Need Help!- trying to set up my RS232 on my fanuc 0itb

[cncclimber]

I am trying to find information on setting up my rs232 cable and can't find it anywhere in the manuals. I am building my own cable and need to know the layout of the pins from a 9 pin male to a 25 pin male. I could swear it is in the books somewhere but I can't find it. I am using some CAT5e ethernet wire we had on hand and just bought the plugs for the ends. also any info on parameters would be helpful, I found them on accident a few weeks back and don't know where they were. Thanks.

Machine info: Kia skt15 LMS fanuc 0itb control.

[wms]

How about this??

[cncclimber]

thanks man, that is just what I was looking for!

[cncclimber]

O.K. I am still beating my head against a wall here. I have the cable configured as said, I have been through several plugs, my solder joints are beautiful and the wires are in the correct location(pins). I have 4+5 jumpered as well as 6,8 and 20 on the machine. The problem is I keep getting an "086 DR signal off" alarm, and it is random about how it does it. I can send from the machine to the computer mostly o.k. but sending from the computer to the machine is not working at all. I get some of the program, ranging from just a line or two to almost all of it, one time I did get it all. It is always the same alarm. I have tried baud rates from 300 to 4800, changing it doesn't make it send more or less, it is random no matter what the rate is set at. I used a CAT5E cable and soldered a female DB9 on the computer end and a male DB25 on the fanuc end. I was told at first that the ethernet cable was actually a better cable and have read conflicting reports on that too. the problem is what comes through is clean and not gibberish, it just is not all getting there. everything I have read says that jumpering the 6,8,20 pins will take care of the DR signal, but that doesn't seem to be the case here. any suggestions would be very helpful. Thanks.

[bborb]

I've had good luck with this configuration:
http://www.kfasllc.com/rs232_cable.htm
from:
http://www.kfasllc.com/rs232_setup.htm

[cncclimber]

Thanks for the reply, but that is what I have. I have spent countless hours on the internet researching this and I keep coming up with the same problem: I can send from the machine to the computer, but not from the computer to the machine. I am at a total loss, the alarm I get is a "DR signal off". I am thinking maybe the computer just doesn't have enough power to send the signal and I may just need a signal booster to make it work. It is only going about 50-60 feet, but I don't know what else it could be.

[Al_The_Man]

This is where a RS232 break out box comes in handy to verify the DR signal level, if you are on the right port, and it sounds like you are, and the handshake is satisfied via the jumper, then it could well be a defective DR input on the RS232 IC in the controller.
I am not familiar with the circuitry in the i series.
I usually trace it back from the RS232 MB socket.
Al.

[cncclimber]

we had a guy that is supposed to be pretty good with electronics come out and look at it and put a rs232 box that verified it was sending the data ready signal, all the voltages looked good and he even put a scope on it and said everything was well within tolerances of standard rs232 specs. he seems to think there are some protocol issues, but all the settings on both ends match and are set to what info I can find on the net.....like I said, I'm so confused.

[Al_The_Man]

If the signals are satisfied, then is certainly looks like it might be a defective input, it has happened before.
As long as they have not used surface mount technology IC's, the chip can usually be replaced, I always put an IC socket in for future problems.
Al.

[cncclimber]

If that's the case, maybe we can get our dealer to do some sort of warranty on it. we bought the machine new almost 2 years ago and never hooked up the RS232 before. Thanks, I will run it by them.

[Dan Fritz]

May I suggest that you try one more cable configuration before you give up and call the dealer. Try this:

Fanuc side (25-pin) --- PC side (9-pin)
pin 1 --------- cable shield
pin 2 --------------------------- pin 2
pin 3 --------------------------- pin 3
pin 5 --------------------------- pin 7
pin 7 --------------------------- pin 5
pins 6 & 8 ---------------------- pin 4

This configuration ties the DR signal (pin 6 on the Fanuc) to the DTR signal from the PC side (not from the Fanuc side). This insures that the DR signal is held on whenever the PC has the serial port open. I've seen situations where the 6-8-20 jumper on the Fanuc side didn't work as expected. It works on about 95% of the Fanucs out there, but some of the newer ones have better luck with the pinouts shown above.

Hope this helps.

[cncclimber]

Well, thanks for the tip, but it didn't work. If I don't have 6,8,20 jumpered I instantly get a DR dignal alarm. something happened somewhere along the line because on Fri I was sending and receiving some programs with no DR signal alarm, but was getting @ symbols instead of some of the 0(zeroes). in the process of sending and receiving programs we were getting programs with the @ in it and it was breaking up the program into two pieces and automatically numbering(program number) the second half. as it turned out the test program I was sending somehow was saved on the computer as one with the @ symbols in it. I tried to send un-corrupt one and it sent fine, so all excited I tried again and started getting a DR signal alarm again. The file that actually sent was a notepad file, so thinking maybe that was the key I resent the same file and again got the DR signal alarm. It makes no sense. I am going to try and re-route my cable away from all power sources and florescent lights and see if that helps.