Need Help!- AAAAHHHH! I think I lost my programs.

[cncclimber]

I really hope some smart person on here can help me. Today, I got thinking about hooking up my rs232 and I started poking around in the parameters looking for some pages relating to that. I NEVER typed ANY numbers or touched input while doing so and now the machine boots up with a FSSB alarm. I cannot even home the machine. I(of course, why would I)never backed up my programs and only have a really old SRAM file. I saved the corrupt SRAM on my PC and reloaded the old one and it will boot up, which means, somehow, I changed a parameter somewhere. The problem is I don't know how to save my programs. I can't do anything until I home the machine. I have tried to compare the old file to the new one on my pc, but being in binary I haven't a clue what to change back. if anyone knows what I might have changed or how to extract my programs from the corrupt file I would be eternally grateful. If I could get the machine to home, even if it wouldn't run, I could save my programs that way. Thanks.

[Al_The_Man]

You posted in the Fanuc forum, but did not specify what model you have?
What messages do you get, if any?
If Fanuc, the programs and parameters are in readable ASCII usually.
Al.

[cncclimber]

Sorry, I am a little out of it right now(stress) it is a 0i-tb on a hyundai kia skt15-lms it is alarm "5138 FSSB:axis setting not complete". Thanks.

[cncclimber]

I can't figure out how to view it in ASCII? notepad automatically opens it and my program editor doesn't have any options to view it differently(I can't find any anyway). it would save my life if I can find some way to copy and paste the programs to a file and save them. Matt.

[Al_The_Man]

Unfortunately I have not done a lot on the i series and only have the manuals for the 16i
But going by the previous models, Notepad would read it in alpha numeric characters.
Programs are as you would type them in.
May be someone with a 0i may jump in here.
Al.

[cncclimber]

when I open using notepad and word all I get is jibberish, all kinds of crazy symbols and letters and such. I would like to think if there is a fanuc simulator out there it would be possible to load the SRAM file into that and re-save the programs separately, but I don't know. Any thoughts?

[cncclimber]

are there any pc based programs that will run as a fanuc simulator or a way to read a fanuc .FDB extension file like a notepad file?

[cncclimber]

O.K., I am headed home and will monitor this thread from there, I hope I can save the last 1 1/2 years worth of macros and programs I created. ( a shameless attempt to keep the thread alive and on the front page in desperate hope someone will be able to help me )

[GPena]

So, you can send programs to the PC but it only shows garbage on the NotePad, mmmmm...you can check on the settings screen if you have the ISO/EIA set to ISO; if EIA is selected that's why you can only see garbage on the screen.

GP.

[cncclimber]

actually I couldn't even send programs, I was getting prepared to hook up the rs232 when all this started. I just made an image of the "hard drive" and was trying to read that. I ended up fixing the problem though. I found what is apparently a little known feature on the control(nobody including the service tech told me about it and I didn't find it until yesterday after running the machine for a year and a half). If you get an alarm and read it in the messages page, there is a soft key called "guide" if you push that, you get an interactive, yes or no guide to solve the alarm. pretty damn cool. I answered a couple of questions and it pinpointed the problem and voila! anyway, thanks for the help, we are back underway with everything backed up 5,000,000,000,000,000 times. Matt.