Many years ago I was planning to buy a Milling machine with a ProtoTrak Controller which is basically the same as your EzTrak. This was back in the days when Machine Centres weren't so user friendly with Conversational Controllers for making simple parts. It seemed like the perfect alternative for these parts. But unfortunately, the people who were bringing these Milling machines in with the Protrak controller had such a huge mark up on them it was almost cheaper to just buy a Machining Centre ?? They definitely make it nice and easy to produce simple parts. My only complaint would be lack of rigidity compared to a Machining Centre.
For sure the rigidity one needs to factor for. It is a brigdeport after all, you have to make sure everything is sucked up tight and low overhang, bolts on the head real tight. I have moved the head during milling. And have pushed the button prematurely and snapped a couple drills off clean. Lol
Hi, i just replaced the floppy on my eztrak DX with a 1.44MB USB Floppy Drive Emulator fr GOTEK ,it holds 100 floppys worth of data and i can post from fusion 360 with eztrak conversational post, to a usb stick and plug the usb into the bridgeport but you need to keep them simple to remember where to set Z height halfway through your program, you can also add a .txt extension to gcode files and it will convert them on the eztrak. If you hit F9 when its running a programe you can see the gcode on screen 👍👍Thanks for the video
@@helixmetalworks Model : FDD-UDD U144K ________ Got it off ebay, think it a clone of GOTEK, not sure the model number really matters as i have just fitted another one to a hyundai cnc lathe and it just worked straight out the box, only thing i had to do was format the usb stick when it was in the emulator, just hold the two buttons when you turn the machine on, formatting on the laptop didn't work for me I did this on a bridgeport DX model, it runs on a hard drive so no need to touch the boot file, sounds like you have SX model with only floppy drive it should still be possible to swap it out as the emulator has storage for 100 discs, im not sure how to do it but probably connect the emulator to same ribbon cable as your floppy and copy all files with the control menu, 9 key, then unplug your old floppy some ribbon cables have 3 or 4 plugs and pin one is next to the side with the tracer, they should also have four wires that are twisted between two plugs and thats how the machine can tell the difference between the floppy's
@@helixmetalworks Model : FDD-UDD U144K -------------got it on ebay £20, dont think it really matters, mine has 34 pin socket, comes with a mini cd which you dont need. i fitted it to bridgeport DX which runs on a hard drive and only uses the floppy for data transfer, sounds like you have SX model without the hard drive should still be possible to swap it over, im not sure but i would give it a go if you have an extra plug on the ribbon cable to the floppy, you can probably plug in your emulator and copy your floppy from the menu on the control box, pin one is next to the tracer wire, thats imporant as some sockets accept the cable the wrong way round you need to fromat the usb stick by holding the two buttons when you power the machine on, it will start countin on the display if its working, formating on the laptop didnt work for me I have just fitted another random emulator to a cnc hyundai lathe and it worked straight out the box, didnt come with cables and im not sure any of them do just remenber this is old tech, is runs slow and is not hot swapable,
Many years ago I was planning to buy a Milling machine with a ProtoTrak Controller
which is basically the same as your EzTrak.
This was back in the days when Machine Centres weren't so user friendly with Conversational Controllers for making simple parts.
It seemed like the perfect alternative for these parts.
But unfortunately, the people who were bringing these Milling machines in with the
Protrak controller had such a huge mark up on them it was almost cheaper to just
buy a Machining Centre ??
They definitely make it nice and easy to produce simple parts.
My only complaint would be lack of rigidity compared to a Machining Centre.
For sure the rigidity one needs to factor for. It is a brigdeport after all, you have to make sure everything is sucked up tight and low overhang, bolts on the head real tight. I have moved the head during milling. And have pushed the button prematurely and snapped a couple drills off clean. Lol
Hi, i just replaced the floppy on my eztrak DX with a 1.44MB USB Floppy Drive Emulator fr GOTEK ,it holds 100 floppys worth of data and i can post from fusion 360 with eztrak conversational post, to a usb stick and plug the usb into the bridgeport but you need to keep them simple to remember where to set Z height halfway through your program, you can also add a .txt extension to gcode files and it will convert them on the eztrak.
If you hit F9 when its running a programe you can see the gcode on screen
👍👍Thanks for the video
What model # emulator, did you just transfer the boot file and change root directory?
@@helixmetalworks Model : FDD-UDD U144K ________ Got it off ebay, think it a clone of GOTEK, not sure the model number really matters as i have just fitted another one to a hyundai cnc lathe and it just worked straight out the box, only thing i had to do was format the usb stick when it was in the emulator, just hold the two buttons when you turn the machine on, formatting on the laptop didn't work for me
I did this on a bridgeport DX model, it runs on a hard drive so no need to touch the boot file, sounds like you have SX model with only floppy drive
it should still be possible to swap it out as the emulator has storage for 100 discs, im not sure how to do it but probably connect the emulator to same ribbon cable as your floppy and copy all files with the control menu, 9 key, then unplug your old floppy
some ribbon cables have 3 or 4 plugs and pin one is next to the side with the tracer, they should also have four wires that are twisted between two plugs and thats how the machine can tell the difference between the floppy's
@@helixmetalworks Model : FDD-UDD U144K -------------got it on ebay £20, dont think it really matters, mine has 34 pin socket, comes with a mini cd which you dont need.
i fitted it to bridgeport DX which runs on a hard drive and only uses the floppy for data transfer, sounds like you have SX model without the hard drive
should still be possible to swap it over, im not sure but i would give it a go
if you have an extra plug on the ribbon cable to the floppy, you can probably plug in your emulator and copy your floppy from the menu on the control box, pin one is next to the tracer wire, thats imporant as some sockets accept the cable the wrong way round
you need to fromat the usb stick by holding the two buttons when you power the machine on, it will start countin on the display if its working, formating on the laptop didnt work for me
I have just fitted another random emulator to a cnc hyundai lathe and it worked straight out the box, didnt come with cables and im not sure any of them do
just remenber this is old tech, is runs slow and is not hot swapable,