On Thu, 08 Aug 2019 20:32:40 -0500, Char Jackson
wrote:

On Fri, 09 Aug 2019 12:00:56 +1200, Eric Stevens
wrote:

On Thu, 08 Aug 2019 16:26:28 -0500, Char Jackson
wrote:

A CNC machine is essentially a plotter. You're sending a series of
commands that ends with a command to execute. After that, the machine
goes to work. There's no real time control, at least not that I've ever
seen. Once executed, the machine goes to work and lets you know when it
has finished. It's not like you're sitting there, trying to guide it
with a joystick.

That's not always the case.

What's not always the case?

It would help to know what the machine is
and whether the problem is the downloading of a control program or the
direct control of the machine.

If it's a CNC machine, as it was described up thread, there is no
'direct control'. Is there a CNC machine that isn't controlled by a
computer? If so, would it still be considered to be CNC?

In other words you don't know.

FYI many (most) cnc machines incorporate their own computer which
controls the machine. The machine can be controlled from the built in
control panel or (frequentlY) from an external computer connected via
variously RS232 or ethernet. Such external control is never direct but
always via the machine's own software. In serious industrial machines
the machining program is always loaded in from outside.


There are two classes of people. Those who divide people into
two classes and those who don't. I belong to the second class.

Eric Stevens