Hi guys,

not long ago I bought a '96 model VMC15XT with CNC88HS. Its my first proper VMC, and I love it - mostly. I am struggling with how limited the memory is. It has a massive 43kb of memory available to load programs. I have one warm up program that stays in the memory, not very large as you can imagine, and I delete all other programs after use.

This leaves me with DNC for larger programs. Currently I have an old PC running NCFadal for this purpose. Using DNC I run into problems though - the machine is pausing momentarily, in the cut. It could be mid arc, or mid straight line move, and it just pauses, then carries on. this happens multiple times and leaves a poor finish as a result. It is maddening.

I have heard of this happening with 3d surfacing, or when the feed rates commanded by the gcode are too high for the machine control. My moves are simple and slow, for example about 800mm/min (~30IPM), straight line, cutting steel. One thing I picked up is that it is only happening toward the end of the DNC program, when the computer reports that it has finished sending the DNC file, but the machine control has yet to finish executing the program.

Has anyone experienced this problem before? any clue as to what could be causing it?

Format 2
Running 38,400 BAUD
DNCX using NC Fadal
programming in F360
Programs loaded into the control before being executed do not pause
even small programs run via DNC have pausing issues

I don't mind the old control. Its ok to use, and if I can get this DNC problem sorted I will invest in a calmotion or shoplink device to eliminate the PC. however I don't want to buy either of those and find that it still has problems.

If I cant get the DNC to work properly, I could buy a memory expansion, but they are horribly expensive considering the $/kb. I think at that point I would be better off putting money toward a control retrofit. the price of DNC device + memory upgrade + sale of old components would go a long way to a retrofit.

Thanks for any input guys, Rowdy

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