Need Help!- I/O newbie in bad need of direction

[tyrant77]

Hello, I currently have a Microcut Challenger LT65 lathe with Fanuc oi-TC controller. I need to communicate with it one way or the other. It has a panel on the right side with the rs232 (what looks like a parallel port) and a ethernet jack on it. I was hoping to use mastercam and hook directly into the ethernet port with first a cat5 cable then a crossover cable to no avail... Parameters look ok, went through 0-3 channels, and continue to get a 086 DR signal off error. So im stuck...... I also have a what looks like old pc pard reader on the panel but nobody knows where this card is and I cant find what kind of card I should buy to get a new one, and I'm also guessing I will need something for the PC side to read this card as I think this PC card slot is pretty much gone the way of the doahdoah birds... I read somewhere in the fanuc manual about a handy file?? I'm lost and just want the easiest way to get code to my NC. ANY advice would be greatly appreciated!

[ben_heinman]

You need to be on channel 5 for the ethernet hook up and set the IP address in the control to match the computer of network that you are connected to. You can use channel 4 for the card reader at the side of the screen. It takes a PCMCIA card or an adaptor with a CF card.

[dcoupar]

To use the ethernet connection, you'll need an FTP client such as WS_FTP installed on the PC(s) you want to send and receive from.

That parallel port is an RS232 serial port. It should hook up to your MCam pc providing you have a serial port on it and a suitable cable. I would guess you have Cimco Edit and it will send/receive just fine.

The card slot takes a PCMCIA to Compact Flash adapter:

PCMCIA Laptop Compact Flash Adapter

and a Compact flash card. I've never had a problem with the old SanDisk cards under 1GB:

SanDisk 128MB Compact Flash (CF) Memory Card