Control will "punch" but not "read"

[dansteinmetz]

Control is a fanuc 3m. It will consistently punch programs from the control to the PC, but will not go the other way. Is there a way to check the RS232 port on the CNC? I have a lighted 9 pin box between the pc and the CNC everything looks good there. I shows data coming in when punching, and data going out after I hit input on the control (I have "wait for XON" enabled). The control however just blinks LSK and never registars a new program number or writes the program to memeory. There are no alarms generated. I also know that the cable form the PC to the CNC is good. Can anyone suggest a repair company? I may have to send the main board off to be repaired.


Dan

[dcoupar]

Hi Dan,

3 questions:

1. Where are you located?
2. Have you tried sending back the same program you punched out?
3. What software are you using to send/receive?

[dansteinmetz]

I am in central Washington State.

I have tried sending exactly what was punched (it puts a &he:% at the top/first line of the program).

I am using NCnet-lite from cadem.

I was thinking of pulling the main board, and tracing the circut from the RD pin of the honda connector (pin 8 or 9 I cannot remember). Maybe I have a bad connector or loose solder joint or something. What do you think? Have you ever seen a serial port go "half" bad? I have only seen them work, or not work.

Thanks,


Dan

[Al_The_Man]

The hardware handshake can go bad for either send or receive.
If you have the hardware pins connected, i.e. full complement cable, it could also be your PC.
I generally use a 3 wire cable with the H.S. jumpered out as although Fanuc has to see the H.W. signals, they do not use them for data control, just the XON/XOFF.
Also, on some controls, the % sign indicates end of transmission or turn tape off.
This is the 6m but the pin out is the same.
Al.

[dansteinmetz]

Al,

Thanks for the info! The cable I made has a 20 pin male honda one one end and a female DB-9 and is wired lke so:

Honda----------------- 9 pin

9 (SD) ------------- 2 (RD)
8 (RD) ------------- 3 (TD)
17 (SG) ------------- 5 (SG)

on the fanuc side I joined:

5 (ER)--
18 (DR)--
16 (CD)--

and:

19 (CS)--
20 (RS)--

On the PC side I joined

1 (DCD)--
4 (DTR)--
6 (DSR)--

and:

7 (RTS)--
8 (CTS)--

Does that seem correct to you too? The programs I have tried to send start and end with a %. Does there need to be a LF or CR after or before the program? Seems like I remember dealing with a control like that one time.

Dan

[Al_The_Man]

Looks about right, this is where a break-out box comes in handy, you can see the status of the ports on the LED's.
Most electronic component stores have them, they are usually under $20.00
Al.

[dansteinmetz]

I have one. I have put it in between the pc and the cable. It shows data going to and comming from the PC. Pins 2 and 3 are all I really watched.

One strange thing though. I always make sure that I have the CNC powered on before I power on the laptop. It seems to help with any port initialization problems. Anyway when I first start everything all the lights are green (except RI and GND, they are not on at all). After I send a file to the laptop some lights stay red. It is able to recieve another program so I assume that this is normal.

I have tried to send a program to the CNC after startup thinking that somthing was not being reset, but I got the same results.


Dan

[dansteinmetz]

Does anyone know of a way to test the 20 pin honda socket on a main board?