I/O using Ethernet for FANUC 18i-PB

[stuffsneak]

...what you're looking for is your router address, which would be the the Gateway address to set Fanuc to ....and assign an IP address to Fanuc that is on the same subnet but, outside what your Router has reserved for DHCP addresses. Usually something like a block of fifty.. 192.168.1.100 thru 192.168.1.150 so....you would want to set the Fanuc IP to anything outside 100-150 number between 0-99 or 151-254. That way no IP conflicts happen.

Hi,

I know this is old and I am bringing this up. However there are few updates on this.

Since the problem discussed here, we ended up buying a DNC Device (Micro DNC 2) & have been using Pen Drive > DNC Device > CNC since then. But recently the buttons started giving problems on that DNC device so I have started exploring this again.

I am willing to try the router route now. (I am assuming this does not need crossover cable. Please correct me if I am wrong.)
I have figured out the DHCP range as asked by you and most likely my router IP address as well from my router management window as shown in attachments below.

So from this I can see, router IP address is 192.168.1.1 & the DHCP range is from 100 to 199.
I will set the CNC IP address to 192.168.1.201.

I have ordered a long Ethernet cable which is arriving today and it should be of sufficient length for the CNC-Router connection. So tomorrow I will try out everything again and hopefully succeed. I will post results.

Just 1 last question. Do I need to set any specific I/O channel for this Fanuc program transfer tool to work? I could not find info on that from the manual of that tool.

[zavateandu]

the cable between PC and CNC is the same,no crossover.
I always start to check the connection by using a laptop and connect direct to cnc giving like 192.168.1.100 to cnc and 192.168.1.101 to PC as local IP
You do not need to set any channel I/O to cnc for transfer tool when using etehrnet
also you need to set a user name and a password on the FTP page with port 21
if the local conection is working ,you can move on to set the router ip and what you want

[stuffsneak]

So another update here.

SUCCESS!!

On my machine:
I changed the I/O channel to 9 & then set up the CNC IP address to 192.168.1.201 & entered Router IP address to 192.168.1.1 in the ETHPRM>EMBED settings on CNC in MDI mode.

On my PC:
Installed Fanuc Program Transfer Utility. In settings, Set the name, type & Control Path as 2. In Program Memory, I put like shown in screenshot attached here. & opened up the software. Everything working as expected.

Very happy with everything and thanks to all the help from you all.

I hope this info helps out someone else.

[RaderSidetrack]

Good to hear!


For future reference, while "crossover cables" may be needed for directly connecting a machine and a PC, crossover cables might be a specialty item if you want to purchase one locally. But inserting a cheap, readily available ethernet switch in-between the two directly connected devices is an alternative solution. Virtually all modern switches use Autonegotiation which eliminates the need for a crossover cable.

Also, if it looks like a "router" doesn't offer the option of assigning "static" IP addresses, look for an "Address Reservation" option. While they are not exactly the same thing, Address Reservation in a router would instruct the router to always use the same IP to talk to a machine, even though strictly speaking the machine is not set up as a static address. This process can be accomplished by the router because the machine has a unique MAC address that the router can recognize and remember when assigning an IP address.

[stuffsneak]

Good to hear!


For future reference, while "crossover cables" may be needed for directly connecting a machine and a PC, crossover cables might be a specialty item if you want to purchase one locally. But inserting a cheap, readily available ethernet switch in-between the two directly connected devices is an alternative solution. Virtually all modern switches use Autonegotiation which eliminates the need for a crossover cable.

Also, if it looks like a "router" doesn't offer the option of assigning "static" IP addresses, look for an "Address Reservation" option. While they are not exactly the same thing, Address Reservation in a router would instruct the router to always use the same IP to talk to a machine, even though strictly speaking the machine is not set up as a static address. This process can be accomplished by the router because the machine has a unique MAC address that the router can recognize and remember when assigning an IP address.

That's a great tip. I just looked up in my router settings and there is indeed option to bind IP address to mac address. I will check the MAC of machine tomorrow when we start machine and update it in router settings. Although as I have set the IP of machine outside the range of DHCP range, binding will make it failproof as well I guess.

I just can't believe that nobody from my local network of CNC machine vendors/repair man who have visited/are in contact with us have never told us about the Ethernet connection. For years my father & team was using the RS232 cable which indeed once fried one of the PCBs in machine and even once damaged something inside the Fanuc controller itself. But rather they asked us to buy a DNC device. Damn.