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IndustryArena Forum > Machine Controllers Software and Solutions > Fanuc > Is there a fuse in the rs232 for the 21-iT controller? Lightning broke something...
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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
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    211

    Is there a fuse in the rs232 for the 21-iT controller? Lightning broke something...

    Hello people.
    Well, lighting has done a number on my equipment. There was a very loud boom with no flash. It must of been damn close. I no longer can communicate with both my lathe and VMC...
    I can change out the communication board on my VMC but have no idea as how to fix the lathe with Fanuc 21-iT controller.
    At first I thought it was the bus controller on the serial ports of my PC seeing as the printer and CCTV units got hit as well, but nope.
    I tried with another PC at no avail. Both dead...
    So, is there a fuse or a board that can be changed in the Fanuc controller or do I have to buy a new one?:drowning:

    Thank you in advance for any help in getting my business up and running again.

    Claude

  2. #2

    Re: Is there a fuse in the rs232 for the 21-iT controller? Lightning broke something.

    you can change over to the second port. on the main board there is a second port. You have to change parameter 20 to a 2

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
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    211

    Re: Is there a fuse in the rs232 for the 21-iT controller? Lightning broke something.

    Cool! I knew there must be something to be done. I manually punched in a program last night. I have to run 1200 parts or so then I'll try the fix.
    This is such a great forum with so many talented people. THANK YOU MUCH DRDOS!!
    I'll let you know how it went.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
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    211

    Re: Is there a fuse in the rs232 for the 21-iT controller? Lightning broke something.

    Morning all!
    So I changed over to port # 02 But Now am stuck on changing the setting. It keeps telling I'm in the wrong mode..... Am I at the right place to be able to perform this task? What am I doing wrong?

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2018
    Posts
    14

    Re: Is there a fuse in the rs232 for the 21-iT controller? Lightning broke something.

    Good morning, try MDI mode. Just for future information, if you leave you cables plugged in to your RS-232C ports, a close lightning strike causes an immense magnetic field the cuts through the cable and induces current on the lines. The shield will not protect against that type of problem. The current on the lines quite often will destroy the line receivers and sometimes the line drivers, if the lighting strike is close enough. Here in Arizona, I recommend to my customers to keep their RS-232C cables unplugged during our Monsoon. If your area has a season of possible intense thunderstorms, I recommend you do the same. There aren't any fuses on those circuits, but the receiver & driver ICs can be replaced. On the FANUC 21i control, they are on the motherboard. That control uses surface mount ICs so you would need to be experienced with that technology to repair the problem. If not, switching to a second port will often work... as long as the damaged ICs didn't fail in a manner that causes a short to the ±15V power supply. You can also use the PCMCIA port, but only use a memory card that is 2GB or less. They are available from Amazon. If you don't have a laptop with PCMCIA ports, you can purchase a USB to PCMCIA adapter. Amazon also has those. Hope this info helps.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jul 2017
    Posts
    50

    Re: Is there a fuse in the rs232 for the 21-iT controller? Lightning broke something.

    You can also change the device number from the first settings page in offset settings. Be in MDI mode.

    Device 1 for the second RS232 port.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
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    211

    Re: Is there a fuse in the rs232 for the 21-iT controller? Lightning broke something.

    Hey guys,thanks for the quick replies. It looks like I have 3 ports, but they are all out...
    I sse they have Single Port RS-232 Serial Cardbus PCMCIA Cards avilable out there. Can this be an alternative. to a mem card? Do you have to turn anything on for the controller to recognize something in it's pcmcia slot?
    It is lightning season here and I've had problems with mother nature before. I have surge protected all the electronic stuff. But it still nailed my printer,internet splitter,home computer lan connection,cctv recorder,2 cameras of which one was temporarily unhooked at the time....Guess it traveled through the soffit.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Feb 2018
    Posts
    14

    Re: Is there a fuse in the rs232 for the 21-iT controller? Lightning broke something.

    If you re-read my last post, it explains how a close lighting strike induces current on any cables in the vicinity. Unfortunately, no surge protector will help as the current is induced directly on the data lines in the cables which are connected to rather sensitive electronics. Cable TV, Alarm Systems, Phone Lines, Printers, Internet, etc. To do the damage that you experienced means you had an extremely close strike. Sorry to hear it nailed so much of your equipment.

    There are settings to use the PCMCIA Memory Cards to load your programs, but I'd have to look up the exact procedure... it's in the manual though. It's generally referred to as an SRAM Card in the manual. Post if you have trouble and I'll help if I can. Remember, the Memory Card can only be 2GB or less.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Feb 2018
    Posts
    14

    Re: Is there a fuse in the rs232 for the 21-iT controller? Lightning broke something.

    I should clarify about the PC Card. Don't confuse the SRAM Card with the internal SRAM DIMM Module when you look it up in your Maintenance Manual. Lookup the "Memory Card", which can be a battery backed-up SRAM Card or an ATA Flash Card. These days it ill likely be a Flash Memory Card, or a Compact Flash Memory Card which plugs in to a PCMCIA Adapter. Confused yet?

    Question... did you use the same physical RS-232C DB-25 Connector, and simply change the settings. If I remember correctly, you need to physically move the internal cable which goes from the DB-25 Connector to the Motherboard,s RS-232C connector. It's probably connected to Connector JD36A and would need to be moved to JD36B. If one of these connectors is vacant, then that would be the case. It should be hooked to JD36A currently and JD36B is vacant currently. I'm not positive about the PORT Assignments, as I'm usually hands on and I would simply figure it out on the fly. The layout I described above is only the base level layout. Yours may be different! You would need to look and see.

    I hope I helped and didn't just make things confusing. Usually I'd just repair the board and be done with it.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Posts
    4252

    Re: Is there a fuse in the rs232 for the 21-iT controller? Lightning broke something.

    If there is a storm brewing, we disconnect the router/modem from the phone cable (=internet). That solves 99% of the problems.

    Had a lightning strike on the road outside once. Melted the aerial telecom cable and my neighbour never found his electric fence charger. Not even bits.

    Cheers
    Roger

  11. #11
    Join Date
    May 2016
    Posts
    526

    Re: Is there a fuse in the rs232 for the 21-iT controller? Lightning broke something.

    HI
    If the machine in question is the machine in your pc the PCMIA card must be 512mb or lower due to the age of the machine if you cant get one PM me and I have them available
    To turn on the slot turn the I/O channel to 4
    If it has fried everything it will be a case of changing the module at the back of the screen

    Quote Originally Posted by Nastyzen View Post
    Hey guys,thanks for the quick replies. It looks like I have 3 ports, but they are all out...
    I sse they have Single Port RS-232 Serial Cardbus PCMCIA Cards avilable out there. Can this be an alternative. to a mem card? Do you have to turn anything on for the controller to recognize something in it's pcmcia slot?
    It is lightning season here and I've had problems with mother nature before. I have surge protected all the electronic stuff. But it still nailed my printer,internet splitter,home computer lan connection,cctv recorder,2 cameras of which one was temporarily unhooked at the time....Guess it traveled through the soffit.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Posts
    211

    Re: Is there a fuse in the rs232 for the 21-iT controller? Lightning broke something.

    Morning all,
    After closer inspection, I have only the two rs232 ports after all. noob mistake.. I did change the connector on the motherboard too the second port. Another member mentions that I have to change parameter 9934.4 to on for it to work, but it is write protected. How does one turn off the write protection?
    I have a 2GB 54mm 64pin Cardbuss slot memory stick on the way from e-bay. I yet have to find a reader for it though. I have another cnc lathe on it's way in Sept. When that one works to my satisfaction, I shall attempt to fix the motherboard on the Colchester.
    At least I got my Dynapath controlled Mighty Comet going again. Just popped in a new I/o card and were in business.
    As far as how close that lightning was. It must of been close because it fried an unhooked camera on the house! Very loud boom with no flash.
    I shall update you guys as I make progress. Manually loading programs for the time being, fun!

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
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    1379

    Re: Is there a fuse in the rs232 for the 21-iT controller? Lightning broke something.

    Where in Canada are you?

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
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    211

    Re: Is there a fuse in the rs232 for the 21-iT controller? Lightning broke something.

    I'm located in Que. close to Mirabel airport. Haven't been abler to try much today with the weather rolling by. It's coming down something fierce right now.
    Keeping my babies off and unplugged t'ill it's done and over.

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Feb 2018
    Posts
    14

    Re: Is there a fuse in the rs232 for the 21-iT controller? Lightning broke something.

    Go to PARAMETER(SETTING) screen, set PWE=1. Be careful, I believe that is an Option Parameter. I didn't think of that. Good luck.

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
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    211

    Re: Is there a fuse in the rs232 for the 21-iT controller? Lightning broke something.

    Hey guys!
    Thank you all for your help. I changed the parameter in the ladder. It turned on the second port ok but it's fried partially and I get the LSK error on the controller and it turns the nul, nul, nul error on in the Cimco edit box. So enough to trigger alarms but not enough to send the text through.
    So I have a cardbuss(2GB hope it works!) mem. stick and a card reader on the way. I'll update when it all comes in.
    Claude

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Jul 2017
    Posts
    50

    Re: Is there a fuse in the rs232 for the 21-iT controller? Lightning broke something.

    Quote Originally Posted by Nastyzen View Post
    Hey guys!
    Thank you all for your help. I changed the parameter in the ladder. It turned on the second port ok but it's fried partially and I get the LSK error on the controller and it turns the nul, nul, nul error on in the Cimco edit box. So enough to trigger alarms but not enough to send the text through.
    So I have a cardbuss(2GB hope it works!) mem. stick and a card reader on the way. I'll update when it all comes in.
    Claude

    Make sure you have the correct settings for the second RS232 port. Same baud rate, etc. as what your PC is using.

    Just copy what you have in parameters 101, 102, 103 to 111, 112, 113 respectively.

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Feb 2018
    Posts
    14

    Re: Is there a fuse in the rs232 for the 21-iT controller? Lightning broke something.

    Actually if you attached the cable to connector JD36B, that is RS-232 Port 2 / Channel 2 / 20=2 / 121, 122, 123 = Stop Bit, Device Type, Baud Rate respectively.

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Posts
    211

    Re: Is there a fuse in the rs232 for the 21-iT controller? Lightning broke something.

    Hello folks! Dreary but not stormy day today. I can do some more testing.
    So the other day I did change the cable over to port two on the motherboard, changed the channel to 2 on parm 20 and changed line 9934.4. There is some communication as the edit only bugs out when I press the read execute button on the lathe but get the LSK error on the controller. What is an LSK error anyway??
    A picture is worth a thousand words, so this is where the ladder sits now. I guess my controller is a little different. What I see is the baudrate on ch 0 is 11.





  20. #20
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
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    211

    Re: Is there a fuse in the rs232 for the 21-iT controller? Lightning broke something.

    WooHoo! Got it working again!
    At first I wasn't getting the book explanation, but coupled with you guys input. I finally managed to get it right. I was just really scared to break the machine more than it already was. LoL!
    I hope this thread will help get someone out of a situation in the future.
    Thank you all for your help gentlemen. much appreciate!
    Claude

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