Denford Software & Machines

No worries - RS232 CNC comms is a black art...
We often get enquiries about drip feeding to the older Fanuc A B and C series that we fitted to a number of machines, and we can't really help. Most people can get communication to a Fanuc, but its never reliable, and drip feeding won't work either.
We really don't know where to start looking when it comes to setting up cables , parameters and protocols for Fanuc drip-feed.
I presume its all in a days work for you ?

Hello Admin, Yes, all in a days work, so to speak. When Per from Sweden contacted me I didn't need long to understand the problems he was looking at.

So, easyDnc4.0 has now got a NEE PNC mode so ought to work with any PNC/2/3/4 control.

Per tested this on his triac quite a lot last week and it appears to work very well indeed.

Having said that I'd still like to improve a few areas so all feedback is most welcome.


Thanks

Hi all,
Has anyone tried the easyDNC version made for the TRIAC with PNC3? The application works great for me but it would be interesting to hear some other views on this. Also, I have translated some error messages from Swedish back to English (based on a Swedish manual that I got with my 1986 TIRAC) so I am curisous on feedback on those.

Cheers

Per

i am having pretty much the same problem like you. I have to reports some bugs maybe for the easyDNC 4.7 but first i want to explain my setup.

1)I have made a cable 9 pin pc and 7 pin cnc like shown here viewtopic.php?f=34&t=3899
2)i have a easiturn 3 version 3.57 - 25/04/84 - 8Mhz
3) I use easydnc 4.7 trial
4) i have download and istalled this programm https://www.serial-port-monitor.com/
5) windows xp desktop

So you can see my configuration in my first link. I have read the manual several times and i am in the enhanced rs232 interface specifications section. beacause of my version. So each block must start with STX (ASCII code 02) and end with CR (0D). The procedure is that the easyDNC sends the first block and i see in my serial port monitor programm that starts with 02 and ends with 0D. The whole block content is sended to the cnc but then nothing happen. I think that after the first block is sended to the cnc the cnc must response with a ACK (06) if everything is good or with a NAK (15) is there is some error. After that the easyDNC must send the next block and so on until everything is done. I will upload a video tonight for showing all this and make it clear.

The bugs (if there are any) in the easyDNC are that if i change the settings in different configurations the easyDNC dont change the way it sends the code. If i choose in mode PNC2-4 then everything in the block end , ASCII start and ASCII end fields dont make changes in my output signal.

Here is a video (sorry for the shaking i was in a hurry and alone...) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hsgqIpw4t0

If i choose in mode PNC2-4 then everything in the block end , ASCII start and ASCII end fields dont make changes in my output signal.

Do you mean that your start and end fields aren't being output ?
Maybe there is a mode in EasyDNC which is fully configurable...the PNC2-4 mode may disable certain things from working, but looks like it dosn't work for your system.
Can you try a basic mode which allows you to set which characters are sent ?
You could try Hyperterminal to type characters to the PNC and see if any of the Control characters force the control to respond with and ACKnowledge.
eg, in Hyperterm, you can press CTRL+J to send ASCII character 10 - LineFeed or CTRL-C for EndOfText

(borrowed from another site....)
Control Characters
Char Oct Dec Hex Control-Key Control Action
NUL 0 0 0 ^@ Null character
SOH 1 1 1 ^A Start of heading, = console interrupt
STX 2 2 2 ^B Start of text, maintenance mode on HP console
ETX 3 3 3 ^C End of text
EOT 4 4 4 ^D End of transmission, not the same as ETB
ENQ 5 5 5 ^E Enquiry, goes with ACK; old HP flow control
ACK 6 6 6 ^F Acknowledge, clears ENQ logon hand
BEL 7 7 7 ^G Bell, rings the bell...
BS 10 8 8 ^H Backspace, works on HP terminals/computers
HT 11 9 9 ^I Horizontal tab, move to next tab stop
LF 12 10 a ^J Line Feed
VT 13 11 b ^K Vertical tab
FF 14 12 c ^L Form Feed, page eject
CR 15 13 d ^M Carriage Return
SO 16 14 e ^N Shift Out, alternate character set
SI 17 15 f ^O Shift In, resume defaultn character set
DLE 20 16 10 ^P Data link escape
DC1 21 17 11 ^Q XON, with XOFF to pause listings; ":okay to send".
DC2 22 18 12 ^R Device control 2, block-mode flow control
DC3 23 19 13 ^S XOFF, with XON is TERM=18 flow control
DC4 24 20 14 ^T Device control 4
NAK 25 21 15 ^U Negative acknowledge
SYN 26 22 16 ^V Synchronous idle
ETB 27 23 17 ^W End transmission block, not the same as EOT
CAN 30 24 17 ^X Cancel line, MPE echoes !!!
EM 31 25 19 ^Y End of medium, Control-Y interrupt
SUB 32 26 1a ^Z Substitute
ESC 33 27 1b ^[ Escape, next character is not echoed
FS 34 28 1c ^\ File separator
GS 35 29 1d ^] Group separator
RS 36 30 1e ^^ Record separator, block-mode terminator
US 37 31 1f ^_ Unit separator

so ok ! i have found the problem and the problem is easyDNC . If i transmit with hyperterm for example the line G01X170Z470FX1500
in this format :

ctrl+B (this is the STX (02) character) G01X170Z470FX1500L ctrl+M (CR(0D)) ctrl+B (STX(02))

the cnc returns me a ACK(06) and i can type the next block and continue without problem.
EasyDNC transmit this one :

ctrl+B (this is the STX (02) character) G01X170Z470FX1500L ctrl+M (CR(0D))

so the cnc dont answer until it gets the next STX character and it is waiting and nothing happens.

IF i could program the easyDNC to send this format :

ctrl+B (this is the STX (02) character) G01X170Z470FX1500L ctrl+M (CR(0D)) ctrl+B (STX(02))
ctrl+B (STX(02)) G01X160Z460FX1500L ctrl+M (CR(0D)) ctrl+B (STX(02))
.
.
.

i can save in my memory but for drip feed i would need to have this format :

ctrl+B (this is the STX (02) character) G01X170Z470FX1500L ctrl+M (CR(0D)) ctrl+B (STX(02)) ctrl+B (STX(02)) ctrl+B (STX(02)) ctrl+B (STX(02)) ...
(it must send the STX character until the cnc has completed his move and when it has completed it sends the ACK (06) and then the easyDNC will continue with the next )
ctrl+B (STX(02)) G01X160Z460FX1500L ctrl+M (CR(0D)) ctrl+B (STX(02)) ctrl+B (STX(02)) ctrl+B (STX(02)) ctrl+B (STX(02)) ctrl+B (STX(02))...
.
.
.

Can we do this easydnc (member) ?

Try PM'ing easyDNC or email their website ?
memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=679