Hurco KMB-IS CNC update

Leith,

One other thing that I forgot to mention. I have not seen your pendant, but when I went back to the picture of your machine which is really small and I cannot make out much detail, but it looks like you may have the dual screen Ultimax I or II control. If you get a better picture and of the inside cabinet I can tell you for sure. If it is, it will have Ultimax in orange on the black pendant.

I am beginning to think you have a much newer 90's era machine. If it is a black pendant with 2 screens then yes it is a much newer model. I have heard both good and bad about Ultimax, but have not used it. I doubt you have the parameter tapes for the machine and therefore cannot get the control loaded again, so it would not matter. BUT if you did get the parameter tapes, you could always try to load the machine and get it working back OEM. I was always wanting to retrofit our 2 Hurco's when we got them, but ran OEM until computer lost parameters and was glitching once in awhile anyway. To be honest I had learned Hurco's control really well. I could sit at the machine and code from memory into the machine and run parts. Now this was basic parts without elaborate machining processes, but non the less fast. Hurco had 2 ways to run their controls, Traditional and Conversational. If I remember correctly Hurco was the first to introduce conversational control, which is huge for small job shops and simply machining. I really never used the conversational control as I was so verse with traditional code control.

If you do not have the parameter tapes and the Ultimax is truly gone, then the pendant would not be worth wiring into. That is why I rebuilt the face and added pushbuttons for a temporary setup until I build a nice pendant that tailors to my style of machining. You may be able to wire into it, but on mine it had a board up in the pendant and not a easy way of integrating, so I gutted the pendant as that was the only thing not worth saving. You can send a pic of the inside of the pendant and I can tell you more.



Robert

Leith,

I realized a few minutes ago that I stated it was a power supply in the rear cabinet... it's only the transformer and when I was talking about the power supply in the cabinet, I was referring the the transformer on the power supply its self. Sorry, figured I should clarify as I miss worded what I meant to say earlier.

I will probably go back and revise that post so it is not incorrectly worded.


Will be back later,
Robert

Hi Robert,

Once again you have provided a terrifically useful piece of information.

On the back of the machine there is this brown thing about the size of two shoe boxes. Obviously a transformer. Can find no name plate or identification.

Its just about the right physical size to power 3 1+ horsepower motors.

Its attached in a somewhat crude way. Not what I would expect from the Hurco factory. But now I suspect it got upgraded with the motor drives.

The left, or power side cabinet has been mostly gutted. Apparently when someone removed the original, and I think broken VFD. I will have to hook it all back up with a new VFD. But was hoping to get the servos working first. I may need to do that sooner rather than later to power the servo amps.

You're right about expected duty cycle of the restored machine. It will be a hobbyist machine with very low duty cycle. But for the brushes, I don't know their current condition. And worse, don't have a part number for replacement brushes. Right now I'm just hoping they have enough life left forever at the hobbyist usage level.

I don't have a picture with a useful view of the pendant.... but I think its got a single screen. I'm still of the opinion this is an early 80's machine.

I think there was a tape in the drive. Hard to imagine the tape drive works. Not real interested in attempting to resurrect the old Hurco control. Was expecting to remove the old display etc and replace it with a laptop or LCD display.

I'll get a picture of it.

Hurco was $44k in 1983. For calibration, I bought a new Porsche for about $23K in 1983.

Leith

_big_ wrote: Hurco was $44k in 1983. For calibration, I bought a new Porsche for about $23K in 1983.

Cayman or Carrera ?

944

Nice, was that a new model at that time?
I recall when 969 came out and looked a bit different from 911, so i hoped things are changing. I was wrong!
They all still look ugly as hell, but they are very nice machines. I could live with a Carrera GT and all of it's over 600 horses, but it is still to damn expensive. At least it looks much better than 911.