Left Hand Thread
Plastic
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2011
- Location
- Sweden
Hej Everyone,
I posted a question a while back about uploading/downloading
to/from PC and Bosch Alpha 3 using the RS232 port.
After much struggling I found the solution and thought I would post
it here so it's available to others should the future need arise.
==============================================
First the serial CABLING:
PC DB9.................Bosch Alpha 3 DB25
Pin 2 ----------------- Pin 2
Pin 3 ----------------- Pin 3
Pin 5 ----------------- Pin 7
AND you MUST also tie pin 12 and pin 24 together on the
DB25. (This not standard RS232 and many CNC websites that
show the cabling for the Bosch Alpha 3 actually do NOT have
this critical tidbit!!!)
===========================================
Com Port Settings
Baud 1200
Data Bits 7
Parity Even
Stop Bits 2
Handshake None
===========================================
Now comes what was the tricky bit for me!!!
I would always have transfer lock up, incomplete transfers
and never get that nice "End of Input" message UNTIL I did the
following:
Set up your transfer software to send about 10 ASCII
NULL characters (Hex 00), as a prefix before file transmission
and the about 10 ASCII NULL characters as a postfix after
the file transmission. In doing this, I noticed that I never
needed to add any other weird characters to my NC files.
After this, everything worked like a hose (that's Texas slang
for "works perfectly")!
As a side note, I found the following tools very helpful in debugging
my system. Aggsoft has a free 15-day trial "Advanced Serial Port Monitor"
which was excellent! (So, good in fact that I bought a license
for it. Also their "CNC Syntax Editor" was useful (there is a free
version of this) Both available at Serial port, RS232 and RS485 software. Logger and monitor for COM, USB and TCP interfaces.
Finally, I also used a free version of NCnet Lite 7 available
at Productivity Tracking System, cad cam for industry, cad cam for education. This is a VERY nice DNC software that
I can heartily recommend.
Hope this helps!
James
I posted a question a while back about uploading/downloading
to/from PC and Bosch Alpha 3 using the RS232 port.
After much struggling I found the solution and thought I would post
it here so it's available to others should the future need arise.
==============================================
First the serial CABLING:
PC DB9.................Bosch Alpha 3 DB25
Pin 2 ----------------- Pin 2
Pin 3 ----------------- Pin 3
Pin 5 ----------------- Pin 7
AND you MUST also tie pin 12 and pin 24 together on the
DB25. (This not standard RS232 and many CNC websites that
show the cabling for the Bosch Alpha 3 actually do NOT have
this critical tidbit!!!)
===========================================
Com Port Settings
Baud 1200
Data Bits 7
Parity Even
Stop Bits 2
Handshake None
===========================================
Now comes what was the tricky bit for me!!!
I would always have transfer lock up, incomplete transfers
and never get that nice "End of Input" message UNTIL I did the
following:
Set up your transfer software to send about 10 ASCII
NULL characters (Hex 00), as a prefix before file transmission
and the about 10 ASCII NULL characters as a postfix after
the file transmission. In doing this, I noticed that I never
needed to add any other weird characters to my NC files.
After this, everything worked like a hose (that's Texas slang
for "works perfectly")!
As a side note, I found the following tools very helpful in debugging
my system. Aggsoft has a free 15-day trial "Advanced Serial Port Monitor"
which was excellent! (So, good in fact that I bought a license
for it. Also their "CNC Syntax Editor" was useful (there is a free
version of this) Both available at Serial port, RS232 and RS485 software. Logger and monitor for COM, USB and TCP interfaces.
Finally, I also used a free version of NCnet Lite 7 available
at Productivity Tracking System, cad cam for industry, cad cam for education. This is a VERY nice DNC software that
I can heartily recommend.
Hope this helps!
James
