running mill with a pc

[slamans]

I'm trying to run a program from my pc into the rs232 port on my milltronics centurian 1 . the program is to long to run off the floppy disk drive. Does any know how I hook up my pc? What do I use to feed the program from my pc (software) to the mill?
sincerly,
bruce

[msomerville]

I don't have any experience with running rs232. If you do a search on the subject I know it has been discussed in other threads.

[neilw20]

You must setup the serial port so that the handshaking, whether it be hardware or software, can be controlled by the machine you are sending to.
If the destination machine can 'throttle' the data being sent, which most can, (and no characters get lost), it might be as simple as
COPY gcode.xxx COM1: or watever port.
If the destination doesn't like breaks within a line, a simple Visual Basic program could make sure a line is not sent until the destination buffer has enough space for the line (including CRLF)

[jpawelk]

RS232.doc

RS232 cable.doc

Please refer to the attached documents for RS232 communications

[neilw20]

Start Hyperterminal (windows communication accessory)
Click File, New Connection
Choose a name for your settings.
This will become a file name.ht
Later on, double clicking on this .HT file should start Hyperterminal with all the same settings.

Select Connect using
Select Direct to Com1 or whatever.
Click OK
Now match the settings in your PARAMS-CTRL in the CNC menus
Select Bits per second
Select Data Bits
Select Parity
Select Stop Bits
Select Flow control Xon / Xoff <<<IMPORTANT.>>>
Click OK
Now start fiddling with Transfer
Try sending and receiving
When you exit the program make sure you say yes to saving the settings.

If you link pin 2 to 3 on the PC you can send files to yourself to make sure something is happening. Just typeing some characters should echo back to the screen. Depending on Hyperterminal setting (echo on) if the character you type is X then XX will appear. With echo off you wont get doubles. You Porbaly have to hit CTRL-Enter for a new line.

Using a multimeter, if you measure the voltage on pin 2 and 3 you will usually find one close to zero volts. That's the Receive line.
The other will have a much higher voltage. Between 7 and 12 (probably negative). That's the Transmit line.
The negative of the multimeter connects to pins 7 or pin 1. Usually the shroud is OK.
The receive line at each end is connected to the transmit line at the other end.
Good luck!