HELP ! cannot connect to Starmill 1989

[stavros007]

Can anyone help ?
I have 1989 Starmill with a smcu processor board,i have made a comms lead that when I try to connect the red light in the control box flickers for around 2 seconds - rapidly! - then on the screen it shows "SMCU is not responding".Also on the machine it shows Machine not datumed.
Anyone got any ideas before this baby goes on Ebay !!
Thanks in advance,

[TDIPower]

I presume you have tried this lot but Ill run through possible

RS232 lead not correctly wired (I had a genuine Denford/Lindy lead came with my Starturn, TX/RX were the wrong way round in the lead so I opted to alter the wiring in the cabinet). Do you have DTS wired too?

RS232 port on PC or in the software not configured correctly, Check you have COM1 / COM2 selected correctly

Using a USB to RS232 can cause problems/not work/work fine.

Pete

[stavros007]

Thanks Pete,

Mine has the RX TX wired up, I did try reversing the connections but the light on the board didn't even flicker,
Have not used the RTS/CTS , have you ? if so have you got a pin out list.
The cable is a nine pin direct in the back of the PC with the din socket on machine.
The only thing else I can think of is somewhere in these posts they mention a Lindy RS232 pc board only works with the old starmill/starturn ?

Thanks again

Steve

[TDIPower]

Ive got the later board (GSM LCB3) which has the 25pin RS232 on the case (9 pin on the PC) I found through looking at the various wiring diagrams some changes were made at various points (the wiring on the board itself to the case was changed with quite different pinout being written on the drawing in pen!

I needed to have RTS to RTS, CTS to CTS wired direct (I wasn't sure if they needed to cross like TX/RX do/Don't depending on how the cabinet is wired). But I dug through some of my old information from the days when I worked with RS232 and found these lines don't get crossed.

I also found digging through the info on other machines I was able to gleam more info.. The same boards were used in Mills and Lathes so sometimes notes have been written on the manuals that isn't on the drawings for your own.

The 9pin D type is

2 RX (try swapping with pin 3)
3 TX (try swapping with pin 2)
5 Signal Ground
7 RTS
8 CTS


I have this I got from somewhere on the site, it might help.

[stavros007]

Thanks for the info,

My RS232 has a light brown connector with only 3 leads which connects to the smcu board , blue,red and green.
I was wondering what software is the best for running with this controller. and maybe I have the wrong software.
The light on the smcu board flashes quick 6 times then a pause - I believe there is an error communicating.

Thanks again