Communications issue w/ v.9 and Dell

[kmorano]

Here is my story, sad, but true. We installed mc v 8 a year and a half ago. We tried to do it on a Dell Dimension P3866 w/ 128 mb of ram, running Win98se and Mastercam only. It was sending a constant stream of garbage to both machines (Fadal and a Mori Seki). It worked just fine when we tried an old Dell Dimension P100 w/64 mb of ram, so that is what we have been running on.

 

Then I got v 9 and took the opportunity to try a better machine (the poor guy using this everyday!) Installed it on a Dell Dimension 500 cel w 256 mb of ram. It sends the program to the Mori Seki without issue, but does not talk to the Fadal. I tried a second machine (Dimension 866 w 256 of ram, Win2k Pro) and it is sending junk to the Fadal, but talking to Mori Seki just fine.

 

Our reseller has been little help, other than charging us $95 an hour to shrug and say "don't know". When he plugged his laptop in, it worked just fine. He said we are getting a single out the machine, but its not going into the machine.

 

What other info can I provide that will help any of you help me get to the bottom of this? Please help (or try), we are at a complete loss!

[chris m]

Now this is a weird one...

 

I don't see why computer hardware would be an issue here. Is the cabling always the same? Are all of the transmission settings the same from one computer to the other? Communication problems are almost always software setting- or cable-related, at least from my experience.

 

Call the guys at Cimco (assuming you're using their transmission software)and see if they can help you.

 

978-728-0014 ask for CIMCO Support

 

If you're not using Cimco Edit now, download the demo version from their website for the free 30 day demo and try that, its very intuitive and user friendly. If it doesn't work out of the box, THEN call the # above and they'll help you dial it in. At the end of the 30 days you'll need to buy the software but i believe its pretty short $ since you are already a Mastercam customer.

 

C

 

[ 02-27-2003, 07:40 AM: Message edited by: chris m ]

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

You need to find somebody that can test your communications or you can go down to Radio SHack and buy an RS-232 tester. It's a smidge bigger than your Mastercam HASP and has some lights. Also get a serial to RS-232 Adapter (so you can plug this into your computer when the time comes) They are about $20 and no shop should be without one if you have RS-232 cables around the shop. Plug the RS-232 Tester into your machine and punch a program to establish that it is actually sending. If not you neeed to call your machine tool builder/distributor and have them come out. Next you need to plug the adapter in to your computer and the tester into the adapter into the SERIAL (9 Pin) port on your computer and send a program from your computer and this will establish that you are getting a signal or not.

If you are not then call the computer company and see if you have any setting you need to change. NOw if you are getting signals from both the computer and the machine, then your problem is in the cable. Perhaps a loose wire or something of that order, in any case, you can call somebody that does cabling and they can come in and fix it.

 

HTH

 

Good Luck

[cadcam]

Kristina Please call or office we can help.

Talk with Greg. 1-877-611-5825

 

We support Your dealer all the time.

If needed I will come out.

[EZ3PUTT]

Kristina,

[EZ3PUTT]

Kristina,

I lived in Oxnard for 33 years before moving here to Colorado. Where you working at ?

Sorry about the other posting with just you name. Fingers got a little faster than the thinking.

[Jim from Eastech]

Some things to check. If you are using Mastercam communications, there is a check box for "Read PST parameters (Q.80-89)". This could be changing the format for transmission. If you are getting garbage, this is usually an indication that the baud rate, data bits, or parity is set incorrectly.

 

Also, Fadal has at least 2 different format to send programs. One is native Fadal format and the other is Fanuc emulation. This should be set to Fanuc.

 

Another problem with using COM ports with later versions of Bill's Windows: FIFO (First in, First Out) Buffers. The buffers will store portions of your program. You have to go into System manager or device manager and turns these off.

[Anthony CIMCO]

This may be as simple as adjusting the Ports Settings in your OS. Here is what you need to do:

 

NOTE: Specific location may differ from OS to OS, but the concept is the same.

 

1. Right click on My Computer and select System or go to Control Panel > System
   
2. Go to Device Manager (You may have to look across some of the tabs to find Device Manager but it's there somewhere...)
   
3. Locate the Ports section and open
   
4. Click on Advanced Settings or Advanced
   
5. Adjust the Port Buffer Settings to the lowest setting or 1
   

Different COM Port hardware configurations in different PCs can behave differently and would explain why everything worked great before and now only partially works. Common rule: If it worked before and the only thing that has changed is your PC (or OS), it's the PC or OS.

 

If you are still running into problems give our Support Department a call and we will be happy to help. This is most likely a very simple problem to solve.

 

Also, as mentioned above, download and install the latest CIMCO Edit OEM Upgrade from the Patches section on this site to make sure you are running the latest and greatest.

 

Good luck and let us know what happens.

[chris m]

How did you make out?

 

C

 

 

I edited this to remove the bitchy tone of my original post; been feeling under the weather lately. No excuse though.

 

[ 03-03-2003, 07:58 AM: Message edited by: chris m ]

[P_Scott]

Chris,

 

Perhaps Kristina is busy trying out all the suggestions. Kristina if you are reading this, welcome to the forum and we hope you've been having success with finding the answer. Reply to this topic when you can and let us know how things are progressing.

BTW Chris. How has the pc been treating you lately? Did you find the problem with your "crashing"? We can help if you haven't.

[chris m]

Peter

 

My machine is not fixed and I've been told to "stay out of it."

 

I'll pass your name and # on to my IT manager; he'll call you in a month or two...

 

C

[P_Scott]

Chris,

 

Sorry to hear that the problem persists. I suspect faulty RAM but can't be certain without seeing what happens myself. Are there other computers you can use Mastercam on in your office? Hopefully the IT guy'll call me sooner than later. I'd hate to hear that they'd blame the software before checking out everything with the hardware. Good Luck!

[Toolfab]

I really hope that the problem is not related to your Dell. Have any of you ever tried to get tech support out of Dell, they are absolutly awful, IMHO

[Guest]

I thought I was the only one!

Before I purchased this workstation I had only good words for Dell.

But they really lost my confedence and this is my last Dell. It would have saved me money to just send the price of this Dell to them and went and ordered a PC somewhere else.

[kmorano]

Hi all, thank you much for all your input. I have printed it all and will try it as soon as possible (probably Monday or Tuesday of next week). I needed to put the old machine back so that they could use it for a job. I guess you could say I got kicked out for the time being.

 

I believe the tech guy from our reseller did test the RS232 connection and it looked fine... signal leaving pc and making it through the cable to the end that attaches to the machine, but not making it into the machine. He is also able to connect his laptop to the same cables that our pc uses and he can send programs just fine. This seems to point to the pc as the problem, but the RS232 testing seems to indicate it is fine. I'm so confused!

 

What is Cimco? All we have is Mastercam... so I'm confused. Also, I have tried both with "Read PST parameters" checked and unchecked with same result.

 

I'm also communicating with our reseller who has been little to no help on this issue, but loves to bill us for time. Anybody know any GOOD resellers in Southern California?

[Guest]

If you still have problems give this guy a call. He will help you for free. He does this stuff all day long. He has helped many of our customers with comm problems.

 

Greg Mercurio

Shop Floor Automations, Inc.

www.shopfloorautomations.com

(877) 611-5825 Toll Free

(619) 461-4000 Direct

(619)461-5918 Fax

[kmorano]

By the way, Jadkins.... we're in Oxnard on the corner of Rose and Wooley. Channel Islands Business Park. Company is Industrial Tools, Inc.

[Anthony CIMCO]

Kristina,

 

Were you ever able to test the COM Port Settings? (see message above) Like I mentioned, that may solve all your problems. Another thing - you never mentioned if you could receive programs from your Fadal. Are you able to receive a good, uncorrupted, file from the Fadal? Just curious. This probably should have been asked in my original message but if recieve is not working that can tell us a lot.

 

As far as CIMCO, Chris was referring to CIMCO Edit, a free CNC Editor that is included with Mastercam V8 and V9. CIMCO Edit OEM for Mastercam includes editing, NC functions, side-by-side file compare, and a 1-Port DNC-Link (you can setup additional machines but you can only send to one at a time without purchasing an update and additional DNC-Links).

 

If you want to try it out follow these steps:

 

Setting your Editor and Communications app.

1. Open Mastercam
   
2. From Main Menu pick Screen, then Configure
   
3. With the System Configuration dialog open click on the Start/Exit tab
   
4. About halfway down on the right you will see a field titled Editor, if you click the down arrow you will be able to choose MCEDIT, PFE32, CIMCOEDIT, or NOTEPAD. Note what you are currently using (incase you want to set it back after you try CIMCO Edit and select CIMCOEDIT from the drop-down list
   
5. Directly under the Editor field is a field titled Communications. If you click the down arrow you can select from Mastercam and CimcoDNC. Select CimcoDNC. (This will direct communications to the DNC portion of CIMCO Edit).
   
6. Hit Ok
   

Now, if you go back to the Main Menu and select File, Edit and select and NC file it should open in CIMCO Edit. You can transmit the file from inside CIMCO Edit by selecting the Transmission pull-down menu item, Send. NOTE: You will need to make sure the port settings are correct first. To do this follow these steps:

 

Port/Machine Communications Setup

 

1. Click on the Transmission pull-down and select Setup
   
2. When the DNC Setup dialog appears you will see two machines; Machine 1 and Machine 2 by default. Select Machine 1
   
3. Click the Setup button - lower right corner, above the OK button
   
4. With the Machine 1 seutp dialog open verify your communication settings match those that worked with your previous setup and the settings you are testing now (should be the same)
   
5. Note 1: If you are drip-feeding or DNCing to your machine you may want to go to the Transmit tab and check/enable the Wait for XOn setting located in the lower left corner. Only do this if you normally get your PC/Host Device setup to send your CNC program and then go to the CNC and hit Read/Input/Cycle Start to begin the transfer. *You should not have to do this for your Fadal if you are hitting TA,1, Enter or DNC, Enter prior to going to your PC to send the file.
   
6. Note 2: If you are sending a file to the Fadal that fits into the controls memory you may want to automate the process by adding a short string to the Send at start of feed option on the Transmit tab. Enter in the following string: TA,1 and hit OK. This is what you would normally enter on the Fadal control to set up for a normal Send to Memory transfer. By entering the information into the Send at start of feed field it will automatically do that for you.
   
7. Note 3: If you are going to drip-feed or DNC to the Fadal you can automate that too by entering in the string DNC into the same field, instead of TA,1
   
8. Note 4: If you do either step mentioned in Notes 2 or 3 you will want to Rename the Port to Fadal so you don't accidentally send the Fadal codes to your other CNC(s). If you do, once you have completed the steps below, you can go back and select Machine 2 and rename it to Mori..., and modify the parameters accordingly. If you do this... remember, since you are not sending to both CNCs at the same time you can have both Machine setups pointing to the same COM Port Number.
   
9. You may want to do one last thing, while the Setup dialog is open and that is to set up your Default send directory and Default receive directory. To do this click on the Directories tab and browse to the appropriate machine or root directory accordingly.
   

With all your settings configured try the transfer. Any luck? Remember, if you set the Send at start of feed option under Transmit to work with the Fadal you don't want to use that Port/template when sending to your other CNC(s).

 

One last note, when you select Send or Receive from the Transmission menu it will Send or Receive using the active "Machine" template displayed in the DNC Control toolbar. If you are unsure which toolbar this is you can look for toolbar displaying Machine 1 or Fadal (usually located at the bottom of your CIMCO Edit window above the Status Bar) or go to the Setup pull-down menu, select Show toolbars > Show DNC Control Tool Bar and it will toggle the toolbar off, then back on. (Sometimes quicker than trying to locate the individual toolbars using tool-tips.)

 

Well, I've exceeded my word limit for this message, lol, and that should answer your question about what CIMCO (Edit) is.

 

Good luck and let us know how things turn out. Again, if you get stuck don't hesitate to give our Support Department a call.

 

[ 03-01-2003, 01:52 AM: Message edited by: Anthony Graves ]

[cadcam]

Hey Marc that toll free number looks like the one on my post.

[cadcam]

Kristina were you asked to buy a better computer before Chris came out,this seems to be a hardware problem?

 

Chris was not a fault for the charge he is just the employ.

 

But it does say some thing with the computer if it will send to the Mori both ways and receives from the Fadal.

 

Sense it does receive from the Fadal this is not a MC software issue.

 

You can call Greg at my office that would be able to walk you thru a few things that might see if would help most likely without a bill.

 

[ 03-03-2003, 02:37 PM: Message edited by: cadcam ]

[kmorano]

No, we were not asked to buy a better pc before Chris came out. All the pcs we have tried have met the requirements for Mastercam. My preference is to get it running on the P3 866 w/256 mb of ram, but it isn't happening. Since no one is saying "you need a faster processor" or "you need more ram" or "this pc is just too old"... I would fear having the same problems if I purchased a new pc!

 

I do not blame Chris for the charge... I understand how it works. I'm willing to pay someone to fix it, but I need it fixed! I will try Greg. Thank you for the suggestion.

[Guest]

Sorry Jay. I didn't know you and Greg work at the same place. I just talked to Greg a few months back and he offered his services to us and our customers. He said he was trying to get his foot in the door to some new places. I will defer to you in the future if you wish.

[cadcam]

Marc NO resion for a sorry here.

[Xtreme Machine]

Ok.. Thats enough of this!

 

Hello everyone its me.. Stefan at CAD/CAM.. Hello to my good friends.

 

Jay Kramer (Precision Programing)

James Meyette (4 Flight)

Greg (Shop Floor)

 

In Which Are My Customers besides being good partners and friends.

 

So since Kristina told you her story .. please let me tell you Mine...This issue goes back to December 2001 here is a quick run down.

 

12/12/01 Chris went there to see if he can help them with the communications problem. Per her e-mail of 12/11/01: We are still having communication problems with the new MasterCam. What is the return policy on the upgrades? If we can't get this to work for us, we'll have to look for another way.

 

01/02/2002: The communication problem seems to be solved since they installed MC on a new computer,

 

all was well till...

 

02/03/03: We have installed Mastercam Mill and Lathe vs. 9 on a different computer than we had vs. 8 installed on. The "new" computer is a Dell 500celeron with 128 mb of ram. The install went without a hitch, as did the HASP upgrade. However, we are having a problem getting it to communicate to the machines. It will talk to the Mori Seki, but not to the Fadal. I'm not quite sure what else to try at this point. Is there anyone there who can help or should we contact CNC directly? Not sure what other information to give you...

 

This is when I tried to help her since I am the Mastercam Rep for her now.. Now we all know Chris K. and his Knowledge of Mastercam and that he is a true expert on Mastercam...

 

I have sent Chris there Time after Time at no cost to help her. When Chris told her what she needed to do she did only one thing Upgrade the windows to 2000. This is not what Chris suggested. and as far as this goes...

 

quote:

---

---

I'm also communicating with our reseller who has been little to no help on this issue, but loves to bill us for time. Anybody know any GOOD resellers in Southern California?

 

You have not paid for anything.. I am your dealer and have not charged you anything so I dont understand that, you have been getting free support and now you complain about that.. I can start billing now if you would like but I am trying to help you but instead of calling me about this issue you do this instead..??? We are one of the Top Mastercam Dealers in the world, and I am willing to be helpful to you 24 hrs but not like this. I am available to my customers 24hrs and on weekends, but you need to call me about this.

 

I have discussed this issue with our President Tom Shelar and CNC software. and we will be seeing you Monday Morning.. unfortunately after this isssue is resolved we will have to start billing for On-Site services.

 

Those of you(Most of you) that know Chris and I know how much we love Mastercam and our customers and take a great pride in what we do. I'm sorry if anyone got a bad impression of our ability or service by this remark from a customer who would not even call me to resolve this issue before stating such remarks on the Forum. but if Kristina wants to call Greg at shop floor to help ok you can... but he will just call me, It seems easier to let me know about the issue instead.

 

Thank you for reading..

 

Stefan Brigati

Corporate Sales Division

CAD/CAM Consulting Services

 

To: James / Jay / Greg L8R

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

Woooooo Hooooo. Stafan B layin' the smack down. You go Stef!

 

 

CELERON? ROFL!!!!!!!

 

Chris has forgotten more about Mastercam than I'm sure I'll ever know.

 

CAD/CAM Consulting Services is one of the finest CAD/CAM resellers in the business. You probably won't find a more knowledgeable staff anywhere. The 6 people I'm thinking of probably have around 100 years combined experience with CAD/CAM. You won't find that in many places.

 

So with that said, if they can't find the problem with the hardware then it must be a seat-keyboard problem.

 

JM2C