1990ish Centroid CNC4 Bridgeport. Need boot disc

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Jason Birch
Posts: 23
Joined: Fri Apr 09, 2021 12:30 am
Acorn CNC Controller: Yes
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CNC Control System Serial Number: Acorn 4882
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CNC12: Yes
CNC11: No
CPU10 or CPU7: No

1990ish Centroid CNC4 Bridgeport. Need boot disc

Post by Jason Birch »

(edit- I bought this machine and now I'm going to be attempting to get the computer to boot up first, but very likely will be converting to acorn to control all the original hardware).

Hello all, I hope this is in the right place, maybe somebody can help me start to get a grasp on this. I'm going to look at a machine next week. The owner says "it needs a new floppy drive to start off"
Screenshot_20210408-200800_Facebook.jpg
. Its a bridgeport retrofit that looks to be in nice condition. Asking price is reasonable. He doesn't have any serial numbers to give me until this weekend when he goes to where it live. My very knowledgeable machinist friend is going with me, and had run a centroid machine at one point a while back. He said it ran nice and wasn't super complicated and finiky with it's g code. I'd like to get as much info as possible before going since it's a few hour drive.
Screenshot_20210408-200807_Facebook.jpg
Last edited by Jason Birch on Tue Apr 20, 2021 3:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
eng199
Posts: 372
Joined: Fri Jan 10, 2014 11:29 am
Acorn CNC Controller: Yes
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Oak CNC controller: Yes
CNC Control System Serial Number: none
DC3IOB: Yes
CNC12: Yes
CNC11: Yes
CPU10 or CPU7: Yes
Location: Howard, PA

Re: What do we have here?

Post by eng199 »

That looks like a CNC4 control. It is probably somewhere around 25 years old. Installing an ACORN kit is usually lower cost than trying to fix CNC4 if anything is wrong with it. The upgrade would also provide more modern features.
Jason Birch
Posts: 23
Joined: Fri Apr 09, 2021 12:30 am
Acorn CNC Controller: Yes
Allin1DC CNC Controller: No
Oak CNC controller: No
CNC Control System Serial Number: Acorn 4882
DC3IOB: No
CNC12: Yes
CNC11: No
CPU10 or CPU7: No

Re: What do we have here?

Post by Jason Birch »

Yes that is what joshua at Centroid said. He mentioned if it has micro 1 drives that it's ready to swap in acorn. What drives would be required to use if it does not? I'm pretty green on all of this cnc stuff. Really all of it. The owner has been pretty helpful and it comes with 12 kwik switch tool holders. He said it's nmtb30. I just have a budget and want as little surprises as possible.
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polaraligned
Posts: 231
Joined: Mon Feb 07, 2011 8:03 pm
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CNC Control System Serial Number: 1030090103
DC3IOB: Yes
CNC12: Yes
CNC11: Yes
CPU10 or CPU7: No
Location: Montvale, NJ

Re: What do we have here?

Post by polaraligned »

Jason Birch wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 5:26 pm The owner has been pretty helpful and it comes with 12 kwik switch tool holders. He said it's nmtb30.
Kwik Switch is not the same as NMTB 30. Bridgeport offered KwikSwitch 200 or Erickson's QuickChange 30 (other than the R8) on this quill diameter. The QC30 is far more common and is a slight modification of NMTB30 tooling.

I can't help you on this old control, but it looks like it has DC servos so I would think that an All-in-one would be a good choice. The old drives on that may or may not work, who knows. Even if they do, how long will they last. Might need new encoders also. An All-In-One would provide you with a clean build with some good solid drives, but it comes at a price that you may or may not like. JMHO. Does it have ballscrews?
Jason Birch
Posts: 23
Joined: Fri Apr 09, 2021 12:30 am
Acorn CNC Controller: Yes
Allin1DC CNC Controller: No
Oak CNC controller: No
CNC Control System Serial Number: Acorn 4882
DC3IOB: No
CNC12: Yes
CNC11: No
CPU10 or CPU7: No

Re: What do we have here?

Post by Jason Birch »

It's ball screws for sure and stepper motors acording to joshua at Centroid. It's coming with all these holders and he said he's pretty sure he has some more but things have ended up in three places since breaking down the shop it was in.
Attachments
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polaraligned
Posts: 231
Joined: Mon Feb 07, 2011 8:03 pm
Acorn CNC Controller: No
Allin1DC CNC Controller: No
Oak CNC controller: No
CNC Control System Serial Number: 1030090103
DC3IOB: Yes
CNC12: Yes
CNC11: Yes
CPU10 or CPU7: No
Location: Montvale, NJ

Re: What do we have here?

Post by polaraligned »

I said it looked like servos because steppers (from that era anyway) usually don't have encoders and 2 wires coming out of them. But Centroid may have been way ahead of their time...Either way, there is an option for you to replace that control as long as the iron is good. I would value it for the iron alone and no controller. Carefully check the head as the bushings wear and they get really loud. Also check the wear on the ways very carefully. I have been thru several BP mills.
eng199
Posts: 372
Joined: Fri Jan 10, 2014 11:29 am
Acorn CNC Controller: Yes
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Oak CNC controller: Yes
CNC Control System Serial Number: none
DC3IOB: Yes
CNC12: Yes
CNC11: Yes
CPU10 or CPU7: Yes
Location: Howard, PA

Re: What do we have here?

Post by eng199 »

Most of the CNC4s did support encoders. It will have MICRO1 drives. Look at one of the boards that have motor wires connected to verify.

MICRO1 has been used with ACORN successfully. The control connectors are for ribbon cables. This means you will have to be willing and able to fiddle around with small wires and probably some soldering to get the drives connected to ACORN.

The motors look like Centroid MAE1350. If you get new stepper drives, the drives will have to deliver about 8 Amps to run the motors well.
martyscncgarage
Posts: 9912
Joined: Tue Mar 28, 2017 12:01 pm
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CPU10 or CPU7: Yes
Location: Mesa, AZ

Re: What do we have here?

Post by martyscncgarage »

Jason,
First, do you have the skills to carry out a CNC Control conversion? Basic electrical/electronics experience?
Define your "budget" expectations
You will need at the very least an Acorn board to get started:
https://www.centroidcnc.com/centroid_di ... oller.html

You will need a PC meeting the minimum performance requirements to run CNC12:
https://www.centroidcnc.com/cnc_pc_perf ... ments.html
Usually any INTEL CPU running at 2.9ghz or faster will meet that. DO double check
You can generally find a PC meeting the minimum requirements on ebay, loaded with Win10, 120g SSD, 4GB of memory for under $200
Of course you will need a wide screen monitor and a keyboard.
You will eventually want to purchase the PRO License once your machine is setup and running CNC12
I would recommend the wireless MPG as well.

Go to YouTube and Search Centroid CNC Acorn. Do some research.
Good luck!
Marty
Reminder, for support please follow this post: viewtopic.php?f=20&t=383
We can't "SEE" what you see...
Mesa, AZ
Jason Birch
Posts: 23
Joined: Fri Apr 09, 2021 12:30 am
Acorn CNC Controller: Yes
Allin1DC CNC Controller: No
Oak CNC controller: No
CNC Control System Serial Number: Acorn 4882
DC3IOB: No
CNC12: Yes
CNC11: No
CPU10 or CPU7: No

Re: What do we have here?

Post by Jason Birch »

I have very high mechanical skills including fabrication and welding, suspension design, amature machining on a small lathe. I'm an equipment mechanic at a museum. I worked in a manufacturing plant with full machine shop /tool and die room. I picked up as much as I could. One of the machinist there is my friend helping me with finding a good machine. I've got pretty good electrical skills and some electronics. I can solder pretty good. My computer skills are fair but definitely not super. I've got some people that will definitely be helpful in that if I can't learn it.
I've got a laptop my brother has and will be setting up with a SSD that meets all requirements including a touchscreen. It would be dedicated to the machine and nothing else. CENTRIOD mentioned power saving things that could be an issue with a laptop. I just asked him if he can zap that stuff out if it. He's an it guy so I'm sure I'll be bothering him alot.
I'd like to spend under 1000$ for the software and acorn hardware which I think is about right since I've got the computer (hopefully it will work). But $300 for the base acorn and I think it was $400 more for pro. I can spend more but I'd rather not since in reality it will be awhile until it's all squared away and who knows when it actually does more than make things I've been designing, unable to produce,you know like make me some money. I'm into drifting so being able to produce some parts with exact geometry for very specific things will be profitable I hope. I've got a design I need to prototype that I think I can patent.
I'd love to look at this thing and be able to ask more questions but it's 3.5 hours away and the owner has it at a shop not where he lives during the week. He's been as helpful as possible but he can't just go look at the motherboard and check the drives and stuff. So I'm supposed to go up this weekend. Maybe I can get a little more info Saturday and go Sunday if I'm pulling the trigger. He's holding it till this weekend on a very small deposit but not sure I can push it another week or not. He's a straight up guy as far as I can tell, his father ran the machine shop and they were in business 60 years.
martyscncgarage
Posts: 9912
Joined: Tue Mar 28, 2017 12:01 pm
Acorn CNC Controller: Yes
Allin1DC CNC Controller: Yes
Oak CNC controller: No
CNC Control System Serial Number: none
DC3IOB: No
CNC12: Yes
CNC11: Yes
CPU10 or CPU7: Yes
Location: Mesa, AZ

Re: What do we have here?

Post by martyscncgarage »

Did you download the Acorn schematic set and take a look at them? Will give you and idea. Look for the Micro1 schematic and the Acorn system schematic.

https://www.centroidcnc.com/centroid_di ... matics.zip
If you go Acorn I will move this thread over to the Acorn forum where you might get more help.

Marty
Reminder, for support please follow this post: viewtopic.php?f=20&t=383
We can't "SEE" what you see...
Mesa, AZ
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