Your welcome Pieter - I've spent about 15 years connecting CNC machines to computers one way or another and am having a good time running a company to do it WireFree. The project started while I was working for MACDAC Engineering (New England resellers of MasterCAM) and when the previous owner passed the battalion to the up and coming generation - I opted to branch out on my own and start CNC Computer Integration. It was a good move and I still keep in touch with many of the resellers in the MCAM channel. Sincerely, John Carpenter www.WireFreeCNC.com

Hi, Yasnac LX3 control communication parameters that concern baud, handshaking are #6026-6028. From the factory they normally have the Xon/off bit shut off so you will have to flip the bit. I have the sheets in the office - from memory if you set the parameter to 00011001 (but check your operation/parameter book to confirm or give us a call tomorrow) it be 4800,7,E,2 and your handshaking bit will send an xon when INPUT is pressed on the Yasnac. Regards, John Carpenter www.WireFreeCNC.com

Chris, We've got a couple customers here in New England still running OSP2200's. Regards, John Carpenter www.WireFreeCNC.com

Hi, Yeah 5020 controls can be fun. Bob has some good advice above - but the spot to look at is in Optional bit parameters and in particular the first 12 optional params. They will set everything from code recognition to handshaking to whether the file name is read in or not on input. If your still struggling give us call. I'd be glad to help out one of Randy's customers. Sincerely, John Carpenter www.WireFreeCNC.com

Hi, One more thing - from MDI mode use the setting buttom on the control to change the punch code from EIA to ISO. Hope thins helps you John

Hi, #1 Make sure pins 6,8,20 are jumpered on the control side of your cable. #2 If you are using com1 or 2 goto your computers settings for control panel, system, hardware, device manager, Ports(COM&LPT), Port Settings, Advanced and UNCHECK the Use FIFO buffers. #3 Check parameters 5110 to 5112 set them to 3,2,11 respectively for 2 stop bits and 9600 baud. 19.2 is pushing it for a 10T vintage controller regardless of the cable length. ISO code which is 7 data bits and even parity will work fine for this machine. Sincerely, John Carpenter www.WireFreeCNC.com

Mano, I have asked around the office here and the other engineers and techs have said that the Seicos M3 controls we have seen here in New England have been capable of DNC operations. Regards, John Carpenter www.WireFreeCNC.com

Hi, Great info rdowns! The above info assumes a DB25 connection on the computerfor the RS232 port(remember the old AT/XT computer serial port that was a DB25 male?) The pinout on the machine is: 15 SD (Send Data or Transmit) 16 RD (Receive Data) 17 RS (RTS) 18 CS (CTS) 19 SG (Signal Ground) 14 FG (Frame Ground - Shield or Drain Wire) One other thing of note on the 2000G controller - parameter #82X selects between (0) for EIA and (1) for ISO. If all else fails on the RS232 side then tape emulation can be accomplished easily with a sanyo denki style BTR (Behind the Tape Reader) board. Regards, John Carpenter www.WireFreeCNC.com

Hi there, hijacking the thread - eh? Well the Fanuc 18i-M comes in two flavors A or B. Both types will not support a 'drag and drop' environment but will allow for FTP access ( From the machine you can do a GET or PUT ) The controller has what is called an FTP client built in. This allows the machine to initiate the command as opposed to someone 'pushing' a file to it - like on the HAAS or MAZAK network setup. FTP is a safer way to connect machinery because a virus can not be pushed to the machine. Anyhow - the A style 18i has two pages of ethernet setup and generally the best way to connect the machine is to purchase the data server option from Fanuc and FTP to and from the hard drive (data server). The B style 18i has ethernet built into the control and generally is tied into connector JD38A (This can be functional quite easily by an experienced DNC guy.) * Note that most machine builders do not have this type of person on staff - so you will have to poke around alittle to find someone to help. Most DNC software packages on the market have FTP built into them as a standard option. Find out who is good in your area and give them a call. We have had great success here in New England connecting this Fanuc 18i controller up WireFree to the network. Regards, John Carpenter Ellington, CT. www.WireFreeCNC.com

Hi, Mori Seiki Mid-American Sales handles service on the Hitachi's in Fort Wayne area. 9587 E. 131st St. Fishers, IN 46038 Phone: 317-577-3723 Fax: 317-577-8246 Regards, John

Hi there, "TVC" parameter do? Tape Vertical Check Regards, John

I agree with elbro. 'It is most likely at the end of the program that is giving you the problem. Make sure you have a % at the end and a CR after that.' OSP700's will read a file and display Varid or Valid information reading until the end condition is met. This can be changed with parameters in the control. Sometimes it is set to EOT or HEX 04 for the end of file character. Regards, John Carpenter CNC Computer Integration, LLC. Ellington, CT www.WireFreeCNC.com

Hi, Since you are from Michigan - get ahold of Dick Waters at http://www.digitek-asi.com They have experience with many different DNC packages and have been involved with the WireFree technology since it started making its way to the shop floor. The Digitek site is informative and discusses the evolution of DNC from manual data input to tape readers and right through to RS232 communications. Regards, John Carpenter www.WireFreeCNC.com

Hi Ken, Yes. The DNC package should have a built-in FTP server to accomplish this. There are several on the market. I would assume since you are talking dataserver - these machines are Fanuc controllers? They have what is called an FTP client built into them. Some machine builders have implemented client and server based controllers but Fanuc was not one of them. The FTP Client allows you to specify the IP address of the FTP Server and "pull" (GET) or "push" (PUT) files to and from them. This allows increased security because the controller is initiating the commands - Not like the old 'auto-loaders' that you could push a file into the memory of a controller and potentially cause issues on the control side. If you need some direction or advice, feel free to give me call. Regards, John Carpenter CNC Computer Integration, LLC. www.WireFreeCNC.COM (P) 860-870-5544

Glad I could help. There are several quarks to machine tools that make life simpler when they are resolved. That is one of the key components to choosing a DNC vendor - it's not just the software or hardware but how you 'tweak' the controls into the system. Same reward is found with a post that is tweaked to a control - so you never have to modify the NC code (in an ideal world)! Now if the post was 'perfect' - we could just bar code the raw material and have the Cam system post the file on the fly while it is drip-feeding the machine... Regards, John

Hello, The HAAS machine defaults to xon-xoff syncronization. While the machine will do software flow control using this setting, it is better to set the syncronization to DC CODES. The HAAS will then perform X-ON handshaking when the Recv RS232 button is pressed. Set your DNC software to Wait for X-on or X-On Hold or however they word it in Cimco and send the file. At the machine - receive and the display should go from Loading... to the O # in the program and then SND Done.. The file will now be resident in the memory of the HAAS. Make sure the first and last characters in the program are a % - otherwise you may end up with a RS232 buffer empty alarm or be stuck in a Loading... mode until reset is pressed. Good luck, John Carpenter www.WireFreeCNC.com

Hi, Ying had some great suggestions above. I can only assume that if you are receiving a file out of the machine and it looks good then the baud, i/o port, cable is set right. With Hardware handshaking, when you que the file up and read - Does the LSK change to INPUT at any point? LSK is a term left over from the days of reading paper tape - it means label skip. Remember the man readable characters in the beginning of a tape where the punched holes would spell out the name of the tape? The machine would actually start reading the file when it saw the first End-of-Block character; The Label Skip would go out and the Buffer light would illuminate. By using Hardware handshaking, like you state above, then when you press input - the RTS line would toggle and the PC would send the data (doing its job). If the LSK light just keeps flashing then it means the machine never saw the end of block character or like Ying suggested that the memory protect was on - this may be called 'Edit Lock' and be a keyed position. There are seperate chips for send/recieve on the O-TC control. It is possible to send out of the machine and have a blown 'receive chip' on the machine. Regards, John Carpenter www.WireFreeCNC.com

Hi Jeff, The Okuma machines require the DNC-B option to be installed in order to truely 'drip-feed' This option can communicate using a couple different protocols. The A protocol does CRC (Cyclical Redundancy Checking) which several DNC vendors have integrated. OKDNC and Xpert/MultiDNC were mentioned above and work great. This A protocol is the safest way to connect into this machine and read while you are cutting metal. The B/C protocol uses Xon-Xoff and also works fine with virtually any DNC package on the market. The main downside to using the B/C protocol is that the data will only undergo a normal 'parity check' so cable distance, noise, speed of transfer, etc all play a roll in determining if the data actually makes it to the control proper. Regards, John Carpenter www.WireFreeCNC.com

Hi, The Boss 8 controller requires a protocol called Bridgeport DNC Link in order to "drip-feed". There is a CRC (Cyclical Redundancy Check) that occurs after a fixed number of characters are sent between the PC and the controller. Eztalk or Easytalk (the DOS version of CNC Innovations/Engineering software) had this protocol built into it. I do not know if any windows based software packages integrated this protocol or not but I will check with one of my employees later today - who used to work for CNC Engineering - to see if the windows product Focal*Point has it. John Carpenter www.WireFreeCNC.com

Hi Phil, ...had major headaches big time with DNC communication with the Acramatic 850SX Are you all set now? 850SX controls can be fun. Let me know if you are still having issues. I'll be in the Yonkers area later next week. Sincerely, John Carpenter CNC Computer Integration, LLC. Ellington, CT 06029 P 860-870-5544 [email protected]

Rob, Under Miscellaneous options set EOB to LF - CR - CR. Your machine is probably a Fanuc and outputting that for an End-of-Block. Hope it helps John

Hi, The HAAS controller has an issue with XON/XOFF synchronization in regards to handshaking...set the parameter to USE DC1-DC4 codes instead. Also - HAAS controllers have a RS422 connector right below the RS232 connector. RS422 is far superior to RS232 for signal transmission. Buy yourself an RS232 to RS422 converter from B&B Electronics (or a similiar supplier) and connect to the machine that way. One of the engineers that works with me also reported that on an earlier version of the HAAS controller he could only get it to DNC properly by using RTS/CTS synchronization. Keep in mind that this would require those lines to be connected (pins 4 & 5 on the machine) and as stated in an earlier reply that hardware handshaking would have to be available on the computer software. As far as cable length goes - the rule of thumb is for good quality RS232 cable (shielded and less than 30 pico-Farads/foot capacitance) you can reliably send 19200 baud using 50 ft cable; For every half of baud rate you can double the length of cable. And vice versa going the other way -- At 38400 baud you should only be using 25ft of RS232 cable. 60ft is pushing it; Lower your baud rate and check the performance. Hope this helps

Hi, If you are using the DATA I/O - Tape I/O to load programs then they must be EIA type files (Normal M/G code files). To my knowledge, these files can not be backplotted using 'TRACE' on the mazak machine. If these parts are originally programmed in MasterCAM then a good option would be to purchase the Camaix Mazak POST and save the files in the machine control as M type files (Mazatrol Language). Sincerely, John

Hi Johnl, If these machines are new, then they either have the Mazak T-Plus controller or Fusion 640 controller. Both controllers have the ability to output either G code or Mazatrol code by using the Computer I/O softkey selection. If you are programming at the Mazak machines then you will probably be using the Mazatrol Programming Language to start with. This stores the data in Mazak format which can be output the RS232 port via Data I/O - Computer I/O. It stores the data in a psuedo looking M/G-code ASCII file with 3 digit M/G codes. The nice thing is that you do not have to use Mazatrol Protocol to communicate - M/C will work fine - The Fusion 640 controller also has an optional ethernet connection to allow a network to 'plugin' to the machine via a peer to peer connection. If these are new 'used' machines then they will have T1,2,4,6,or 32 type controllers. These controllers require a proprietary communications protocol in order to send the Mazatrol Programming Language Files offline. Sincerely, John