Zeiss RT05 Rotary Table Compatibility with C98 Controller

[[Gr...]]

Thought I would throw this out here to see if anyone might have an answer.
A little background below.

5 years ago the owner picked up a Zeiss RT05 rotary table. We can turn it on and it will rotate but to get it to index it has to be tied into the controller and Calypso software on the machine.
We have a Contura G2 assembled in 2005 and an ACCURA 2 assembled in 2017 both using a C99 controller.
In previous searches we found out this rotary table will not work with the C99.
In June of this year our owner found a Zeiss Prismo MP5 HTG at an auction for less than 8000.00 and jumped at it.
It has a VAST Gold Head a C98 controller and more plates, elbows, extensions, reference spheres, adapters and stylus of every style I can think of. An inventory of those items alone shows he can get his money back and scrap the machine and come out ahead.
Mark chose to have the machine checked and with the replacement of the Vast Gold head and a glass scale this thing calibrated to 0.05 micron thru its measuring volume.
Now after all that my question is, can this RT05 rotary table be used or adapted to be used with the Prismo being it is an older model machine.

Thanks for any help you can provide

Regards
Greg Kozera
BRONSON & BRATTON, Inc.

[[Ch...]]

Greg,

I don't know if this will help, but this is what I know. We used to have a UMC 850 with a C98 controller and an RT05(made in West Germany). We were also told that the RT05 would only work on the C98 controller. That style of Prismo is similar to the old UMC's so my intuition would say this should work.


I actually tried to give the whole package away for free on here a few years ago but no one wanted it. I couldn't find any educational institution that could afford to transport and install it. We ask Zeiss about it's trade in value and that was negative. They wanted to charge us 10K to just haul it off.

[[Gr...]]

Thanks for this information.
Will now delve deeper in how to hook it up and sync it to software.

Greg Kozera

[[Mi...]]

We have a Zeiss Prismo with VAST Gold head.
The machine was bought with C98 and RT05, RT was working. Controller was updated 2 year ago form C98 to C99 and the RT05 is still working well.

[[Gr...]]

I want to thank both you gentleman for the information.
I contacted Zeiss hardware support and since the C98 controller and RT05 are no longer supported, they will not install it.
Wish I knew a retired Zeiss tech that would like to earn a little side money.
Not unlike the dealer mechanic who you befriend and is willing to do side jobs in their garage.

Again, thanks

[[Ma...]]

Greg, I think I know someone who can help you out with this.

Email me and I will share contact info with you.

Markmay@gleason.com

[[De...]]

I would ask Zeiss about retrofitting/upgrading it with a C99 control. Maybe they simply won't install it without upgrading it as well.

We were in the same situation about 2 years ago when we purchased an older Prismo with a C98 Control. We had Zeiss come in and they did a retrofit / upgrade the control to a C99 and they did it on site.

We have been running the machine with no problems since. It did not have a rotary, so that is clearly a separate thing but as of two years ago they were willing to upgrade the control. It was certainly not super cheap but it was not so much it wasn't worth it.

[[Gr...]]

The owner already replace the Vast Gold head, Scale for Y-axis and a A2LA Calibration for the Prismo he purchased.

Wants to hold off with a controller upgrade at this time after getting a quote from Zeiss to do it.