all of the models with the Amphenol plug had RS-232, or to be specific any model that had our "B" type control or newer had it.. I am sure you have RS-232 in yours.

EDIT: while looking through pictures, I saw a later model KM-3p that had 3 Amphenol plugs on the back, so they did variate on the number.

Ok will be back,
Robert

_big_ wrote:
Kinda weird. Maybe my machine is some sort of in-between bastard?

LOL, yeah that is what I have said about the SM-1 models. There seems to be a lot of variation, to me looks like depends on how much money you were going to spend with them.

Ok will be back... going to upload schematic I saw in my notes that may help you.