03.

2005

Contents
 1 Structure and function ................................. 3
1.1 SP series main machine structure......... 3

1.2 Hand box............................................... 3

1.3 Keyboard............................................... 4

2 Description of user interface ....................... 5

3 Dialog pages ............................................... 5

3.1 Page 1: Setup........................................ 5

3.2 Page 2: Machining............................... 11

3.3 Page 3: PARAMETER ......................... 18

SP Series
C3. User Interface
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1 Structure and function

1.1 SP series main machine structure

2
4

9
1

[1] Emergency stop switch [5] OFF button [9] Floppy disk
[2] main machine [6] OFF button
[3] CRT [7] Keyboard
[4] ON button [8] Hand-box

1.2 Hand box

: high speed

: middle speed (default speed)

: single step

With single step button selected, machine moves 0.001mm

forwards along the specified axis for every press on the
corresponding button. High speed and middle speed each
have ten grades from 0 to 9. The grades can be set freely on configuration page. 0 grade is the
fastest while 9 grade slowest with the corresponding speed 800mm－10mm per minute. With a
heavier electrode, the high speed should be set to 2 and during machining the Timer SP should
also be set a little lower.
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For selection of an axis to jog.

The definition of axes and directions are like this: Facing the worktable,
the left-right direction is X axis, forward-backward is Y and up-down is Z.
The left is X negative, and right is positive, forward Y positive, backward
Y negative, upward Z positive, downward Z negative.

Note: +U, -U, +V and –V are Not Used in this system.

: Dielectric pump ON/OFF switch.

: Serves to pause machining, effective only during machining.

: Serves to continue the interrupted machining. After button is pressed, press this

button to continue.

: Serves to switch off collision protection function. After electrode contacts work-piece,
press and hold on this button and at the same time press axis button, machine moves
further. This button is only effective on current operation.

: Serves to confirm the current operation. In case that the system requests you to confirm

the current operation, press it.

: 1) Terminates the operation in progress.

2) Turns off the fan in the resistance box of machine. The system will automatically
turn on the fan in the resistance box when machining starts. After machining, press it
to turn off the fan. However, you’d better turn off the fan five minutes later to prevent
the power resistance from being damaged.

1.3 Keyboard

See the right fig.

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2 Description of user interface
[1] Data input area
[2] User’s selection area [1] [2]
[3] Function selection area
[4] Coordinate display area

[3] [4]
3 Dialog pages
This system supports three operation pages: SET UP, EROSION and PARAMETER, which can be
switched by pressing Next-Page or Prev-Page. The pages change according to the sequence:
SET UP ↔ EROSION ↔ PARAMETER ↔ SET UP.

3.1 Page 1: Setup

The default page of this system,

Used to make preparations for
erosion process. Such functions
as return origin, set zero, to zero,
movement, edge find, center find,
corner find etc. can be performed
here. Each block on the bottom of
the page stands for a function,
selected by pressing
corresponding numeral keys on
the keyboard. To exit from each
of functions, press Home key.

SETUP page consists of 4 zones—data input area, function selection area, user’s selection area,
coordinate display area, as shown below.

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[1] Data input area: Sometimes, you [1] [2]
need to input data. The following
keys are usable: -, ., 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
6, 7, 8, 9, Enter. The last number
can be erased with backspace.
Press Enter key to confirm. Upon
completion of data input, the input
data display in corresponding box.
If “.” exists among the data, the
unit is mm. If no “.” in the data, the
unit is 0.001mm.
[2] User’s selection area

After selection of one function in [3]

area, you can, with cursor keys,
select some items, such as axis,
direction, speed and so on. Some
items can be changed with space
[3] [4]
bar.

[3] Function selection area:

Display all functions on this page. Select with numeral keys. The selected item turns into
yellow. To exit from each of the functions, press Home key.

[4] Coordinate display area: Display the current coordinate values of axes.

z Introduction of function selection area:

● ORIGINAL
Back to the home position. Home
positions of X, Y and Z are all at their
positive limits.

[1] Press numeral key 1 to enter

ORIGINAL page as shown right:

[2] Select the axis/ ALL AXES to return

to origin with cursor keys,

Note: When ALL AXES is selected,

the sequence of the three axes back to
origin is like this: first, Z, then, Y and
last, X.

[3] Upon completion of selection, press Enter key to execute.

Note: upon axis back to origin, Yellow changes into cyan.

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● SET ZERO
Define the current point as an
arbitrary point in the current
coordinate system.

[1] Press numeral key 2 to enter

SET ZERO page as shown
right:
[2] Select one or all axes to set
zero,
[3] Input desired value(s),
[4] Press Enter key to execute.

● TO ZERO
Back to the reference point of
current coordinate system.

[1] Press numeral key 3 to enter

TO ZERO page as shown
below:
[2] Select one / ALL AXES to
return to zero,

[3] Upon completion, press

Enter key to execute.

Note: You can select one or

three axes to return to zero.

● MOVE
Move the axes to the desired
point by inputting data.

[1] Press numeral key 4 to enter

MOVE page as shown right:
[2] Select an axis to move, as
well as movement mode,

Note: This system supports

two movement
modes—absolute and incremental mode, Which can be switched with space bar. For
details, refer to Appendix1:ISO code “G90, G91”.

[3] Input the amount to move,

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[4] Press Enter key to execute.

● EDGE FIND
Set the electrode to touch the
work-piece for the purpose of
positioning.

[1] Press numeral key 5 to enter

“EDGE FIND” page as
shown right:
[2] Select contact direction with
cursor keys and contact
speed with space bar,

Note: (1) Nine speed grades

(0 to 9) are available, with 0 the
fastest and 9 the slowest. With fragile electrodes, better use lower speed.
(2) BACK TRAVEL—backlength, the distance the electrode retracts after contact
with the work-piece; changeable.

[3] Upon completion of selection, press Enter key to execute.

● INSIDE
Automatically locates the centre of a cavity on the X or Y axis.

[1] Press numeral key 6 to enter

“INSIDE” page as shown right:
[2] If necessary, say a big hole,
move cursor to select X-AXIS
TRAVERSE or Y-AXIS
TRAVERSE and then input the
value of the TRAVERSE for
fast movement segment,

Note: 1) X-AXIS TRAVERSE :

distance to move fast in
X, smaller than the
hole’s radius minus
electrode radius.

2) Y-AXIS TRAVERSE: distance to move fast in Y, smaller than the hole’s radius minus electrode
radius.

[3] Select ST speed with space bar.

Note: ST speed (0...9): 0=fast, 9=slow

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[4] Select the axis on which the center to be found, X-AXIS CENTER or Y-AXIS CENTER, with
cursor keys,
[5] Press Enter keys to execute.

Before INSIDE, position the electrode in the hole roughly at the center. Upon completion the
electrode stops at the center.

● OUTSIDE
Automatically locates the center
of the work-piece on the X or Y
axis,

[1] Press numeral key to enter

“OUTSIDE” page as shown
right:
[2] Select X-AXIS TRAVERSE or
Y-AXIS TRAVERSE with
cursor key and then input the
value of the TRAVERSE,

Note: 1) X-AXIS TRAVERSE: distance to move fast in X, greater than the sum of half work-
piece length in X plus electrode radius.
2) Y-AXIS TRAVERSE: distance to move fast in Y, greater than the sum of half
work-piece length in Y plus electrode radius.

[3] Move cursor to DISTANCE item and input the value of the distance Z axis descends,

Note: DISTANCE: Z distance to move

[4] Select ST speed with space bar,

Note: ST speed (0...9): 0=fast, 9=slow

[5] Select the axis on which center to be found, X-AXIS CENTER or X-AXIS CENTER, with
cursor keys,
[6] Press Enter keys to execute.

Before OUTSIDE, position the electrode above the work-piece roughly at the center. Upon
completion the electrode stops at the center, 1mm above.

Caution: When execution of OUTSIDE CENTER FIND function, make sure that no obstacles
exist within the range of movement.

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● CORNER
Automatically locates the corner of the work-piece.

[1] Press numeral key to enter

“CORER” page as shown right:
[2] Select X-AXIS TRAVERSE or Y-
AXIS TRAVERSE with cursor
key and then input the value of
the TRAVERSE,

Note: 1) X-AXIS TRAVERSE:

distance to move fast in
X.
2) Y-AXIS TRAVERSE:
distance to move fast in Y.

[3] Move cursor to DISTANCE item

and input the value of the
distance Z axis descends

Note: DISTANCE: Z distance to move.

[4] Select ST speed with space bar,

Note: ST speed (0...9): 0=fast, 9=slow

[5] Select the corner to be found with space bar,

Note: WHICH CORNER: (1~4) four corners are available.

[6] Press Enter keys to execute.

Upon completion, the electrode stops 1mm above the

corner.

electrode Work-piece

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3.2 Page 2: Machining

On this screen, program can be

created and file arrangement
achieved. Also, the user can
input machining conditions and
start erosion.

● Function keys’ introduction

This page offers 8 sub-modes, the function of which is as the following:

1 LOAD To load NGM files on hard or floppy disk into memory

2 SAVE To save NGM files in memory on hard or floppy disk
3 DELETION To delete the specified file from hard or floppy disk
4 MACHINE To edit machining program and start erosion
5 RECORD To display erosion history such as depth, time, orbit radius
6 SINGLE Erosion mode of input of depth and impulse No. by the user
7 FILE RUN Erosion with NC file loaded from disc
8 SET ZERO To set current position of an axis as zero point of current coordinate

1. LOAD
Load NGM files in disc into memory buffer. After 1 key is pressed, the following prompt appears:

Load from HD or FD ? (1/2)

Now, type 1 or 2 as required. After keying, if no NGM files on the specified disc, the following
prompt is displayed: No files

Otherwise, a long box appears and

all NGM files on the disc are listed
inside. The first NGM file is in red.
Red stands for the cursor. The user
can use ↑,↓ to choose the file
needed. After selection, press
Enter key to load this file. The box
disappears and the following is
displayed:

Loading...

After loading ends, the prompt

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disappears and an NGM file, including 10 programs from
program 0 ~ program 9, has been loaded in memory. To edit, modify and machine with the
loaded file, press 4 key. If the user doesn’t want to load, press Esc key to exit.

2. SAVE
Save the 10 programs in
memory to disk. After 2 key is
pressed, the following prompt
appears in information area:

Save to HD or FD ? (1/2)

After you type 1 or 2, the

following appears:

PLEASE ENTER THE FILE

NAME:

The file name can consist up to 8

printable characters. If you press Enter key or type more than 8 characters, the inputting process is
considered finished. During inputting, you can modify them with←key. Extension name “. NGM” is
added to the end of the file name automatically.

e.g. Provided that you want to input “12345. NGM” as your file name.

PLEASE ENTER THE FILE NAME: 1233■;

You input a “3” more than desired, You can use ← key to delete it. The name is changed
into:

PLEASE ENTER THE FILE NAME: 123■

If no need to save, press ESC key to return to the state before 2 key pressed. After completion
of inputting of the file name, press Enter key.

If the disc is in write-lock state, the following prompt appears:

Disc is write protected, press ‘Enter’ to go on; ‘Esc’ to abort!

If there is no disc in the floppy drive, the computer will indicate:

Disc is not ready, press ‘Enter’ to go on; ‘Esc’ to abort!

After you insert a disc which has been formatted, press Enter key to continue. When “saving”
appears in information area, Do Not Make Any Mechanical Operation To The Disc.

Press Esc to cancel the operation, the state before 2 key pressed is restored.

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If the file name you input has already existed, the old file will be replaced with the new one. If
the file name is empty, the prompt appears:

Can not open the file!

3. DELETE
Delete the file on the hard disk.
After pressing 3 key, the following
appears:

Erase from HD or FD ? (1/2)

Type 1or 2, then choose the file to

be deleted. Press Esc to exit or
Enter to delete.

If deletion fails, the following will

be displayed:

ERASE FAIL!

4. EROSION
Edit machining programs and
start erosion. A machining
program consists of a series of
technologies suitable for
machining different depths.

This system provides a programming method with an advanced language. Under erosion page,
press 4 key to show a sheet, with six columns.

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The first and forth column show
line numbers, ranging from 1 to
24. The second and fifth show
the contents of the programming
data, with 18 kinds in all,
switched with Next-Page or
Prev-Page key. When the cursor
lies in the second or fifth column,
press Insert key to insert a blank
line in the current position; press
Delete key to delete the current
line.

● Copy of a line or a program

[1] When the cursor lies in Column 2 or 5, move cursor to the line to be copied and press
Space key, with the line number turning red,
[2] Move cursor to the line to be copied to and press Insert key to execute,
[3] Upon completion of copy, press Space key to recover the red number to normal color.

OR

[1] When the cursor lies in JOB NUMBER position, press Ins key and the system will prompt
the user to input the JOB number to be copied to,
[2] Input the desired JOB number (0~9),
[3] Press Enter key to execute or press Esc key to give up.
The third and sixth columns are data areas. A program can call known job numbers (ranging
from 0 to 9).

● Data input
For JOB NUMBER, movement
distance and erosion depth, move
cursor to the third or sixth column
and input data directly.

Note: The erosion depth can only

be input with negative values. If
the input value is positive, it will
automatically turn into zero.

For other data such as impulse

number, orbit type and orbit data,
move the cursor to the third or
sixth column and press Enter key, and at the lower right corner appears a smaller table for the
user to input data. Upon completion of input, press Home key to return.

Program commands:

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rd th
• STOP: to terminate a program. The data in the 3 and 6 column are the position where the
spindle stops.
• CO-SYS: coordinates system to be used during erosion (1~6) ----( G54~G59)
• JOB NUMBER: other program number to be called
• EROSION: electric discharge machining,
the data after it is erosion depth,
expressed in absolute mode. As
the system automatically moves
the electrode to the position 0.5mm
above zero point before erosion,
the erosion zero must be set above
the erosion position to avoid
damaging the electrode. The
following case can be handled like
this:
[1] set zero at Point C,
[2] raise electrode b distance to
Point A and set the coordinate
to zero,
[3] calculate the erosion depth:
depth=-(b-a).
• Z INC: Z movement in incremental mode. The value is the movement amount.
• Z ABS: Z movement in absolute mode. The value is the position to be moved to.
• Y INC: Y movement in incremental mode. The value is the movement amount.
• Y ABS: Y movement in absolute mode. The value is the position to be moved to.
• X INC: X movement in incremental mode. The value is the movement amount.
• Z ABS: X movement in absolute mode. The value is the position to be moved to.
• +Y ST: contacts along +Y and sets the Y coordinate of the contact point to zero and the value
after +YST is the distance electrode moves backwards.
• -Y ST: contacts along -Y and sets the Y coordinate of the contact point to zero and the value
after -YST is the distance electrode moves backwards.
• +X ST: contacts along +X and sets the X coordinate of the contact point to zero and the value
after +X ST is the distance electrode moves backwards.
• -X ST: contacts along -X and sets the X coordinate of the contact point to zero and the value
after –X ST is the distance electrode moves backwards.
• +Z ST: contacts along +Z and sets the Z coordinate of the contact point to zero and the value
after +Z ST is the distance electrode moves backwards.
• -Z ST: contacts along -Z and sets the Z coordinate of the contact point to zero and the value
after –Z ST is the distance electrode moves backwards.
• TIME X: when the specified depth is reached, the machining stops. When the specified depth is
not reached but the specified time is reached, the machining also stops at once.
Expressed in hour.
• TIME T: when the specified depth is machined to, start timer T to continue machining till the
specified time, the depth will never exceed the specified value. Expressed in hour.

• Delay: =0, program pauses and displays “M00 Pause…” on the screen. Press key on the

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hand-box to continue or key to stop.

≠0 the program pauses the specified period of time. The after value is the time to pause,
expressed in second, with the largest value 99 seconds.

5. RECORD
Displays the records of an
executed program such as
impulse number, depth, erosion
time, and orbit radius (step).

Press Next-Page to view the

continued sheet, if any. Press
Prev-Page to see the previous
page. The blue figure at the
lower right corner of each sheet
is the total erosion time.

6. SINGLE
By SINGLE block erosion we
mean the execution of single
block erosion after the erosion
depth and impulse number are
input by the user.

Under page 2 － Erosion, press

6 key, the left single block
erosion page appears:

Two items can be selected and

set by user with↑ or↓ key.

z DEPTH: erosion depth, with absolute mode, it is the final depth; with incremental mode, it
means the erosion depth calculated from the current point, affirmative value means
machining upwards while negative value means machining downwards. Ranging from 0 to
999.999mm/inch.

z NUMBER: impulse number, ranging from 0 to 999. The orbit is free planetary. The orbit
type and planetary radius are to be set by the user as required.

z START: erosion start, when the cursor lies in this item, press Enter key, this item will turn
yellow, which means the erosion starts. All the operation during the EDM is the same as
that in the manual mode. During EDM, the user can also carry out the axis moving with the
axis keys on the hand-box, which may be helpful to alignment. And in that case, the
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hand-box is in the single step mode. The operation is like this:
[1] Press the Ins key from the keyboard,
[2] Press the axis keys from the hand-box, which are +X, -X, +Y, -Y only.
[3] To return to normal machining state, press Esc key from the keyboard.

To exit from the manual mode, press Home key.

7. FILE RUN
Erosion by loading an NC file from a floppy disc. Press 7 key, if no disc in the drive or no NC
file on the disc, the system will
display corresponding prompt.
Otherwise, a long box appears
on the screen and all the NC
files are listed in the box. The
first NC file is red, the color red
stands for the cursor.

The user can use the ↑ or↓ key

to move the cursor to choose the
file to load. After selection, press
Enter key to load. Then the box
disappears and the following
prompt is displayed:

Loading…

After completion, the prompt disappears. The loaded file appears in the program area. If the
user doesn’t want to load, press Esc key to cancel and return to the original state. After loading
the NC file, move the cursor with ↑or↓ key to the desired program block, press Enter key to start
erosion. Press Home key to return to erosion page.

8. SET ZERO
The user can set the current
position of a certain axis to
zero. Press 1, for example, X
axis current position will be
set to zero. Press 2, Y axis
current position set to zero
and press 3 Z axis to zero.

To exit, press Home key.

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3.3 Page 3: PARAMETER

Includes system configuration,
system diagnostics, auxiliary
diagnostics, screw pitch
compensation, impulses, H registers
and dry run. To select, use 1~6 keys.

P1. System configuration Serves

to set the system hardware
configuration and the
measurement unit and
display the language used
and other parameters of the
system. Use↑ or↓ key to select
the desired item and Space
key to change.

Press Home key to exit.

P2. DIAG (System diagnosis)

This page provides diagnostic
tools to check the machine status
and to manually turn on some
machine functions, and displays
all kinds of information about the
machine for ease of diagnosis
and maintenance.

The right part of this page

displays the current status of all
machine inputs and on the left is
the ON/OFF operation of all the
switches. To turn on a switch,
move the cursor with ↑or↓ key
to the switch position and select ON or OFF using Space key. Press Enter key to execute.
Press Esc key to switch the cursor between right and left part of the page. Press Home key to
exit.

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Caution: Before turning on the dielectric pump, make sure the doors of the work tank are
closed .

P3. Auxiliary diagnostics

Press 3 key to enter this page,
which includes:
• CURRENT TIME: system time
• TOTAL EROSION TIME: total of
erosion time.
• THIS JOB EROSION TIME:
erosion time of the present
program.
• zzr_len: distance from Z axis
absolute zero to Z limit
• x_machin: absolute coordinate of
X axis
• y_machin: absolute coordinate
of Y axis
• z_machin: absolute coordinate
of Z axis
• x_motor: number of pulses to X axis
• y_motor: number of pulses to Y axis
• z_motor: number of pulses to Z axis

Press Home key to exit.

P4. SCREW (Pitch compensation)

Serves to input the pitch
compensation values for X, Y and
Z axes. Upon completion of input,
press Ins key to save. Use ‘-’ to
input ‘-’ and Space key to input ‘+’.
Compensation for X, Y and Z axes
is 1µm every 5mm.

Note: The data in this page are set

by our company and the user are
not allowed to modify at will.

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P5. IMPULSES (machining conditions)
The user can edit and check all the
impulses. Press Ins key to save
the data of the impulses from 0 to
999. Use →,←,↑,↓and numerical
keys to edit impulses. For the
polarity, use ‘-’ to enter negative
polarity and Space key affirmative
polarity.

P6. H register
The user can look up the data in H
register but can not modify them.
Press Ins key to save H register
data to the computer. Press Nest-
Page and Prev-Page to turn over
pages.
The user can program to
automatically measure the positions
of multi-pieces and save the
position coordinates of each piece
in H register. Then the user can
enter this page to save the data of
H register by pressing Ins key for
future use.

P7. DRY
DRY has two states, ON and OFF, with
OFF state as default state. To switch
between the two states, click Key 7.

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