The Craftmans Shop > New from Old
The Sequel - Oh Blimey I bought a CNC Lathe (Beaver TC 20)
awemawson:
Russ,
I've set the COM2: to what I believe I need using MODE, run STEP5 then (exiting STEP5 first as otherwise it still has hold of the COM port) then typing just MODE COM2: to see what it's set to find that STEP5 has modified it yet again :bang:
Yesterday I thought, OK, that's what STEP5 seems to want, so (contrary to the instructions) set the Siemens 820T controller to those settings and see what happens. It will still go on line but locks up as before.
All very intriguing, rather headache provoking, but never the less interesting. I wish I could have a few hours solidly 'at it' but things keep getting in the way !
I just hope that PK is having more success and less headaches down under - not heard from him in a while. :scratch:
russ57:
Hopefully then the controller is not as stubborn in the parameter department as step 5...
Russ
awemawson:
The really frustrating part is that this same RS232 link is used for uploading and downloading programs to the controller and works fine.
STEP5 was originally written I believe for CP/M where you had far better direct access to hardware than Windows lets you have.
This of course is a distraction from a detour from a diversion on the way to trying to solve the 'Spindle Orientation' issue, and although I'd love to be able to poke around in and maybe re-program the PLC it wasn't an objective that I chose!
I'm getting closer to being driven to load the PLC program from the other (smaller lathe) and see if the spindle orientation works with that. But it would have to be done with the greatest care in case the axis etc are over driven. :bugeye:
awemawson:
Farnell, good to their word, delivered the alternative MAX3232 PCB - the 'Sparkfun BOB-11189. So grabbing the soldering iron I quickly connected it up to a female 9 pin-D-Type and set the Logic SALE-AE analyser. Sure enough we can now go on line to the 820T and listen to BOTH sides of the conversation.
No time at the moment to go into it much deeper, but here is my first screen shot showing the transmission from the STEP5 port and the response from the 820T controller - need a bit of quiet time to dig into it further.
awemawson:
This morning I set off with the good intention of getting STEP5 to start downloading block "FB11" and timing with a stop watch when it failed (this is the block that previously had consistently given "Last Segment Not Completed") My intention being to monitor with the Logic Analyser and look at the interactions at about the time of the failure.
To my great surprise the block down loaded error free !
OK on a roll I decided to download the one other block (PB202) that previously had locked everything up and caused STEP5 to crash the operating system - sure enough it whistled through error free - very very odd. I've left the interface settings as STEP5 has modified them on the PC, but the 820T controller is still set up 'as was'
So PC set to 9600/Even Parity/8 data/2STOP/XON=off/CTS=off/DSR=off/DTR=on/RTS=on
820T set to 9600/No Parity/8 Data/2 Stop/XON=on/CTS=off/DSR=off/DTR=off/RTS=off
No idea why this is now working - but it is!
But the very odd thing is that when I look at the various 'Program Blocks' and 'Function Blocks' there is just not enough 'meat' in them to be the complete PLC program - the only block with any substance is the one that seems to control the 'W-Axis' which is not even used on this lathe.
So something is missing somewhere - there must be a back door into this PLC thingummybob that I've not found.
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