[Wiplash]

I have a 18-m control on a 3 axis mill. I do lots of 3D work.This means lots of xyzxyzxyzxyxyzxyz.Which means large programs and very quick line feed.This control does great if I filter my programs for IJKs.,but gets hung up on xyzxyzxyz.I need to upgrade this control for lookahead.I also have very large programs which take for ever to down load or are two big for the 1meg memory.When I upload back to thre computer it does not take long ,but from computer to machine it takes forever.28 minutes for the program I am running now, with a baud of 19200.Also if I try to DNC the control also gets hung up.Is there any way to upgrade without getting a new control? Any suggestions would help.

[Leblondmakino]

Hi I've bought a memory upgrade from www.memex.ca in the past for a Fanuc 6m and they are very good. They do upgrades for most Fanuc controls including the 18.
John.

[dcoupar]

Sounds like you may have a character or line delay when sending to the CNC. What DNC software are you using to send to the machine?

[Wiplash]

I just did the memory update, last week which helped a bunch, but some of my programs are 3megs and take 4 -5 hours to machine.I am not running any thing this big right now but will certainly in the future.I am using win dnc, but do not know much about it.I think the problem is on the machine side because of the time differences on downloading and uploading.28 minutes to download and 5minutes to upload back to the computer. I could be wrong about this though. Iam a good cnc programmer/machinist but not much of a computer genius.Some of my win dnc parameters are baud 19200. handshaking=x on xoff. send type =line.

[dcoupar]

Just out of curiosity, what is parameter 0100 bit 5 (ND3) set to? If it's 0, try setting it to 1. This sets DNC to read the program continuously until the buffer is full, 0 sets it to read block-by-block.

[Wiplash]

I think you are on to something. it is set to 0. I will try it late today or early tommorrow and get back to you. I have parts on the machine right now and the deadline is tomorrow.

[Wiplash]

who was I kidding, I couldnt wait.I tried it. It helped a little. but when the lines are little xyzxyz it still hangs up.It seemed to get a little better when I changed win dnc send type to buffer instead of line.windnc wants to know the buffer size.How do I find the size of the buffer at the machine.Thanks

[dcoupar]

You might try sending the program from the PC with the cable disconnected at the CNC. See if it takes the same 28 minutes as with the cable connected. This would tell you if the WIN DNC is using some kind of line or character delay when sending.

[Wiplash]

Good Idea.Without anything hooked up it only took 48 sec.Also even with the program in the machine it still is real jumpyon xyzxyzxyz? It really sucks only knowing how to make parts, and not being able to make the machine perform? Your help is so greatly appreciated?I hope you have some more ideas!Thank You.

[Leblondmakino]

Hi,
I think the real problem is that your control, although quite capable of running large 3d programmes, does not have the optional hardware and software needed.

I know the Fanuc 18 control can be upgraded to include a data server which uses a high speed ethernet connection to upload large prog's in seconds to its large onboard buffer memory.
I've seen someone load an 8Meg prog to one of these in less than a few minutes!

It then runs them with a lookahead board called an RISC using a high speed processor chip to give lookahead capability.
This way it is running straight from its own onboard buffer ie. no software XON XOFF handshake to deal with just dedicated hardware handshake between the buffer and the control.

Of course all this isn't cheap!!

Another work round would be to get rid of all your block numbers although you may need to change a parameter for the control to accept this.

You can also leave out all your decimals too by changing a para and editing them out with your dnc software before upload.

This means less characters to upload and less for the control to work through when machining so it should give more speed all round.

John.