[HelicopterJohn]

The HAAS TM-1P comes with 1 meg memory. They offer a 16 meg memory upgrade.

USB thumb drives are now available up to at least 16MEG.

I attended the HAAS Days Demo this week and talked to an HAAS Engineer.

I am new to this so I may have not understood him correctly.

I think he said that you can run a program directly from the USB thumb drive and not have the program loaded into the controls memory.

I also think he said the only down side is that if the program stops for some reason you would have to go back to the last tool change to restart it as the control will not know where it is. If the program is loaded into the memory then the machine remembers where the tool was when it stopped and can be restarted from that point.

Does this sound correct?

The 16 MEG memory upgrade from HAAS is approximately $995.00. USB 16 MEG thumb drives range from $125.00 plus.

If so, is not the 16 MEG USB thumb drive a reasonable option.

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks,

John

[Vern Smith]

John,

I checked the manual that came with my USB equipped TM-1P and there was no mention of the capability that you are referring to. Tomorrow I'll try to make it work although I don't see how this could be done without incorporating the drip feed program. Rather then drip feeding from another computer maybe one can drip feed from the USB port. There are a couple of guys on this forum who I think will have the answer.

[HelicopterJohn]

Hi Vern,

Thanks for your valued input. I also looked though the manual I downloaded from the HAAS web site and didn't see it. That is the reason for the question.

I am going to send you a copy of the Techniks tool offer to see what you think.

John

[cnc_ken]

Don't know much about Hass Controls but if you can use a thumb drive why not a USB hard drive. Same principal but more gigabytes per dollar.

[HelicopterJohn]

cnc_ken,

I am new to all this USB stuff and may have the incorrect name "usb thumb drive". The HAAS control has a USB port on the side of the Control. The item I was referring to is about the size of your thumb and fits easily in your pocket. Is the hard drive somewhat larger? I guess you could cable it to the control to upload programs. I will look into that as an option.

Thanks for your input. I am getting ready to order this machine, if we can come to terms, and just wanted to make sure that I got all the "necessary" options installed at the factory so that I don't have to pay a service technician to install them. Certain things are easy to turn on wth a code. Others require a field trip.

John

[Vern Smith]

Has anyone noticed that all the capitalization in this thread has been stripped out? I went to edit mine and it came up capitalized in the edit box but when re-posted the capitalization disapeared.

This is a capitalization test - ABCD abcd

[HelicopterJohn]

Hi Vern,

Yes, mine did the same thing. I went back to fix it but it didn't correct the capitalization.

John

[Matt@RFR]

I have a VF-2ss with the HSM option, stock memory and I've run programs with 80,000 lines of code directly from the USB. This was engraving at 45ipm. All you do is hit 'list program', select the USB field, select your program, hit the memory key, graph it if you want then run it. It never goes to memory and it has worked just fine for me. It runs as smooth as if running from memory.

[HelicopterJohn]

Hi Matt@RFR,

Thanks for the verification. That is basically what the HAAS Engineer said.

So, why would you want to buy the 16 meg memory option? Just purchase 16 meg USB thumb drives. Correct?

John

[chad123]

I think you are confusing MEG with GIG. You can get a 2GIG thumb drive for about $20. That is about 125 times more storage than the 16 MEG upgrade from haas.

I also went to the Haas demo day (we are getting ready for a vf3 did you get a little Haas machinist vice?) and the rep told me the same thing..

Chad

[HelicopterJohn]

Hi chad123,

You are absolutely correct. I must have been having a senior moment with the MEG / GIG thing. Correction: The 16 (GIG) thumb drive I saw on the internet was about $125.00.

I didn't see any little haas machinist vises. Is that something they were passing out to potential customers?

I need to talk to my account rep and see if I missed out. How about posting a little picture if you have a camera?

Thanks,

John

[chad123]

The vices were being made on the demo machines at the hfo. An sl30 was making the screw, a vf2 was making the jaw, and a vf3 was making the body.

It was just a little thing they were giving away.

I love Haas pricing. 2Gig thumb drive ~$20 online. 2Gig memory upgrade at Haas price of 16 Meg upgrade $124,375. lol, I wish I could markup like that, My hourly rate is $26,286.07 per hour (two hour minimum).


chad

[M_D]

With our new MDC-500 you can load a program on the USB flash drive, plug it into the machine, and run the program right from the flash drive. There are other limitations, such as you can not edit the program this way because even though you can run it from the flash drive it is not actually entirely loaded into the machine memory. I ran a 37 MB program the other day with the USB drive, and it is a nice feature to have.

My opinion is that if you frequently need more than the standard 1 MB of memory either to store lots of programs or because you have larger sized individual programs, the 16 MB is the way to go and well worth the price. Otherwise, for infrequent needs the flash drive is there when you need to run a large program.

Edit: there is definately something screwy the way the capital letters are being changed to lower case.

[Donkey Hotey]

John,

I just ordered a TL1 with the base 1-meg memory. My VF2 was purchased with the full-up 16 meg. My understanding of using the USB port is the same as what you heard. I'd say that it depends on how you intend to use the machine.

If you plan to edit large programs on the control, I'd imagine that having the internal memory would be a good thing or absolute necessity. Of course: 16 MB is a lot of code. I can't imagine generating that much unless you run huge contouring programs dumped from a CAM system.

If you edit offline and move them to the machine to run, USB would probably be the way to go.

It's already been posted but the $195 you quoted is for 16 GIGAbytes, not MEGAbytes. 16 MB is so small, I don't think they ever made a Thumbdrive that small.

I'm seeing 2 GB thumbdrives on eBay right now for thirteen bucks. That's 128 times more storage than a 16 meg Haas for the cost of a fancy lunch. There is no comparison.

I only wish somebody made a USB-to-floppy circuit board so USB could be inexpensively added to older Haas equipment. It's not about the drip feed but more about the hassles of dealing with floppy disks.

Of course, there are abandoned computers out there that are so cheap, a third option is to rescue an unloved five year old computer. Reload it with the most basic level of Windows 95/98 and use it as an offline, full keyboard CNC editor.

Drip feed from the serial port as necessary. Nobody wants old computers. Thrift stores won't take them. Any computer made since 1990 is fast enough for that serial port and robust enough to edit huge files. As a bonus, you can write code faster in Wordpad than on the control.

If you're worried about getting coolant or shop scum on it, throw it away every six months and rescue another computer. Computers that are perfect CNC companions are virtually free today. It's amazing that we live in a country where five year old computers are deemed worthless.

[HelicopterJohn]

Hi chad123,

Nice little gift for open house. They were making some stuff at our local HFO but I didn't ask for one but I am sure they were available for the asking.

Hi M_D,

I think I will fall into the category of seldom exceeding the 1 meg memory, so I think I will skip the memory upgrade.

Hi Donkey Hotey,

Yes, the GIGA and MEGA bite thing was a Senior Moment on my part. 16 Megabite upgrade from HAAS for $995.00 and a 16 Gigabite thumb drive for $125.00.

I know what you mean about the 3.5 floppy upgrade to USB. I currently run a Seiki XL 3 axis mill with a 3.5 floppy drive and RS232 for DNCing files. I currently in the situation of using RS232 with cables running all over the place. The USB option at least brings us into the current century. One small device that can easily fit in your shirt pocket to load programs to the machine control.

Thanks again guys for the valuable input.

John

[Donkey Hotey]

Nice little gift for open house. They were making some stuff at our local HFO but I didn't ask for one but I am sure they were available for the asking.

Ahhh...but of course they were for the asking. They ain't making that stuff for their own use. It's all trash.

They make it so you can take it home and show everybody the part that was made in 3-4 minutes. It's there so you can take it home and measure it and discover nice whole numbers (1.250, not 1.251 or 1.249). It's there so it can plan evil seeds of desire to own the machines that created them. That's their sales genius. :devious:

I have a whole box of their demo parts. I still collect them at Westec. I note the machine it was made on and take the Westec model guide they have. It details the machine, the cycle time and the tools used.

Last year, the SL30 was making huge threaded steel rings that looked like a lighbulb base on steroids. The finished part was about 40 pounds, 8-10 inches in diameter and had huge acme threads cut into it. They were piling up quickly. I asked the obvious question. The response? "Of course they're to take, how many do you want?"

I hefted that monster all the way to my car, then took it to work (my day job--engineer). It now sits on my desk. I call it my 'paper weight'. It actually gets more attention than I imagined.

Honestly: the marketing worked. The first year I walked through their booth (2002) I was awed by what I saw. I collected samples and asked questions. To me it was like the 'exotics' area of a car show. I was at the show to look at manual lathes and mills. It would have been a dream if my employer would have bought one of their slick machining centers but it was 'obviously nothing I would ever own.'

I was simply amazed that you could machine at such speeds and get such great part finishes (yeah, I was disconnected from manufacturing after the 1970s). After seeing the Fadal Toolroom Mill in a trade magazine, I was cutting through the Haas booth to go see it. I got stopped by Gene Saltis of Haas. He asked where I was going. I told him, "to the Fadal booth to see the Toolroom Mill." "Whoaaa, wait a minute, come over here, I've got something to show you." I looked at the TL1 prototype. The seed was planted.

It took two more years before I figured out how I could actually own a machining center of my own. I ended up with a nicely optioned VF2. Now my TL1 should be here in the next week or so.

I've seen a bunch of your other posts while hunting around for information in here. I see that you're at the same point I was. Trust me: those Customer Appreciation events and trade shows are there specifically for guys like you and I.

They are in business to answer your questions. They want you to take those sample parts. That's what makes you a future customer. Don't be shy about asking questions or asking for those demo parts. Many of those that get taken home, probably end up in the trash but for guys like you and I, they are the seeds that sprout into future sales.

Sorry--kinda' long winded but I've been exactly where you are.

[HelicopterJohn]

Hi Greg,

Looking at the TM-1P and just trying to get all the information I can prior to getting into final negotiations.

Let them keep the sample parts and give me a better discount.

John