Anthony, Thanks for the response and information I will Check the voltage on the cable combinations on Monday. (the cable is approx. 6 ft.) I feel that you make a valid point that the USB voltage may be too low to adequately push the program. I am seriously leaning towards the PCMCIA to Serial adapter recommended by Bullines. I have tried turning down the baud rates in the controller and the Laptop with no success. I will give you a call after I try a few other things that have been suggested. Alan, I will try your suggestion first thing Monday. Thank you all, this forum is fantastic! tsewyek Clearwater, Florida Mill Level 1 and Lathe

Bucket, the error I receive is vague at best, stating only that there is a parity error, baud rate problem, stop bits are incorrect, etc; it is always the same one and it is instantly displayed upon the start of the download. Bullines, Thanks for the suggestion I had not seen the PCMCIA Serial adapters before, I myself was very leary of the USB to Serial adapter, and as I say the only obvious difference between the two is the lack of the Serial port on the new Laptop. Thanks So much for quick response! tsewyek Clearwater, Florida Mill Level 1 and Lathe

Hi All, I recently purchased a new Toshiba Laptop that unfortunately does not have a serial port, but does have three USB 2.0 ports. The specific problem that I am experiencing is that I have also purchased a Belkin USB to serial port adapter, and to date have not had any success downloading programs to my Fanuc 18M Controller. I have used a variety of communication programs including the Cimco version that comes with MasterCam. I have also gone so far as to fabricate a loopback plug for the serial port adapter to verify that I am able to send and receive properly and all appears to be well. The moment I start to download, the Controller alarms out with a communication error. I have tried a variety of settings in the controller and the Laptop with absolutely no success. I am still able to download to the machine using my old laptop with the same settings as the new one, the only obvious difference between the two is the lack of a serial port on the new Laptop. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks to all in advance. Tsewyek Clearwater, Florida Mill Level 1 and Lathe

Lived in Greenwood Sc. and Laurens Sc. for five years. Moved back to Florida this past summer. Still have a Log Cabin in Laurens on a 500 acre lake for sale. Times are pretty bad in the area. tsewyek

james, I have used Both Vantage by Epicor and Visual Mfg. by Lilly, both are pricey but excellent packages. just my .02 tsewyek

Thanks Chris M I will probably do that when things settle down a little, we have just got the machine running its first job and the owners are breathing down my neck to get it going! Thanks Walt Shields

Tonyg, I'm not sure why it dosen't ignore the second tool callup but with a sixty tool magazine, it takes a while to make it around. What makes it even worse the tool changer actually has the next tool staged outside of the magazine when it puts it back and makes a complete revolution to the same tool. Thanks Walt Shields

Hi BerTau, Sorry for any confusion, but that did the trick thank you so much for the quick response. Thanks Again Walt Shields

Good Afternoon All, We have a large Horizontal Boring Mill with Fanuc 18M controls, I have changed my Post so that the M6 command is in the block following the tool callup, I would like to output a block delete on the tool callup line to prevent the toolchanger from rotating around again after I have previously pre-staged the next tool. I have been able to post the block delete, but it does it at the line with the M6 command as well. I would ask my Dealer but it is Sunday and I would hope to have a solution for tomorrow, any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Walt Shields

Thanks For the Quick Response Jay, I'll give that a shot. Walt Shields

Hello All, Our shop has just purchased MasterCam Level 1 and Lathe, We have also purchased a large CNC Horizontal Boring Mill. Although I am not exactly new to MasterCam (have used it at other Jobs) I am new to programming for Horizonal Machines. My question is that, I have drawn what amounts to a 24.5" x 40" rectangle that gets faced, drilled bored etc. I have drawn it as it would sit on the machine, with my WCS, tplane set to Front, when running verify, the orientation is incorrect no matter settings I use. What am I doing wrong? Maybe a dumb question but I'm asking anyway. Thanks In Advance Walt Shields