[midworld08]

Hi,

First off, I will admit I am well out of my depth....the story goes like this. I have purchased an Arrow 500, and my CNC skills are only that off a machine I built...which is more of an engraver. The Arrow machine was dead, and has been for 10years, last used in 2005. It was sitting in a hospital here in Perth and was used to machine titanium parts. It had quite a few computer problems....and I haven't got to check mechanical stuff yet. So I've managed to get the whole computer system up and running, but there is this touch screen thing.

So what happens is;

1) You turn on the machine, and windows boots....NT loads, and then windows 3.1.
2) Diagnostics loads, and all passes, except the WTI/touch screen.

Now, after much checking BIOS settings, and checking COM ports are all working OK. I noticed that when the RTS line on the COM port is pulsed that it causes the WTI PCB to reset and send out its details....so the PCB was working . The problem was that windows was taking so long to boot up, that when the RTS line was pulsed that the program took too long to load and notice that the PCB had sent its details.

The way around it, is almost a dual boot. I let the machine boot, then make it run diagnostics again. This time its not waiting for the Win 3.1 to load, and it does the reset thing correctly and hey presto I have a passed touch screen.

So I am guessing that the HDD in this machine has been changed out, and windows boots much slower than when it was standard? Or something has changed from its original set up.....which I wouldn't mind fixing....but I can't think of what...so if anyone has suggestions I'd much appreciate to hear from you.

Thanks
Colin

[meckardt55]

You can plug in a mouse in the port on the top, in the back of the A2100 control ( silver box ). The touch screen goes out often and most people use a mouse.

MIKE CNC Machine Services INC | Cincinnati Milacron MachinesCNC Machine Services

[midworld08]

Cheers Mike, I have a mouse in there already....although this machine has been hacked, so the mouse is plugged into a PS2 extender cable that has been added into the cable tray running along the top of the mill and back to the main computer. I use the mouse to rerun the diagnostics. Its kind of nice to have the touch screen running though.....

[JordanMach]

It is not "hacked". That is how it is done from factory. There is a tray that mounts under the screen that holds the keyboard too. My touchscreen is dead as well, that is one thing I wish I had. I bought a new KTI board with no fix. I think I need a new touch screen and not just the board. Not taking over your post, just agreeing it would be nice to have.

[midworld08]

I thought it was an aftermarket addition as the plate on the side of the touch screen is actually just a hole where you can see inside...and the cable looked dodgy compared to the rest of the installed cables. So I assumed it was added in as a way to fix something that they didn't want to pay to get fixed...

1) Does your touch screen PCB beep on boot up? The RTS line is sent high, which triggers the WTI/touch screen PCB to reset...and it beeps letting you know this. If something is wrong you get more beeps, or none. You should get a nice short beep, and with that the fault LED on the back should flash and go out. After this it sends its details out the Tx line on the RS232 port.
2) Have you used the resident windows hyperterminal to see if the WTI/touchscreen is sending data to the serial port?

We can start another thread, and I'll walk you through it if you want. I've spend quite a bit of time getting mine going....and I used to work with this sort of stuff all the time

[JordanMach]

I guess someone could have installed the cable themselves. Mine is a long PS2 extender although I have a nice plate under my touch screen that has plugs in it where the keyboard mouse plug into and the plate gives it the support. I guess someone could have wanted to save money and bought the cables elsewhere then the manufacturer so they didnt get this nice plug plate for under the screen.

As for starting a new thread, I dont think there is a need for this. I will gladly take your help though on trying to get mine up and running. I gave up on this project a while ago so I cant remember if the KTI boards beeps or not at boot up or not and what the LED lights show. I wont be able to check this for a day or two as the machine is tied up with a important job. I have not checked the hyper terminal to see if the touchscreen is sending data or not. How would I go about doing such process? I went to high school and a little bit of college for electronics before going into machining and have had our machine repair guy teach me his electronic repair skills. I dont know everything, but I am picking things up quick and learning a bit here and there. Thank you in advance. I did not know I would be answering someones thread to help them and in the end getting help myself haha

[midworld08]

I'll get some photo's together of the fault finding steps, and we can take it slowly. You'll need to solder the D-connector at the back to get the terminal program inside windows to see the data. Its not a big deal. If you don't want to use the terminal program on the computer, then you'll need a laptop that can run termite and has RS232. Anyway I'll put together some photo's, as I am still sorting **** out on the machine whilst I perform my last checks before using it for real. So it won't happen fast. First instructions will come in over the weekend.
As a bonus, rummaging around in the pwr cabinet, and I found a dongle in there....it seems I may have some extra features to find out about tomorrow.

[JordanMach]

Take your time, I am in no rush myself. And I greatly appreciate your help. I do have a laptop and a USB-RS232 cable adapter that I can use to connect to this. I will download termite in the next few days so I am ready. AS for this dongle, where does it come from? Interested to see what its for.

[midworld08]

The dongle enables some functions in the shop floor programming (SFP) module. Things like, pocket, frame and other stuff. Basacally it expands upon the RAP module to give a little more functionality. I was told by the Cleveland machinery that dongle cost $20k back in the day. In my opinion its not worth that. You would be much better off having spent money on Mastercam instead...even back in 1996.

Sorry for the delay, in starting the RS232 thing. Been busy as....will soon post some stuff for you.