Okuma RS232 Setup (Almost there..)

[niggle]

I'm going through the process of setting up RS232 communications for the company I work for, almost got it all sorted, just after advice on a couple of things.

We've originally been using floppy discs for all our machines, but are finding it harder and harder to find good quality Imation brand discs around the country, so have decided to setup the RS232 transfer. I've built a computer-on-wheels to be wheeled around to each machine to transfer the files.

All our programming is generally done on the machine and saved back to disc.
With all our programs originally being from floppy, they don't have the @018$FILENAME.MIN% line at the start of the program, so are all transferred as A.MIN to the machine. I can imagine this causing allsorts of confusion for the setters we have The sort-of idea I have is to run a script over all the files to add this line using the original filename of the program, and to add a % symbol at the end of the file..? Would anyone have any ideas or suggestions here? Would rather not rename 30mb or so of program files one-by-one?

Another big question is what software is recommended to use? I'm currently using a free program called NC-Link, but I'm sure there are better programs out there to use? More than willing to pay for an appropriate program, just what to use?

We have 3x MX45VAE machining centres, I've got them all working perfectly with the PC, but the lathes I'm having trouble with. I can transfer files onto the machines no problem, but trying to output a file to the PC i just get a blank file. What I don't understand is that as far as I know I'm using exactly the same settings as the mills, so should work? I really have no idea what's causing this? I can list the settings I'm trying to use if that would help? Lathes are LB400MW and LB300MW both with OSP-E100L control.

The company originally tried to install a PC around 8-10 years ago in a office away from the machines but apparently the okuma tech's couldn't get it working due to the length of the cable - 30-40m approx. Reading online people talk about using 100ft and 150ft cables with little problems. Could slowing down the Baud rate help this?


Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Nigel.

[Superman]

The command line for transfer back to a PC is
--- [] mean optional, but depends on control settings
--- CN0: is the RS232C port on the machine

<PIP><PUNCH> [CN0:]ABC123XYZ[.MIN] <WRITE>
to rename a file during transfer
<PIP><PUNCH> [CN0:]ABC123XYZ[.MIN],1234[.MIN] <WRITE>

transferring a file automatically should add the $(download-filename).MIN% at the 1st line of the file ( controlled by settings )
and add a % on the last line of code

A DOS disk would report a 8.3 format name string, so a ABC123XYZ.MIN would come up as ABC123`1.MIN ( not exectly sure what format it takes when transferring )

[niggle]

Thanks, but that's not really what I'm after. What I have is all the files on the PC (off floppy disc) without the $filename.min% and % in them. As we have always saved straight to floppy disc, never to PC. After an easy way of adding the two lines to all the program files as a bulk lot..

[budgieW]

Okuma Offers USB drives to replace the old floppy drives.

To add the file name you will need to write or have written some VB or C# code but it will not be so easy as you may have troubles finding the filenames