Buffer Overflow

[IZN]

Hello, I've been reading this forum for a while but this is my first post.

I recently got a used Mori Seiki machining center,with a Fanuc 10M control, and I'm trying to get it to drip feed using Procomm plus. It will run the program for a short while and then I get a "Buffer Overflow" on the control. I called the machine builder and they told me to contact Fanuc. I called Fanuc and they told me to call the machine builder. I was hoping one of you could help me.

 

Thanks.

[Jean-Simon]

Hi IZN,

Welcome to the forum! For your problem, the first thing to make sure would be that your baud rate settings are the same on the machine and on your computer and if it still gives you problems, try to start low like 4800, depending if your machine is very old start lower. HTH!

 

Simon

[IZN]

I double checked the baud rate and they are both set at 2400. It almost seems like the PC isn't getting a signal from the control to make it stop sending information.

[Thad]

Are you able to send programs into the control without getting this error?

 

Did you check the help file?

 

Welcome to the board.

 

Thad

 

[ 08-18-2003, 03:15 PM: Message edited by: Thad ]

[Jean-Simon]

I don't know nothing about Procomm but I would tell you to go with DNC-Max from CIMCO, ask your dealer for an eval and see if you still get that error.

 

Simon!

[2 flute]

How long is the cable that can also cause problems. I think the recommended length is 50 feet or shorter.

[IZN]

I can load a complete program into the control without any problems. The control only has 8K of program storage so I am very limited on what I can run on this machine until I get it to drip feed.

[Christian Raebild]

IZN, I think your problem is the FIFO buffer on the PC's port. You need to disable it or set it to lowest setting (depending on your Windows version, if you can disable it, do that).

 

What happens is that the PC does receive the signal to stop sending (assuming your handshaking is set correctly), but the data in the FIFO buffer is still sent.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

GE Fanuc

 

Give this site a try.

 

HTH

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

Or this one...

 

GE Fanuc Support

[Rick Damiani]

Serial commuications can be a bit of a black art. You need to verify that both sides of the connection are set to the same baud, bits, handshaking, and flow control. If you are getting some data through but is seems that Procom is not waiting when the buffer is full, look at the flow control settings. Xon/Xoff is software control, while RTS/CTS is hardware control. Both devices need to be set to the same thing or when one yells 'stop' the other won't be able to hear it.

[crazy^millman]

Rick you hit the nail on the head. One other thing to add you have DNC ability with the Standard Cimco Edit on one Machine I have never had any problem with it. I also do a DNC with Mastercam to one Machine and do DNC with Cimco to antother Machine thus I have the Ability to DNc to 2 machines at the same time Legally without having to buy the Professional version of Cimco and with 2 seat of Mastercam I can DNc to the 4 Machines we have without buying anything extra it is a pain sometime moving the Sim around since we sometimes use other computers for DATA storage but hey whatever works.

 

Good Luck

 

Crazy Millman

[IZN]

I'm under the assumption that the control uses the software setting over a baud rate of 2400 and the hardware setting under 2400. Is this correct or is there a parameter setting for this?

[Todd Mann from Fastech]

Right click on my computer, go to hardware tab, device manager, open ports, select com port in question, go to port settings tab, advanced button, turn FIFO off.

[IZN]

Thanks for the replies. I tried everything you guys suggested but I'm still having problems. I'm going to try using a different program rather than Procomm.

[I.C.O.N.]

what version of procomm are you using?

 

[ 08-19-2003, 03:16 PM: Message edited by: I.C.O.N. ]

[IZN]

Procomm plus 4.7

[I.C.O.N.]

have you tried character or line pacing? your baud rate my be correct but if the machine is still cutting it may not be ready to process next line.

 

[ 08-19-2003, 03:50 PM: Message edited by: I.C.O.N. ]

[IZN]

I found "line pace" on Procomm. What does it do?

[I.C.O.N.]

I am using v1.1(what do you mean DOS?) so this may be old but it should still be applicable.

 

line pacing specifies the delay (in tenths of a second) between sending each line.(a buffer)

 

I think another posibility is pace character

unlike character pacing, which is line pacing broken down to characters. pace character is used to ensure that the remote computer has recieved each line of data before the next line is sent.

 

you may need a combination of the two to give your machine time to think cut and repeat.

 

Good luck!

[IZN]

I have two different versions of Procomm. The old one (DOS) doesn't run through Microsoft windows, Procomm Plus does.

I have a "delay between characters" option and a "delay between lines" option.

If I put a value in either one of these, the mill runs the first part of the program very choppy because it's using the program lines quicker than it is recieving them. When it reaches a line that takes a long time to execute, like a big radius, the PC is able to catch up and is able to send lines of information to the control before it needs them and the mill smooths out. After a while, depending on my where my feedrate override is set, the buffer on the control fills up and sends a signal to the PC to stop sending information. This seems to be working because I can see the lines on the PC stop sending. After a little while I'll get a "buffer overflow" and it looks like the mill runs out of lines to execute.

[I.C.O.N.]

If the pc never starts sending the file again it may have timed out.

check time out settings and up them if needed.

I don't see any other options that are linked to the timing of the file.

[IZN]

It turns out, the parameter to send an Xon signal to the PC was set wrong. It's working great now. Thanks for the help.

[jeff]

The FIFO buffer switch solved all my problems.

I was getting the buffer overflow alarm for the past year and was about to "fix" the problem with a big hammer!

[crazy^millman]

Thank you for the update Jeff.

 

Crazy Millman