Haas control generation cutoff year

Herding Cats

Hardplates
What is the year that separates the controls that are supported from the ones that are not?

Also is there an easy way to visually tell them apart?
 

Delw

Active member
its when they started the second generation control 2012 ? I believe .
but its just mainly on the control and electronic parts. everything else from what I understand is avail.
 

Delw

Active member
Mines and 09 and not supported and I could have sworn it was 3 years later they changed.
Wheelie hit on it last year or the year before on the other site he might chime in here.
 

Mike1974

Moderator
Staff member
I *think* the visual aide is something about the load meter, one being digital, one analogue, but couldn't tell you which is which.
 

Delw

Active member
I found it.
NGC: Next Generation Control. The latest Haas Automation®, Inc. CNC control. The NGC was released in 2016. numeric keys: The area of the control keypad that allows an operator to enter numbers and special characters into the control. Numeric keys are located in the bottom right corner of the control keypad. OFFSET
 

Herding Cats

Hardplates
Thanks for the answers guys. My dad is retiring soon from construction management and would like to take up knife making as a hobby. He was looking at some mini mills but they are the old control as I suspected.

At this point I'm going to get him a seat of Solidworks and if that goes well then a seat a SolidCam. If he makes it that far I'm thinking I'll just give him my OKK and get myself something faster.
 
Thanks for the answers guys. My dad is retiring soon from construction management and would like to take up knife making as a hobby. He was looking at some mini mills but they are the old control as I suspected.

At this point I'm going to get him a seat of Solidworks and if that goes well then a seat a SolidCam. If he makes it that far I'm thinking I'll just give him my OKK and get myself something faster.
I wouldn't skip it because of the control. We run HAAS machines form 2001 - 2017 every day. The age of the control has never been an issue
 

Delw

Active member
On the control yes from what I understand. they started it like 2-4 years ago I believe.
 

Kustomizer

Well-known member
I have a 2017 ST10 with the old control, I was told that had I ordered it a week later it would have been the NGC, I think lathes were the last to switch.
 

lobust

Moderator
Staff member
True, but if you have a 20 year old machine still running present day... 15-20k doesn't sound that bad to me (of course it's not my wallet like a lot of you :ROFLMAO: )
It's a significant percentage of the new price for what is a commodity machine that is fully depreciated at that point. Makes zero sense financially. To all intents and purposes, that machine is scrap at that point.
 

Herding Cats

Hardplates
True, but if you have a 20 year old machine still running present day... 15-20k doesn't sound that bad to me (of course it's not my wallet like a lot of you :ROFLMAO: )
I just watched a 2014 VF3 go for around $42K and it was a base model. At auction that ends up being well over $50K to the buyer. Then maybe a board goes out shortly after you take possession. Now your $70K into a 2014 machine that cost what new?

While what you say may be true if you have been running the machine for 20 years, I do not see the used prices reflecting the possibly of needing a retrofit. Maybe it's a lack of people knowing this or maybe they just don't care but the math doesn't compute for me.
 

Kustomizer

Well-known member
My oldest now is a 97, I sold a 95 just before moving, the crt died just after I sold it, I think it cost him around 500 to replace it with a flat screen. So far, knock on wood everything that has died on any of our machines has been repairable but I realize that will not always be the case. I moved all of them knowing I don't need all of them but they are used enough to not have much value to sell and they still make parts just fine. In my case I am used to the old control, my comunications work with the rs232, I have no wifi nor a way to get it for a while yet, usb adds several steps and chances for errors. If a VMC died I likely would sell it for whatever and just enjoy the new floorspace but the 97 is a lathe, one of two and though one is plenty I would be afraid to only have one, I likely would look for a pre NGC to replace it though with the small number of programs I load in them, it would be a hard decision.
 

eaglemike

Member
Until recently (maybe still are?) they were supporting the classic control, that last version, that they started putting on machines late 2006/2007. The cutoff wasn't all at once. It was an old chip that they were blaming everything on. It wasn't (isn't?) just the NGC they were supporting. I had 5 Haas machines when they started that stuff, and 3 off them were before the cutoff. I called support, gave them the control version and serial, and checked. If you aren't sure, just give them a call. They are usually pretty reasonable on the phone regarding tech stuff/support.
I actually had better luck with the older machines, as far as reliability.
 

Delw

Active member
Until recently (maybe still are?) they were supporting the classic control, that last version, that they started putting on machines late 2006/2007. The cutoff wasn't all at once. It was an old chip that they were blaming everything on. It wasn't (isn't?) just the NGC they were supporting. I had 5 Haas machines when they started that stuff, and 3 off them were before the cutoff. I called support, gave them the control version and serial, and checked. If you aren't sure, just give them a call. They are usually pretty reasonable on the phone regarding tech stuff/support.
I actually had better luck with the older machines, as far as reliability.
Thats good to know Thanks
 
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