Why is our little Fadal pausing on arcs?

[carbidecraters]

We are going from a strait line approx 4"s long to a 1.47 arc and are getting some pause in the x/y movement as it makes the transition from line to arc....this has never happened before on this mill. Their is no "dwell" programmed.

[fpworks]

I had this problem a while back...service guy said unplug the RS232 and restart. (not cold start) This worked for me.

They also advised that I not leave the RS232 unless I'm using it.

Justin

[carbidecraters]

Really? Man I am not even DNC'ing any parts of the program. I do have a quirky laptop hooked up. Will unplug and post my findings

[fpworks]

I'm not an expert on this sort of thing, so I can only relay what they told me ;-)

The service manager said that the port is always "open," and that "crap" can get into the machine controller and cause "hiccups." (How's that for layman's terms)

Anyhow, when I had this problem, the service guy first asked about G8/G9, then the RS232. According to them, the RS232 is a common source for unexplained quirks with the controllers.

The RS232 was definately a repeatable source of this problem on our machine. The machine could go 2-3 days with the RS232 plugged in before these pauses started again. (rectified by unplugging the RS232 and restarting) Plugging/unplugging the RS232 was not a really acceptable setup for us, since all the programming is done with CAM. (machine's memory is always kept cleaned out)

We run Gar's RS232 optical isolator and leave it plugged in all the time with no problems. (and also reliably transfer everything at 115k)

Good luck (and I assumed that you already checked G8/G9)

[carbidecraters]

Do you have a link for the isolator? Just unplugging the rs232 didnt fix the problem we had to cold start/restart the machine.

[fpworks]

Simply unplugging wouldn't fix ours either. We still had to do a restart. The problem could be fixed by restarting without unplugging, but the "pauses" would come back fairly quicly unless we completely unplugged the RS232 and did a restart.

I'm checking on the link.

[carbidecraters]

The control on this Fadal was a 88hs as well

[fpworks]

yes, year 2005 machine...88HS control

http://www.beta-a2.com/

After a CS/restart, does the problem go away? (disregarding unplugging RS232)

[carbidecraters]

Yes! thanks for the link :beer:

[fpworks]

Right on...the isolator isn't cheap BTW. I think $300-$400 or so.

We thought about just plugging/unplugging all the time, but that was just too damn irritating, especially since I have to move tables and/or stand on my head to unplug the cable.

The 115k transfer speed is really nice and may be worth the price in itself.

It also fixed a weird issue with the spindle speed jumping all over the place while touching off tools. (Renishaw probe)

There was one other weird thing that it fixed also, but I can't remember what it was.

[carbidecraters]

interesting!

[fourperf]

Originally Posted by fpworks Right on...the isolator isn't cheap BTW. I think $300-$400 or so. We thought about just plugging/unplugging all the time, but that was just too damn irritating, especially since I have to move tables and/or stand on my head to unplug the cable. The 115k transfer speed is really nice and may be worth the price in itself. It also fixed a weird issue with the spindle speed jumping all over the place while touching off tools. (Renishaw probe) There was one other weird thing that it fixed also, but I can't remember what it was.

FP, what machine do you have, I have a trm which the spindle speed fluctuates about 100 rpm. I have had the spindle controller card, amp and keyboard controller card all swapped out (1 month left on warranty) I just unplugged the rs 232 cable but did not cs and it still fluctuated a bit. My spindle speed fluctuates all the time (with the rs 232 cable plugged in). Its been driving me nuts. My trm is a 2005 running single phase.

Mark
update. I coldstarted the machine with the rs 232 unplugged and the spindle speed still fluctuates.

bummer