Hello forum,

I’m having some difficulty with my EMCO 320 lathe. It has a Siemens Sinumerik 810T control version GA01

The machine is new to me, however I saw it working in manual mode at it’s previous home. It seems to be typical story: the previous owner did not regularly use the machine and it lost its parameters due to a dead battery. I have checked both batteries, and they both are at 3.6v now. Apparently, the controller went down at some point in the distant past (around 2001?) and the previous, previous owner had gone through the re-commissioning process

In other threads, I’ve found the .pdf with instructions for commissioning the lathe. They seem pretty straightforward, however I’m just not able to send any data from my PC to the lathe, and I’m out of ideas what to try next. The things I’ve tried:

+data cable: I’ve built my own serial cable as outlined in the WINPC documentation with the proper DB9 to DB25 connector. I have tried plugging this cable into both the DB25 connector on the front of the control, and in the back on the board. Although I built the cable myself, I have no reason to suspect the cable is at fault.

+PCIN and control settings: I’ve tried various Baud rates and configurations of parity. The commissioning documentation suggests 9600 baud, however in some handwritten notes in the documentation it suggests a baud rate of 1200. I have tried setting the controller and the PC at 1200 baud, but it seems neither produces results.

The computer: I’ve tried a couple of different computers. I’ve tried running PCIN under DOS in a Windows 2000 machine, and running PCIN in DOS loaded from a USB stick. Thinking that perhaps I wasn’t getting to the COM port that way, I broke down and installed DOS 6.22 on a laptop, but I still don’t see any indication that the data is being received at the control. I have not checked the pins of the cable with and oscilloscope to make sure data is going through, but I suspect it is.

+the control: I don’t know the full history of this machine, but know it has been operational. I don’t have any reason to suspect there’s a problem with it, but you never really know with equipment this old. Is there some reason that the data would not save? Is the memory bad for some reason and can’t receive the data? When I’m in the “Data in” mode select option 1 and hit “start” the control says DIO as though it’s trying to receive data. The control does seem to have the alarms loaded, because it gives me a few alarms (not just the numeric codes, but the alarm description in English)

+the transmitted data: I’m trying to load %TEA1, %TEA2 and the other text files. These are the original files, transferred from paper tape, that went with this machine.

The lathe: Although I saw the spindle turn and the axis jog at it’s previous owners, I’m unable to do those things now. When I push the AUX ON button, nothing happens. I’m unable to make the machine move, but am not sure if this is because the PLC is not loaded, or some other reason. Generally, the lathe is in very good shape and has been properly maintained.

My questions:

Is there some other way to test loading data to the machine? This would give me confidence that PCIN and my PC are properly sending data.
Can this data be manually input somehow to the control without using the serial port? Short of buying a tape reader and using the tapes, is there any other way to get this data in?
Is there some reason that the data would not save? Is the memory bad for some reason and can’t receive the data? I’m starting to think that the control is the issue, because I don’t know where else to turn. What part(s) should I consider replacing to test?
Any other ideas?

thanks in advance for any thoughts you might have.