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The Sequel - Oh Blimey I bought a CNC Lathe (Beaver TC 20)

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awemawson:
I started the day intending to lower the baud rate on the STEP5 to 820T controller link, to try and resolve this locking up issue.

820T end no issues, parameters 5011 & 5013 set to 11000110 equating to 4800 baud, all else unchanged.

At the PC end however something very odd is happening. I set up the COM2: using MODE in a dos box, then hop into STEP5, which refuses to go 'on line'. Back to the DOS box only to find that COM2: has reverted to 9600 but at 7 data 1 stop. Device manager shows the correct setting. Now as I understand it there can really only be three things changing the port settings:

1/ Me using the MODE command
2/ Device Manager
3/ STEP5 perhaps using a configuration file that I've not yet discovered

But the really odd thing is, if I revert back to 9600, No Parity, 8 data 2 stop everything works, STEP5 goes on line to the 820T controller and when I come out of STEP5 the com port is still as I set it.

Not managed to resolve that conundrum yet  :scratch:

So per force continuing at 9600 I discovered that I can display a directory of all the blocks in the PLC. If I try to download PB202, which is the first, and biggest block, (and the only program block in fact), the interface locks up as it did when I told it to download 'all blocks'. If I tell it to down load the next listed block FB11 I get I get an error 'last segment not completed', but every other block I have managed to download to the local file and can open them for display and editing. However there is not much meat in them, I think the action is mainly happening in the elusive PB202.

Now when the interface locks up, I can only stop STEP5 running by using Task Manager to terminate it, and doing so brings down the whole operating system requiring a re-boot of Windows XP-Professional. However looking at Task Manger I notice that there is a service "IASTORDATAMGRSVC.EXE" that seems to be using 100% of CPU time.

Googling about I find that this service is not part of Windows but is part of "Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology" and apparently isn't needed, but if I try to uninstall it using 'Programs and Features' in Control Panel I get my hand slapped telling me that it's controlling my hard disk and if I do I'll loose data and won't be able to re-boot  :bang:

. . . oh what fun . . . .

russ57:
So somehow the download is writing to disk in a way that the controller doesn't like..

Did you work out how to control the download location?
If so. Try either writing to a separate disk (usb?) or even, assuming it's still possible, a ram disk.

Is @@ valid? I think it wasn't in some file systems.




Russ

awemawson:
Russ, STEP5 is very much in charge here !

The @ signs are inserted by STEP5 to pad out to the 8.3 dos name convention, and it's writing ok to the same file for the other blocks from the PLC. This leads me to think that either the PLC program in the PLC is corrupt in some way, or that the the RS232 data link is giving problems. The PB202 block is the longest one - maybe the software hand shaking isn't working properly. This doesn't explain the FB11 'last segment not completed' error, which is quite repeatable, as FB11 is shorter than most of the blocks that I have transferred successfully.

In an ideal world I'd like to slow the interface down such that handshaking is no longer needed (ie both ends can easily cope with the slow data rate without needing to pause for breath), then crank the rate up until failure, but something at the PC end is stopping me being in control of the Com2: settings

russ57:
Did you get your analyser running? I must I'd be surprised if you were getting flow controlled at that speed.

It could be a corrupt block on the controller as you suggest.
That would mean step 5 hangs waiting for more data that never comes.

Re com settings, I agree with your analyis that step 5 is setting it. I'd search the entire installation for 9600 and see if it is a config somewhere.

Russ

awemawson:
Yes I have the analyser able to run in 'monitor mode' - it's fairly old technology and gobbles up data into a buffer, and though you can see characters coming in, you have to stop the capture routine before you can have a good look at what you've captured.

I'm planning another session this afternoon - obviously the last bit of the transfer will be the interesting bit when it has just locked up, but by heck things don't half get confusing  :bugeye:

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