Fanuc 6M-B, DNC/BTR/Drip feed clarification, port ID
I've got an Okuma & Howa Millac 4VA I recently bought. Fanuc cabinet on right side of mill (from the front) has a tag that says "Fanuc LTD Type A02B-0060-B201 Serial 7107991 Date 1984-0" I don't know how to tell how much bubble memory is fitted in this unit.
I've attached a picture of the connection port on that same cabinet that has a 25 pin D-sub connector and a Honda connector. From what I've come to understand the D-sub connector is for a null modem cable to but wondering what the Honda connector is for?
Wanting to confirm that what I'm reading is correct - from what I understand you can use the serial connection for loading programs to the 6M's bubble memory but when you're out of bubble memory, you can't continue to "drip feed" any further G-code into the controls and bubble memory upgrades max out between 128-512k and cost a lot which is why people tend to fit these with BTR units.
Looks like there's a few options for BTR units, all of which connect to the blue 50 pin tape reader connection:
- Factory Fanuc A16B-1200-0270/10F "remote buffer" seems poorly supported and can't find out what its on board memory actually is
- a couple "direct to PC" options that use a PC parallel port direct to 50-pin ribbon header connection, seems like with software these run about $1150
- a dedicated BTR board like what ADR or Memex offers, around $1750-2000 new with software and cable
- A company called "Log-In Inc" makes a BTR board I can't find info on, have found a few on eBay for <$500 along with other used BTR boards
Now I should note, it seems like most of these BTR options outside of the "direct to PC" are very memory limited, <2MB seems to be par the course
- on eBay there's a few "USB parallel tape readers" that fit Fanuc, most of these come from Vietnam or China (so I can assume support is lousy) program length is limited by size of your USB thumb drive and they have an LCD interface to select which program to load, can also do bidirectional comm for saving parameter list etc. Here's a youtube video of one:
these seems to go for <$300
Judging by the countries the last ones are shipping from I can assume that support is poor but if it works, its the cheapest option by far with the most room for expansion. Am I reading my options correctly?
Fanuc 6M-B, DNC/BTR/Drip feed clarification, port ID
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