[tcom-frazzled]

I'm trying to wrap my brain around the pros and cons of each of these DNC protocols. I have a system set up right now that allows me to do transfer to/from a pc with punch and read and I have successfully used drip feeding from that PC. This all works using standard serial transfer, but there is a catch. My PC is not in the shop, so there is the pain of walking across the shop to the office to hit send every time.

I've been looking at CIMCO and Predator DNC and noticed that both support remote transfer functions. I understand how this works with the standard serial setup by punching out a request to the computer, then setting the machine to either read into the editor or run in remote mode. What I don't quite understand are the features of some of the other protocols.

I realize that there may be additional features that I need to license on the control for these, but would like to understand all of my options. Is there a DNC protocol available on the 21i-MA control that would allow my DNC server to integrate so that the DNC server storage appears just like local program storage and that I can get directory listings, open, and maybe even edit files on the DNC server directly form the operator panel without having to edit a call program, punch, exec, stop, read, exec...

[underthetire]

From what I remember from Multi DNC, you can read a file name directly from the control. No walking back and forth. You inserted a special character then the filename, the PC would then search the directory for that machine or whatever, and send the correct file. I'm sure the rest are similar.

Lots of info here.
DNC and CNC Communications Software - Multi-DNC.com

[tcom-frazzled]

Looking at multi-dnc, it's pretty much the same as Predator and CIMCO in how it handles remote DNC requests. You write a little bit of code at the operator panel, punch it out, then set up the machine to read. After a delay, the DNC server sends over the code.

I guess I was wondering if any of the other protocols allow a DNC server to behave like local program memory. From some of what I've read, the fanuc cassette protocols look like they may support this, but I haven't seen a good example of how this works.

[underthetire]

I've only seen it work with the data server/Ethernet that way, or with the Fanuc Fmate disk reader($$$$$$$$$$$) or memory card myself.

[tcom-frazzled]

That's where I think some of these protocols come into play. The DNC server emulates some other device when talking to the control. Out of curiosity, could you directly run programs stored on it (kinda like a drip feed), or did you have to transfer them to internal memory first?

[underthetire]

DNC1 was able to run full DNC, not just drip feed.
Data server pulled everything through, stored it and ran it. It held quite a bit.
Never tried on the Fmate unit. Got rid of those. I'm sure greco has something that would work.
Touch Screen Computer, DNC hardware and DNC software

[FANUCCNC]

Do you need drip feed?

If your part programs fit in the CNC memory, one option to consider is using Ethernet and the control Data Server option. This is not the same as the Data Server hardware option.

Data Server hardware makes the CNC an FTP server. You can connect to it using standard Windows Explorer. The storage on the data server becomes just another drive on the network. You can copy files to and from it from any windows computer. The operator can then copy those files from the data server board into the CNC memory or drip from the data server card.

The data server option allows the CNC to connect to a remote FTP server. You can stand in front of the control and get a directory listing of a remote network drive and pull files into the CNC from that drive. Robust FTP server software is available as freeware, or you can use the windows FTP server.

So the data server hardware is good if you want to send files from a pc to CNC and the data server option is good if you want to pull files from a remote computer using CNC screens.

Having both allows the best of both worlds.

Send me a private message if you'd like more details.

[tcom-frazzled]

Unfortunately, this machine only has 32k of internal program memory, so I have to use some sort of DNC drip feed. I just finished a 3D contouring job that was 2.5mb and around 550k lines of code.

One problem I did run into with drip feeding this program was having the buffer run empty because even at 19200 baud, the machine was processing short segments faster than it could receive them. This isn't a new problem for folks that have been using DNC drip feed and I had already shortened the code as much as possible by removing block numbers, unnecessary zeroes, unnecessary precision, and using modal gcodes.

Unless I missed some other magic bullet, these kinds of programs are apparently going to have to run from memory card DNC, whereas I can run larger profile programs using the serial DNC drip.

1K for an Ethernet data server card is out of my budget for the time being, but I would ultimately like to go that route.