There are/were options for large buffers used with drip feeding, but they really are not needed.
Drip feeding is really a very basic and fundemental aspect of communications - it is not a machine tool "feature". All that is happening here is this....
Machine in Tape Mode, press cycle start, send program to machine...
The machine will accept as much CNC data as it can till it's buffer is full. At this point is sends a "Stop" code to the host computer. As the machine uses up more the CNC program in it's buffer, a "Start" command is sent to the host computer to send more data. This repeats until the end of the program is reached.
The "Stop" and "Start" commands are basic communications commands. They can be either a hardwire configuration (cable wireing) or a software configuration (X-on, X-Off - in FANUC terminology Control codes are used).
That is really all there is to it.
So at the machine end of things you need tape mode, which causes the CNC to read data from the input rather than memory. You need an RS232 port configured for hand shaking (Control codes are used in the parameters) and you need a cable to the host computer.
The host computer needs to have handshaking setup the same way (X-On X-Off).
That's about all there is to it.
Chris  |