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...