30 years ago we had a G-code tape editing system for our Trumpf punch press that was an 11/03 and a Teletype. When they scrapped the punch press I didn't take the 11/03. :-(
On Fri, Dec 12, 2025, 10:32 PM Ethan Dicks via cctalk <[email protected]> wrote: > On Fri, Dec 12, 2025 at 9:50 PM devin davison via cctalk > <[email protected]> wrote: > > It's been a while since i last wrote to the list. I have been reading > up a > > lot on early cnc systems. > > > > While recently picking up some left over tech from a shutdown machine > shop, > > spotted a early cnc system with some kind of minicomputer attached. > Looked > > to have some kind of tape drive and paper tape punch. It looked like it > was > > stored under a leaky roof, ball of rust, it looked too far gone to > salvage > > anything useful. > > About 15 years ago, we had a Bridgeport Series II CNC mill with an > original DEC LSI-11 processor board stuffed into a slot in > all-Bridgeport hardware. In addition to manual operation on control > switches, it had a Remax paper tape reader and a serial port to slurp > up G-code. > > Because the PDP-11 only had 16K of RAM, you had to either run jobs > from paper tape (which nobody wanted to punch in this century) or > dribble the G-code in a manner described as "drip feeding". Given > that a lot of modern designs coming out of your CAM engine are upwards > of a megabyte, that's a lot of dripping. > > In the end, it was more trouble than non-technical folks wanted to > deal with so it was scrapped for the price of scrap steel. I was > allowed to strip whatever I wanted - I kept the PDP-11 CPU and the > Remex reader. > > I have no idea specifically what programs were used in the 1970s to > generate the G-code (though G-code can and was written up by hand). > > -ethan >
