[Louis0890]

Hi,

I’m looking for advice regarding a 1989 fadal vmc 4020.

I’ve had the machine a few months, I bought it to expand my home workshop (that I hope to turn in a small business) unfortunately its turned into a bit of a communications nightmare.

I picked the machine up from a big aerospace workshop where it was on a network using predator software to send to and receive files. It came with an rs232 to Ethernet cable adaptor but I was told I could just unplug and run a cable straight into a desktop. So that was what I had hoped to do and when I had a bit more money get a calmotion or similar usb dnc device. But I’ve tried as many cable configurations as I can find recommended from the fadal manuals to the forums unfortunately usually i get the same error “Could not communicate with the CNC controller” in one configuration it was just processing and didn’t get any further and the machine didn’t receive any data. This has all been using NC fadal software, I also have a trial of surf cam but can’t get that to play ball ether. Im typing TA,1 then enter to get the machine ready to receive data and both the computer and controller are set to a baud rate of 4800. Any help trouble shooting this would be great?

My second problem is one I caused myself getting impatient whist trying to figure out the first problem, I was running the diagnostic tests to see if there was a fault on the machine side as fair as I’m aware the rs232 diagnostic was fine so I moved on to the memory checks they also came back fine but I have wiped the memory and now get a “MEMORY ERROR AT 90000H, RELOAD PROMGRAM” message on start-up is this just that it needs a program loaded or have I deleted anything integral? I have things like backlash settings from previous memory checks written in the maintained file and have gone through and set the machine up as before. I have been back through and set as much as I can back to normal but it seems even the interface is different now, before I had command prompt and could hit manual and it would go through to set menu but that seems to be gone now and I only have command prompt which isn’t too much of a problem I’m just concerned that I’ve changed to much?

Cheers
Louis

[jon_fallon]

Have you verified that the port is set to the correct parameters? On XP, control panel->system->hardware->device manager->ports (com & lpt) ports. Select the port that has the Fadal cable, then look at the port settings. They should be 9600 (or less, but must match sending program and fadal), 7, even, 2, hardware flow control.

[Louis0890]

Thanks for getting back to me.

Yes I have, initially it was something I overlooked but after reading a few threads went in and made sure the com port was set to 4800, data bits 7, parity even, stop bits 1, flow control Xon/Xoff and the NC fadal software and the machine its self were matching. Should I change it to 2 stop bits?

What is the hardware flow control, I couldn't find That in the com port properties?

[jon_fallon]

The first bitmap in the zip file is for the computer setting on XP64. The remainder of the bitmaps are from the Predator program supplied with CamWorks. The computer is hooked up to a 1987 4020 with a USB serial converter, and the 4020 is set up for 9600 baud. One quirk with the 4020... hit the manual on the keyboard at least one time to clear the port prior to entering "TA,1" and sending it a program. On many occasion, the program can be sent but not received by the controller. In that case, just hit manual a few times and it will normally work OK.

[mproth]

I went though a few months and different configs to get my 4020 to work with my laptop. In the end i bought a box from Shop Floor Automatons. Let me tell you, was the best thing i ever did. i have had zero issues with the machine since. Ill run all my jobs off a usb and use DNCX on the machine. Saves me time, and i dont have to drag a laptop out to the machine. I want to say it was around $700, but worth it for how much i use it.


USB Connect External - DNC & CNC Productivity Experts

[Louis0890]

Thank you for the settings is just what I needed, I've been working through them and trying out some software from DNC4U. I can now send from my machine to the computer, but unfortunately still haven't managed to get any programs delivered to the machine.

Yes I've heard nothing but good things from these usb DNC devices, I'm hoping I will get the PC option working as I still have tooling to buy but if I don't make get it sorted by the end of the month I will probably have to go for the usb option.

[DareBee]

The control is too old and will not work with modern computers.
I had to give up on mine after Win XP was done.
Even if you do get the computer to transfer it will be flaky and glitch out. Your first crash when that happens could cost thousands to repair.
A calmotion device is less money than a computer these days, just get one

[Louis0890]

The control is too old and will not work with modern computers.
I had to give up on mine after Win XP was done.
Even if you do get the computer to transfer it will be flaky and glitch out. Your first crash when that happens could cost thousands to repair.
A calmotion device is less money than a computer these days, just get one

I was hoping I could get round that by using an old pc, I've got it hooked up to a Windows xp from 2000 that I got given. It seems to receive programs from the cnc perfectly as long as I have all the peramiters machining. When it comes to loading new programs it just doesn't receive anything, the softwear sends it and I make make the softwear wait for the "Xon" from the machine and it receives that and sends but nothing comes through to the fadal?

I know that getting the calmotion is kind of a no brainer as its only $500 and is an instant fix, but I probably won't have that kind of free cash before Christmas and really wanted to get it moving. It sounds like I might be wasting my time?

There are some bits I wasn't sure about though on the sending configurations there's data format this was automatically put in when I sellected fadal 88 I'm assuming it's right but if someone who knows more could take a look? I'll attach some pictures.

[DareBee]

NCFadal was absolutely bullet proof.
Maybe the cable is too long for the power of your serial port on the PC
Chassis grounding of the net cable is also important
I always fed my '94 88HS (-4CPU) at 34K baud
Good luck