Fadal Communication Woes


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Thread: Fadal Communication Woes

  1. #1
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    Default Fadal Communication Woes

    I have a communication problem with a 4525HT thats driving me round the bend. When I first got the machine I had a lot of trouble getting the PC communications to work ... but eventually won and it worked fine for several years till one part of the RS232 cable went "missing" recently.
    The remaining cable is "fully" wired - 9 pin PC to 25pin CNC (9 wires) .... wired as shown on page 320 - Communications in the Fadal manual .... the "missing" cable was a 9 pin/9pin extension to the 9/25 cable .... how it was wired is ofcourse unknown.

    I only have one way communication now - CNC to PC only .... so I can't send programs to the machine and have tried every combination of plug/s pinout wiring and settings I can find with absolutely zero luck .... including full handshake wiring, linked ends ... e.g 6 - 4 linked at PC and 4 - 5 plus 6 - 8 - 20 linked at CNC ... plus several other variations of linking, renewed the entire cable and plugs (was getting a bit ugly with so many tries at different combinations .... lol), TX/RX and SGnd only ..... etc etc etc.

    PC is an old IBM laptop, serial port equipped that checks out pin voltage wise and is sending ok .... checked out with an RS232 diagnostic program, which also can check cabling (all ok) and even using a USD/serial converter on its USB port it is still only one-way communications.

    As a last ditch effort before slashing wrist's I checked wire continuity right from the 9 pin PC plug to the 1030 16 pin header and noticed something odd .... the 25 pin socket on the side of the CNC cabinet only has 5 wires to it (plus the wire from GND to pin 1).
    They are -

    DB25 1030 16 pin header

    2 ------------------------------ 11 (TX ?)
    3 ------------------------------ 3 (RX ?)
    4 ------------------------------ 9 (RTS ?)
    7 ------------------------------ 4 (S/GND ?)
    20 ------------------------------ 1/2/10 all linked (DTR/DSR/CD ?)

    That seems very odd to me .... based on a FADALCNC.com rs232 setup/diagnostic sheet I found on one of the forums that says pins 4 and 5 (RTS/CTS) of the DB25 should be linked ..... as well as 6, 8 and 20 ?? The 6/8/20 link looks like it has been done in the internal wiring (as indicated by the 1030's 1/2/10 link/s) ..... but there is no wire on the cabinets pin 5 plug (internally) ..... so linking pin 4 to pin 5 in the DB25 plug will have no effect (if its actually required) ???

    BTW, it appears to fail the Fadal G0 3000 RS232 test .... and I'm in New Zealand so I can't ring a tech to come round and plug another 1030 card in there ..... but anyway I think there is more to this somehow .... its highly unlikely to just "fail" if the machines isn't getting used ????
    The last things I can think to try is to try is to link pin 11 and 3 on the 1030's header plug and re-run the RS232 test ..... and maybe link pin 20 to pin 4 on the DB25 (though I think I tried the 4/5/6/8/20 all links before) ...

    I'm lost here and getting very frustrated. ANY help/hints/ideas would be gratefully appreciated .... it DID work until that 9 pin extension cable went missing .... but how could it have been wired, none of the "usual" wiring styles work and it seems no-matter what I do, the CNC to PC download just keeps working ??

    Similar Threads:
    Last edited by Cfin; 05-01-2017 at 12:14 PM. Reason: clarity of pinouts


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    Default Re: Fadal Communication Woes

    Sounds like the replacement cable is kaput. Do you have the test feedback plug?



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    Default Re: Fadal Communication Woes

    No I don't but have tried the usual link 2 to 3 at the DB25 ..... then with also the 4 to 5 link and the 6/8/20 link on a blank plug. The new cable also passes the RS232 diagnostic test from the PC end to a linked 2/3 at the DB25 plug .... so the cable is ok.

    I am pretty sure there is something odd in the way its wired internally .... or a fault on the internal wiring .... but I would like to confirm the RX/TX pin-outs on the 1030 PCB's header plug and then I can check for sure.
    That "required" pin 4 to pin 5 link on the DB25 ... as outlined on the FADALCNC.com diagnostic sheet is whats throwing me ..... as there is no internal wire connected to pin 5 on that socket ????



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    Default Re: Fadal Communication Woes

    Well I made a discovery last night .... I purchased the 1488/1489 RS232 chips (that are on the 1030 card) and was going to replace them. Before I attacked it I thought I would try some more configuration options and cable links again as I was not convinced the 1030 card was bad ... even though it failed the Fadal diagnostic test previously.
    I had no luck and for whatever reason I decided to run the Fadal diagnostic test again. I thought I had the plug pin-outs etched in my memory as I have played round with so many combinations trying to get it to work ... so I didn't bother looking at the numbers on the plug when inserting the pins 2/3 tx/rx link . I ran the test and much to my surprise it PASSED.
    I immediately thought that the cable must have a broken wire in it somewhere or a bad solder joint at one of the plugs ..... but when I was going to check it I noticed that I had actually put the link on pins 3/4 .... instead of 2/3 (link was placed on the PC's 9pin plug end of the cable). WTF ????

    I then tried swapping the wires on pins 2 & 4 on the PC's plug .... which didn't work .... I lost the cnc to pc download communications I had .... and still no upload from pc to cnc.

    I think its missing a link somewhere ..... or missing a GND/V+ at the cnc end .... ?? The link is essentially connecting pin 3 to pin 20 at the cnc's 25 pin plug end .... which according to my documentation equates to RX connecting to DTR ??

    I am struggling to get my head around this ... can anyone shed any light on whats happening here ?????



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    Default Fixed !!!

    I think I was over-complicating the issue here and tying myself in knots......
    The problem was the RS232 receive chip on the 1030 board, I removed the original and replaced it with a socket and new #1498 IC ..... simplified the cable to the bare 3 wire null modem and away it went ..... $4 cost ....

    However I think its worth mentioning - I think I now understand what the Fadal RS232 diagnostic program is telling you -
    if the number is changing UNDER the "testing ..... " line ..... it appears both Tx & Rx are not working (at the boards "serial port")
    if the number is changing on the next line down (think it says - "character not received at serial port ...... " or something similar) .... the Rx is failing and the Tx is working
    if the number is changing on the next line ..... the Tx is failing but the Rx is working

    I haven't seen the above when looking for info on how to fix the problem .... so hopefully it may help others in the future.

    One last thing - when voltage testing I noticed the PC was (at times) outputting right on +25 volts .... which is right on the limit on standard RS232 standards ..... but the new chip spec has this limit extended to 30volts.
    I don't know if that may have caused the problem in the first place but thought it was worth mentioning.



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