Need Advice On Additional Serial Ports and Switch boxes

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Thread: Need Advice On Additional Serial Ports and Switch boxes

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    Default Need Advice On Additional Serial Ports and Switch boxes

    Hello!

    I am the Systems Admin for my company, and managing the connectivity between our numerous Mazak machines and the single computer we use to send programs is my responsibility. Our current setup is very old, we still use an MS-DOS based program by Griffo Brothers to store and send programs out to our various machines. I have run out of available ports. I already have one RS232 switch box daisy chained to another... and I would rather not add another one to the mix for a few reasons. I am wondering if a 20 port RS232 switch that I found would work to simplify the setup...

    http://www.digital-loggers.com/pdf/ss20manual.pdf

    Currently my setup is as follows:

    There is a serial cable run coming from a single windows XP computer - on the computer side it is DB9, and it connects to a switch box using db25 on the other end. All of the switch boxes use DB25, and the ports on the Mazak machines are also 25 pin connectors. Once all those ports were used up on the switch box, I daisy-chained an additional box, which is now full as well. In the link I posted above, it is a 20 port serial switch, but it uses all DB9 connectors. I guess my questions are simple - will that switch work, and how to I pin out all the new connectors I would have to make ? The Mazak side would remain using the 25 pin connector, but on the computer side they would all be DB9...

    We are using CAT 5 Ethernet cable as the transmission medium.

    Thanks in advance.

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    Default Re: Need Advice On Additional Serial Ports and Switch boxes

    it will work. you answered your own question about the cables. you have one DB25 to DB9 going to your computer. new cables will be the same as this one.

    on the DB9 DB25
    2 2
    3 3
    5 7

    now I do not know what you use for handshake


    on your cables coming from the machine to the switch box (at the switch box end only)
    check and see if 4 jumps back to 5 or if 6,8,20 are jumped together.

    you should be able to find a pin out in the control manuals.



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    Default Re: Need Advice On Additional Serial Ports and Switch boxes

    Hi, sorry for my late reply - When you say control manuals, are you talking about the Mazak user manual? (It is a huge book, I had tried looking for this info before and gave up as it was falling apart) I ended up just taking some of the existing connectors, opening them up and copying what I saw. On the Switchbox side, DB25 cables, pin 4 jumps over to 5, and pin 21 loops up to 6... I'll attach a pic. I have pictures of the common IO connector and well as the mazak side. To be honest, when I look at it all, I get confused - probably because I lack prior experience with serial wiring and CNC machines, and I really appreciate your help!

    Need Advice On Additional Serial Ports and Switch boxes-db25-switch-box-side-jpg

    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Need Advice On Additional Serial Ports and Switch boxes-db25-switch-box-side-jpg  


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    Default Re: Need Advice On Additional Serial Ports and Switch boxes

    Quote Originally Posted by hitachibos View Post
    it will work. you answered your own question about the cables. you have one DB25 to DB9 going to your computer. new cables will be the same as this one.

    on the DB9 DB25
    2 2
    3 3
    5 7

    now I do not know what you use for handshake


    on your cables coming from the machine to the switch box (at the switch box end only)
    check and see if 4 jumps back to 5 or if 6,8,20 are jumped together.

    you should be able to find a pin out in the control manuals.

    I think we are using some type of handshaking, but the pinouts do not appear match what you stated in your reply - your pins look like the basic data connection and ground only.

    If we were to go to a standard 3 pin connection, I am guessing I would need to change my connection parameters at the mazak machine and the Griffo Bros software at the PC and disable handshaking/flow control, right? Griffo is currently set with the following serial parameters:

    Baud - 4800
    Parity - EVEN
    Data Bits - 7
    Stop Bits - 2

    No mention of flow control, however the way my connectors are pined out makes me think flow control is expected, or maybe it is being spoofed by looping/jumping the pins on the connector?

    That 20 port switch I referred to said something about how the handshaking lines are "strapped" together for no flow control, and it also says when connecting the PC to the switch, to set the baud rate to 9600,N,8,1 (Maybe for initial setup only?) I think I would need to change that on the new switch to match the settings in the Griffo software...

    Any additional info is greatly appreciated.



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Need Advice On Additional Serial Ports and Switch boxes

Need Advice On Additional Serial Ports and Switch boxes