[Nastyzen]

Hello there!
Does anyone else have a Dynapath Delta 50 control for there mill?
My problem is that I can only communicate with the floppy,the parallel port is dead.
Is there a way to bypass,cheat or whatever to hook up my pc directly?

The repair man was asked by the factory people if it had even ever worked before.
Alarming not?
If you have one,can you communicate thru the parallel?

To the moderator:Hi
is dynapath so old or uncommon that it does not deserve a little place of it,s own?

OMG my new pc didn,t come with a floppy Drive....I hope they didn,t stop making floppy disks!!!!!!

[HillBilly]

That should be a SERIAL port on that control. There are various parameter and cable arrangments that have to agree on both ends. This is covered in the installation manual.

There are several Dynapath users posting in the Tree machines section.

Darek

[Nastyzen]

Thanks for pointing out what that thing hanging off the side of the machine actually is.
The serial port don't wanna cooperate.
The installation manual I agree would be the greatest of help in this problem solving if I had one.........
Do you know where I can get one?
For what it's worth the control is attached to a Comet MV mill Model MV-5 serial no.20003.
This machine is old but was never used, it is like new and goes great.I was lucky for my first cnc mill.
But it would be nice to not have to wade through alu. chips on the side of the machine and track them back to the PC each time a change needs to be made.
Darek thank you for your time.I'll go check things out in the tree machines section
Claude

[E.B.O.]

you can also contact dynapath direct it's just a phone call thay can help and good people to talk to


http://www.dynapath.com/

34155 Industrial Rd., Livonia, MI 48150
tel: 248-488-0440
fax: 248-488-0430

[blksmith]

Dynapath 9 pin PC 9 pin
pin 2------------------------pin 3
pin 3------------------------pin 2
pin 5------------------------pin 5
pin 4------------------------pin 6
pin 6------------------------pin 4
pin 7------------------------pin 8
pin 8------------------------pin 7

this just a null modem cable, be sure your data format(data bits,stop bits and parity) are set compatably on both dynapath and pc

[underthetire]

Actually, it very well could be a parallel port, not serial. Tree's were parallel for years. Just got to switch the 2,3 combo and they work fine.

[Nastyzen]

Hi,Thank you verry much for the info.
But I had some savvy people take an in depth look at the problem and what they found was that both port one and two were unfortunatly fried.
I then called Dynapath about it and they tell me it is a common problem as the ports are not fused and they are on the motherboard itself.The only way to repair it is to change the motherboard with a new one.This scares me because the machine works well at this time and changing the motherboard might erase the flash memory and could be the equivalent of opening pandora's box...
Dynapath is apperantly working on a card that slips into one of the slots in the board witch could be hooked up to an SD device but as of last time I went on there site, nothing was available yet.
Another alternative I have been thinking of is a floppy emulator witch can mimmic the teek floppy installed but holds up to 100 floppies size and could be hooked up to a network.
I have recently purchased Mastercam x4 and have not yet had the oportunity to experiment with post sizes to see if it all fits on a tiny floppy.
Will let you know what I came up with soon I hope.
Thank' a whole lot for your time.
Claude

[Nastyzen]

Hello all,
Has anyone run across this problem?
I've been trying to upload to my Dynapath controller all day different mastercam programs and it keeps telling me there is a format fault?
When I post I save the .nc as .txt.
My pc runs xp.
If I upload a program from a saved file or from a fresh post with Ez-cam on the same system there is no problem?
When I write on the xp notepad a small program and try to upload I get a format fault again?
I have recently moved up to xp from win2000,could the controller be not all that compatible with the new notepad in xp?
All of this on a 3.5 floppy of course.I am wearing a path from the pc all the way to the side of the machine.
Is it possible to go to an older version of notepad on xp if of course this is the actual problem.

[floppyemulator]

Hi guys, this is really interesting!

If you are using Floppy Disk on your equipment/machine you know that the Floppy´s are not a safe way to save your programs, and also they are close to disappear of the market.

FlexiDriveS4

No more Floppy Disk´s !

Increase the reliability of your equipment.
Allow to save in a safety way your files and programs.
Reduce faults and down times in your process.

Features
•Replace 3 ½ floppy drives on any equipment / machine.
•Developed for old industrial equipment that are not obsolete and still in production.
•CNC Machines, Electromedicine, Textile machines, Industrial Systems, Robotsetc.
•Easy to install / Easy to Use.
•SD / microSD / SDHC / MMC memory's supported.
•USB Card reader included!
•No drivers or additional software needed.
•Full Plug&Play.
•Aluminium Cabinet prepared for Industrial conditions.


www.floppyemulator.com

[email protected]

[gwiz]

Well I hope you have corrected this issue by now. sorry I missed it earlier. A couple of things. You can get a board that slips in the motherboard to replace the serial ports without changing the motherboard out (about $70). This is a common problem and the serial ports should be disconnect when not in use. We have used these board for our customers with 100% success.

Format wise - part programs must be in ascii code. No formatting. If you need an example type in a short program at the machine then save it on the floppy and take a look at it on your pc. Most txt file are fine but some save in a rich text format which will not work.

good luck

[Nastyzen]

Hello gwiz,
No I have not corrected the port problem yet.I figured out how to load the code from Mastercam to the controller and it works great now.But in the meantime Dynapath has come up with a kit for this controller that replaces the floppy reader with an SD reader writer with a removable 2 gigs card.Still have to stick it in the side of the machine but much bigger mem. capacity.
I have had the opportunity to play and work with my Mastercam.Program size can get very big indeed!
With the economy the way it is at this point,I can't afford the SD reader just yet and I don't like the idea of a removable card much anyway.

What specific controller do you have and what is the board that can be (slipped in)so as to replace the existing serial port?
Communicating directly from the pc to the machine is my ultimate goal and if it can be done economically as well would push me to the next level of bliss..:wee::wee:
I have discussed this option with Dynapath before,but they were not aware that such a board was possible let alone available.
Thank's for taking the time to post

[gwiz]

What I am speaking of is a replacement for the serial port only. You can try and search for one online if you like but they are getting really hard to get. They are ISA i/o card (usually contains many ports and drives but they can be turned off with jumpers as they will not work). Dynapath does not support them as it is in there best interest to sell new motherboards and updated hardware. I will not take issue with that. They are a great group of people but there have been time in the 20+ years of dealing with them that they had no support so we worked hard to supply some. This was one fix to a common problem.

[Nastyzen]

A serial port replacement is exactly what I need!
So this board is an ISA i/o card?Is that the only info I need to find one?
Does it have a part or serial number or something else?
Also if I manage to find one,will it instantly be recognized by my motherboard or is there some software changing issues.Can I further damage my machine by just slipping it the motherboard.Also the wire pin connection order,does it remain the same?That is the reason that I asked what controller you have performed this fix to.

[gwiz]

It will not recognize it without going into the motherboard bios and disabling the on board serial ports first. That is it. Should work with Delta 40,50,60 with the back plane being a motherboard.

[Nastyzen]

gwiz,that sounds very promising !
I really appreciate you taking the time to walk me thru this problem.
I have to go out of town for a few days,but will look into this fix as soon as I get back.

Thanks a trillion!

[Nastyzen]

Hello there Gwiz!
So busy I still haven't gotten around to getting this problem fixed yet.
Thanks for the link you sent that's the way to go for sure.
Can you get to the motherboard bios thou the control panel?Or do you need to connect a separate keyboard?There is a strange looking socket witch looks a bit like the old style keyboard socket.
Also you mentioned that no one drip feeds.Is there a reason?I ask because this is what I aim to do,drip feed that is
The kids are back in school should give me a little more slack to git er done.

Thank's

Nastyzen

[gwiz]

Yes you need a key board. An old AT style I believe it is called. large and round not the PS2 style. If you watch carefully at boot up it should state the key you need to press to enter the bios. (del, f1, f2, ?). If you are going to drip feed from this new port you need to do a few test runs. Never tried it my self to see if there is any dwell during drip feed. It may work fine. Let us know.

Good luck. And my kid just started too but I seem just as busy with the after school stuff.

Regards,

[Nastyzen]

Hello again gwiz,
UPS just came by with my new ISA i/o card adapter!!I was able to have one made up in Windsor Ontario Canada and delivered for $57.57.I also found a AT/ps-2 adapter for the keyboard.

Soooo,just to get this straight,First I go into the bios and disable the existing com1 and 2,exit bios and power down.Insert the new board into the slot in the included picture.Power back up again and the controller should recognize the new hardware.

The cable setup I have now to comunicate with my Colchester cnc lathe is as follows.From pc exits thru 9 pin serial port into adapter converts to 25 pin parallel port into cable,exits cable thru 25 pin parallel port into Null modem adapter into 25 pin parallel port machine.works just fine.
I assume this setup should work with the Dynapath controller as well.The Dynapath controller has an adapter from serial to parallel on the side.

I wish to setup a second cable from the pc to the Dynapath controller so as to not have to swap from the two machines all the time.But my pc only has one serial port.Do I have to add a 9 pin serial port to the pc or can I use the existing parallel port that is unused?If so how should the cable be configured?Null modem and such?
I'm so close I could almost taste victory!
gwiz,again thank you so much for your time.
I am not privately pm ing you in the hope this could help someone else in the same position as me at some point.
NASTYZEN

[Nastyzen]

Ok,had a little time to mess around in the bios.
If I go in the ambios setup program main page and then scroll down to the peripheral management setup I can see this.
First serial port address disabled
second serial port address disabled
parallel port address disabled
parallel port mode normal
I can scroll up and down these but can't change any of them?Perhaps not using the right select button tried the side arrows but won't work and I'm afraid to experiment to much right now.
When I exited the ambios page to go to normal mode it fell upon the ambios system config page and there we can see that we have serial ports 3F8/2F8 and parallel ports 378.
But in this mode the system tells me that there is a system disk fault and please enter the proper one?
Ooof!?
I have the Dynapath manual but there is zero info on the bios in there.
Well I guess.......(HELP!)
Nasty

[gwiz]

did you disable the ports or were they disabled already? If they were already disabled then you may be able to turn them on and use #1 for communication.

Communication is done by serial port only. I have not seen a parallel port function on a dynapath. Please note just because it is 25 pin does not make it a parallel port. Older RS232 ports were 25pin. Also note Dynapath controls older then the delta 40,50,60 models were wired different for communication and usually had 25 connectors (the older models were dumb terminals). The delta 40+ models are based on PCs and require the handshaking for a pc.

Use a standard Null modem cable - should work.