Looking to add a CDROM or DVDROM drive to an existing, PC based, machining center. I'm having no success finding one that (for lack of a better description) is panel mounting or bulkhead mounting. I've seen floppy drives like this, various electrical recepticles like this, and obviously know of various cable connectors that are bulkhead mounting. All of these I have seen with and without "weatherproof" covers. I would like to find a CDROM/DVDROM mounting kit like this, too. Anyone ever seen one? Thanks.
CDroms and DVDRoms and BRDVDROMS all have mounting screws on the sides. Often the holes are filled with plastic dimples and a runner strip.
Anyway they are still there. They can be used to bolt brackets, flanges and all sorts of hardware. I'd bend a U clamp that held the unit from above or below like an old 8-track or tape drive in a car.
The design of the bracket can be L with the long flat with two screws and the short flat is bolted to the bulkhead.
Or simply buy a junker PC out of for-sale in the news paper - take out the DVD/CD crate and mount it behind your panel.
No. Could be anything for this purpose, just want something clean that will work in limited space, and if possible have a protective door/ cover. Thanks.
There's limited space for such, and I'm looking for something a bit more elegant...
Already been there, done that. I can work, but again, is somewhat inelegant, needing mechanical fastening to whatever panel or bulkhead and a cutout that will require a lot of hand fitting for the lack of being able to both remove the mounting surface or machine it cleanly. I'm looking for something that can have a relatively simple cut out performed and will cover/dress it nicely, while preforming its duties. I've seen floppy drives in what appears to have started out life as an outdoor, weatherproof duplex electrical receptacle. It worked very nicely, and I'm hoping to find something similar. Doesn't have to be SO weatherproof, but let's face it - it's a machine shop. I'd settle for nicely executed panel kit. If I can't find one, I'll bite the bullet and just rough out the hole, hand filing the corners and mounting the drive cage I removed from a PC case, but I'm loathe to have a few bolts out there on front street holding the cage to the panel...
What is wrong with *making* one? You have a CNC machine tool (presumably a mill). Yes, add the "weatherproof" flap too -- to keep a snowstorm of electrically conductive chips from getting into the works. Set the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive back from the panel so you can close the flap firmly -- and lock it down. Add a rubber gasket so it seals when closed.
The CD-ROM and DVD-ROM drives mount by small metric screws, either from the bottom or from the sides. Include diagonal braces, because there will be more vibration than in the typical PC. Actually, the mounting can be two triangular side plates with the bottom edge bent under to screw the drive to, and the front edges bent out to screw or rivet to the machine's case. Make the bottom lips longer so the sides clear the bezel of the drive.
For that matter -- which OS is the PC running? If it is a custom one for the CNC machine (e.g. not built on MS-DOS, Windows, or linux) the odds are that there is no driver in there to talk to the drives. If it is a standard Intel based PC board, it likely has the IDE connectors so you could at least connect the drive, even if you could not talk to it.
Are you *sure* that it is a PC -- that is an Intel based CPU intended to run Windows -- or MS-DOS if old enough.
If it is some other CPU Motorola MC68000 series for example (in later Bridgeport BOSS miling machines) or PPC (older MACs and IBM), SPARC (older Sun workstations) all bets are off. The SPARC ones will want to talk to CD-ROMs or DVD-ROMs via SCSI, not IDE (though you can get a card from a company called ACARD which makes an IDE drive talk SCSI. I'm using one to put a DVD burner in my Sun Blade 2000, which had only a SCSI based DVD reader. Yes, it works fine.
The oldest Bridgeport BOSS machines used the DEC LSI-11 CPU, and there was no provision for floppies, CD-ROMs or disk drives at all. (But it *did* have a nice reel-to-reel punched tape reader. :-)
I guess that the test is whether the disk drives are IDE or SCSI interfaced. (not likely to be SAS, USB or FireWire unless the PC under it is very new.
But why do you want a drive in it anyway? Are you expecting to burn DVDs of massive g-code files and use this in place of drip feed?
Are you planning to install a different OS or an upgraded version of the CNC software? If this -- why not just open the box, connect a bare drive for long enough to do this, and return to normal setup.
I've got a box which started life as a rack-mount Windows box, which now has EMC2 and linux. In that, the floppy and the CD-ROM drive (no need for a DVD-ROM in that system at the moment) are behind a lockable transparent door which also covers the reset and power switches. This keeps the chips out. And -- when the door is open, you can slide a filter from beside it to clean it before putting it back to keep the chips out of the computer itself.
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