[fred4936]

Hello,
We have a Mazak V-10 with an M32 controller, and have been trying to sort out sending programs to and from the machine to a PC. We are close, but not there yet. The machine alarms are now gone, but we have a "DATA I/O BUSY" message. We are using Cimco software for the PC side. All we wish to do is transfer EIA programs back and forth. We are using CMT for the transfers. There have been many cable configurations tried, but the one we have now shows no "mis-connected " errors, so I have to think that we finally have the cable right. The parameters have been changing according to Mazak or Cimco, but still not able to send or receive. I am missing something! Any help would be appreciated!
Fred4936

[MrMetric]

Unfortunately, the request is more just a 'we have a problem' and doesn't really contain tangible information that can be looked at (meant in a friendly way... I can't quite phrase it such that I sound supportive but asking for more info... sorry). Can you send:

1. screenshots of your COM variables (all three pages) on the Meldas
2. a diagram showing your cable wiring that you've settled on.
3. screenshots of your Cimco RS-232 COM settings

I personally find the Mitsu to be a little weird and I don't have it com settings perfect yet, but it does work very reliably with the settings I have. I can say that the challenge always seems to be more on the sending data TO the machine than the other way around.

[fred4936]

I under estimated the issues then. My apologies for not being as concise as I should have been. I will get you the information shortly. Thank you very much for the assist!

[MrMetric]

Honesty, part of the problem here has to do with the legacy tape readers. I was working with someone else just this weekend regarding comms on the Meldas. I have a set of parameters that is bulletproof but doesn't really follow the settings in the manual. In other words, it doesn't make sense. The other individual was bugged by this and dug a lot deeper on this, which is fantastic because my settings have always bugged me (don't like unexplained things), but figuring it out was much lower than my ever lengthening list of things to do.

Anyhow, what the other individual discovered was a difference between ISO, EIA and ASCII. Specifically, how the "characters" are represented in bit form in the serial data stream. By and large, the far majority of stuff in the computer world is ASCII and it is the only thing I really know anything about. But CNC manufacturers seem to be caught in the middle ages where paper tape was the norm. I'm pretty sure that when we have teleportation devices, those same manufacturers will *still* be talking about the number of feet on a friggin tape! The net result is that this middle ages stuff, in my humble opinion, really tweaks the mind and causes far more complication with serial communications than what should exist. Serial already has its problems with baud, parity, stop bits, hardware protocol, software protocol, customized cabling, etc, etc. But this ISO, EIA, ASCII stuff is just another layer on top of it.... If only they had USB before paper tape, we'd all be drinking martinis on the beach!

[fred4936]

Hello! I enclosed pictures of what we have going on. I mis-stated that I use CMT to send and receive. That is incorrect! I use "Paper tape". the cable is DB9 female on PC, DB25 male on the Mazak side. connections are 2-2, 3-3, pin 5 on DB9 to pin 7 on DB25. on the DB9, 4 and 6 are jumped, 7 and 8 are jumped. On the DB25, 4,5,6,8,20 are jumped. On the Mazak settings, only the "G" parameters have been played with. So I only enclosed the one page for that. The Cimco pages seem to be the pertinent ones, but I could be wrong. You will see two ports: they are configured to Mazak template, I made two to try to swap settings around. If I left out anything, let me know! Thank you very much for any info you may have! I will be forever in your debt!
Fred4936

[fred4936]

Yes! it should much easier! But having said that, this is the only one I have had trouble with, which about a half dozen machines over the decades. ISO, ASCII, and EIA do have subtle differences. This machine is older than most of the people who work here! Hope to meet you at a beach with a martini!

[MrMetric]

Oh... this might be a bit harder... I was thinking that you had a stock Meldas control, but you've got a Mazak variant. I don't have one of those, and they confuse me a bit more. They use *much* of the same hardware, and the firmware inside of them is (I think) shared between the two system, but the UI is completely different.

[Looking more closely]... Yeah, I don't know how much help I'll be, unfortunately. I don't have a magic decoder ring for the G configuration on the Mazak. I thought the Meldas was kind of a** backwards, but Mazak is even worse. I don't recall the pin assignments off the top of my head, but I'm guessing those are correct, which would push you towards using software flow control (Xon Xoff). You have CTS/RTS set on the PC side though (no idea on the Mazak).

Lunch! Gotta run!

[fred4936]

Thank you anyway!

[machinehop5]

...more possible things about older RS232 .. Null Modem cable with full Handshaking if, you have not try yet.
https://www.lammertbies.nl/comm/info/rs-232-null-modem