Fanuc O-TC 086 Alarm when trying to receive

After yesterday's experience of keying in programs by hand at the control, I resolved to get the control connected to a computer. I got the cable info from Fanuc and got one made up. I've confirmed that it's made according to Fanuc's diagram. It's the "hardware handshake" version. I'm using an older laptop running XP that has a 9-pin serial port. Set all the parameters per Fanuc's recommendations. I've tried two different pieces of software for communication: EZ CAM's EZ-DNC and XP's Hyper Terminal. Both yield the same result. Sending from the control to the computer works fine. From the computer to the control triggers a 086 alarm. Any suggestions?

%
Just a shot in the dark but is there % signs at the top and bottom of the program? I have to have them sending RS232.


Brent
%

Hoppy said:

After yesterday's experience of keying in programs by hand at the control, I resolved to get the control connected to a computer. I got the cable info from Fanuc and got one made up. I've confirmed that it's made according to Fanuc's diagram. It's the "hardware handshake" version. I'm using an older laptop running XP that has a 9-pin serial port. Set all the parameters per Fanuc's recommendations. I've tried two different pieces of software for communication: EZ CAM's EZ-DNC and XP's Hyper Terminal. Both yield the same result. Sending from the control to the computer works fine. From the computer to the control triggers a 086 alarm. Any suggestions?

Click to expand...

Hi Hoppy,
This alarm indicates that the Data Set Ready signal is off.

Post the pin-out of the cable and the parameter settings you're using. If these are correct, then the problem will be with the power supply of I/O unit, or the cable is not connected, or a P.C.B. is defective.

It is more likely to be your cable pin-out and settings, so start by listing those here.

Regards,

Bill

Alarm 86 says DR turned off ( or was off ) when inputting data into memory. That means that your hardware handshaking at the PC is not configured properly or your cable is not correct. To make life easier skip the hardware handshake and use Xon/Xoff software handshake. Your cable should look like this, Fanuc on left PC on right...

2---2
3---3
7---5

on the Fanuc end jumper 4 and 5 together and jumper 6,8, and 20 together.

Turn on Xon/Xoff on your PC communication software and set parameter 391 bit 6 to 0 (use DC codes which is Fanuc speak for software handshake) on the control. As long as the rest of your settings are right you should get good communication with this setup.

This morning I reworked the cable for "software handshake" and the pin out (with Fanuc on the left) is:

2 - 2
3 - 5
1 and 7 - 5 (Note: this is the bare wire)

At the Fanuc end, 4 and 5 are jumped; 6, 8, and 20 are jumped
At the PC end, 1, 4, and 6 are jumped; 7 and 8 are jumped.

I confirmed that parameter 391.6 is 0

With this configuration, I can't either send or receive. Both trigger the 086 P/S alarm.

What other settings and parameters should I look at?

I don't know about the cable connections you have put together. They are different than what I have used.

Hoppy said:

This morning I reworked the cable for "software handshake" and the pin out (with Fanuc on the left) is:

2 - 2
3 - 5
1 and 7 - 5 (Note: this is the bare wire)

At the Fanuc end, 4 and 5 are jumped; 6, 8, and 20 are jumped
At the PC end, 1, 4, and 6 are jumped; 7 and 8 are jumped.

I confirmed that parameter 391.6 is 0

With this configuration, I can't either send or receive. Both trigger the 086 P/S alarm.

What other settings and parameters should I look at?

Click to expand...

Hi Hoppy,
The following pin-out is correct for, and will work with Xon Xoff (Software Handshaking)

Machine Side ---------------------------------- PC Side
DB25 Male ------------------------- DB25 Female ------- DB9 Female
1 ----- Shied Trace Wire ---------- Not Connected ---- Not Connected
2 ------------------------------------ 3 ------------------- 2
3 ------------------------------------ 2 ------------------- 3
7 ------------------------------------ 7 ------------------- 5
4
| Bridged
5

6
|
8 All Bridged
|
20

Note: Jumping pins 7, 8 and jumping pins 1,4, and 6 is not necessary on the DB9 connector at the PC end; just construct the cable as shown above.

Pin one of the control's DB25 connector is Protective Ground, Pin 7 is Signal Ground. You don't connect both of these to Signal Ground at the PC end.

The other parameter settings are as follows:
#0002
Bit 0 = 1
Bit 2 = 0
Bit 7 = 1

#552 = 10 (4800 Baud - Starting Point)

Machine Control Set Page Settings
I/O = 0
ISO Format

The PC Comms Software I/O protocol should be set as follows:

Handshake Method = Xon Xoff (Software Handshaking)
Data Bits = 7
Stop Bits = 2
Parity Bit = Even
Baud Rate = 4800 (to mach whatever the control parameter setting refers to)

If you still get a P/S 086 alarm, check with a multi-metre for => than 5VDC (normally around 12VDC) between pin 20 and Protective Ground. If not, you have issues as described in my first Post. A possible workaround is to connect pins 6 and 8 of the DB25 connector at the control end, to pin 4 of the DB9 connector at the PC end.

Regards,

Bill

Thanks for the helpful replies. Looks like I need to rework the cable (again!). Just to be sure I get it right this time, what do I do with the bare conductor and the foil wrapper that are in my cable?

Hoppy

I forgot to say that the attachment in my last post is the pin out that I got from Fanuc. The version in the lower right corner is the one that I followed.

Hoppy

Try to punch a program out of the machine first then u will know if it is the machine or the laptop.

Hoppy said:

Thanks for the helpful replies. Looks like I need to rework the cable (again!). Just to be sure I get it right this time, what do I do with the bare conductor and the foil wrapper that are in my cable?

Hoppy

Click to expand...

Hi Hoppy,
Connect the Shield Trace wire (the bare conductor) to pin one, Protective Ground at the DB25 connector at the control end. Do not connect it at the PC end. It is shown this way in your attached picture of the cable configurations. Connecting the Shield Trace wire at both ends can lead to the I/O chips being damaged of either, or both the PC and the control through a Ground Loop, if the two devices share different Ground sources or if either are poorly Grounded and there is a potential difference of around 30V.

Although jumping pins 7,8 and jumping pins 1,4, and 6 at the PC won't hurt, it's unnecessary.

The P/S 086 error is an error raised by the control, and the control has no way of determining if the DSR of the PC is turned on or not when a Loopback Handshake cable configuration is used. Therefore, if this error is raised, the problem is with the control, not the PC.

If you still experience the alarm, check for at least +5VDC between pin 20 and Protective Ground (Pin 1 or the control chassis) at the control end. If not at least +5VDC, try the workaround suggested in my previous Post. -3V to +3V accommodates noise.

Regards,

Bill

Hi Bill,

I reworked the cable again. Trying to send or receive still triggers the 086 alarm. There is no voltage between pins 1 and 20 at the control. To try your workaround of connecting pins 6 and 8 at the control to pin 4 at the PC, do I remove the existing bridge from pin 20 to pins 6 and 8 at the DB25 connector?

Thanks for all of your help,

Bill

Depending on the serial line discipline (the way the serial protocol has been programmed on the XP computer), 086 could be an artifact of the control dropping DTR, forcing the computer to drop DSR, and so indicates a buffer overrun. Otherwise cable makes little difference, because the important (and missed) control signals are sent in-band via DC2/DC4 codes. AKA x-on/x-off.

The FANUC control sends an x-off code to the communication program when is has 5 characters free in its receive buffer. You need to adjust the send buffer of your communication device to be less than that. Because of the idiosyncrasies of the 16650 UART (the hardware device practically all RS-232 systems are modeled upon), your only choice is a 1 byte buffer.

On 'windows' systems the communication buffer parameters are found under the device driver settings.

Good luck.

edit: if you see 086 with pins 6-8-20 bridged at the control, you could have other problems.

.

I have the complete list of factory parameter settings for my machine (it's a Romi Centur 35E lathe) and compared all of them to what's currently in the control.

The parameters that are different are:

12
50
70
0123
0553
0593
0594
0901
0903
0906
0909
0910
0914
8184
8185

What are the correct values that I should be using?

<jbc>: Pins 6, 8, and 20 are bridged at the control and I still see the 086 alarm.

I tried sending and receiving without the cable plugged in just to see what would happen. The control behaved exactly the same and generated the 086 alarm.

Hoppy said:

The control behaved exactly the same and generated the 086 alarm.

Click to expand...

That would seem to indicate a problem with the serial transceiver not recognizing that the DR (Data Set Ready) signal is asserted, or not asserting the ER (Data Terminal Ready) signal itself.

Maybe your control has a 2nd serial channel you could use?)

.

<jbc> said:

Depending on the serial line discipline (the way the serial protocol has been programmed on the XP computer), 086 could be an artifact of the control dropping DTR, forcing the computer to drop DSR, and so indicates a buffer overrun. Otherwise cable makes little difference, because the important (and missed) control signals are sent in-band via DC2/DC4 codes. AKA x-on/x-off.

The FANUC control sends an x-off code to the communication program when is has 5 characters free in its receive buffer. You need to adjust the send buffer of your communication device to be less than that. Because of the idiosyncrasies of the 16650 UART (the hardware device practically all RS-232 systems are modeled upon), your only choice is a 1 byte buffer.

On 'windows' systems the communication buffer parameters are found under the device driver settings.

Good luck.

edit: if you see 086 with pins 6-8-20 bridged at the control, you could have other problems.

.

Click to expand...

With all due respect, the above is just so much Frog Shite and irrelevant when related to the OP's stated problem, and potentially confusing the issue for someone who is having problems with the fundamentals. There has been no mention whatsoever of buffer overrun, and the P/S 086 alarm relates to the DSR signal being turned off, not to a Buffer Overrun issue. DC1(Ascii 17) and DC3 (Ascii 19) is Xon Xoff respectively, not DC2 (Ascii 18) and DC4 (Ascii 20). Although DC1 to DC4 characters are all transmitted by the control, its extremely rare for Device control 2 (DC2) and Device control 4 (DC4) to be used by the PC software. Although, none of these characters are actually seen or processed by the software, when Xon Xoff is selected as the Flow Control the UART is set to handle these codes at System Level.

Hoppy said:

The parameters that are different are:

12
50
70
0123
0553
0593
0594
0901
0903
0906
0909
0910
0914
8184
8185

What are the correct values that I should be using?.

Click to expand...

The parameters that are relevant to you and your problem are 0012 and 0553. These parameters are effective when the I/O is setting is "1".

In this case your parameters and Machine Control Set Page settings would be as follows:

Parameter settings:
#0012
Bit 0 = 1
Bit 2 = 0
Bit 7 = 1

#553 = 10 (4800 Baud - Starting Point)


Machine Control Set Page Settings
I/O = 1
ISO Format

Hoppy said:

To try your workaround of connecting pins 6 and 8 at the control to pin 4 at the PC, do I remove the existing bridge from pin 20 to pins 6 and 8 at the DB25 connector?

Click to expand...

Yes.

Regards,

Bill

Bill. Under what conditions does the control drop the DTR signal? I haven't found that one in the documentation.

.

<jbc> said:

Bill. Under what conditions does the control drop the DTR signal? I haven't found that one in the documentation.

.

Click to expand...

DTR can be used with DSR for handshaking. Accordingly, in this situation the state of the DTR will vary, the same as the RTS line will in hardware handshaking.

On some hardware the DTR line (along with RTS) may be used to provide power. The DTR and RTS lines are high at all times so that the device has a source of power. This is the case when using Loopback Handshaking with the Fanuc control, hence you have pins 4 (RTS) supplying power to pin 5 (CTS) and pins 20 (DTR) supplying power to pins 6 and 8.

In Loopback Handshaking, the handshaking outputs are looped back to the corresponding input on the same device. This loopback handshaking gives the illusion of of full handshaking, when in fact there is no handshaking at all.

The reason for the P/S 086 alarm is normally that there is no power being supplied by pin 20. If pin 6 is asserted, the P/S 086 alarm should desist. Accordingly, its somewhat irrelevant where the power source is supplied from, and the reason why connecting pins 6 and 8 at the control end (DB25 connector) to pin 4 (DTR) at the PC end (DB9 connector) generally succeeds as a work around. You could power pin 6 with a 9Volt battery and it will erase the P/S 086 alarm.

Pin 25 of the DB25 connector is normally unassigned. In the case of the Fanuc control, 25VDC is supplied on that pin for the purpose of powering peripheral devices. The RS232 standard allows for a dead short of 25V to ground continuously without harm. I've not tried this, but I believe you could bridge pins 6 and 8 with pin 25 if there was a problem with power being supplied with pin 20 (DTR). I think I'd experiment with a cheap old PC before trying it out on the control though.

Regards,

Bill

angelw said:

The DTR and RTS lines are high at all times so that the device has a source of power.

Click to expand...

Sorry, not following. Is the control always Ready-To-Send, with DTR internally logically tied to RTS? Even when hardware handshaking?

The idea to test the standards compatibility of peripheral equipment by inserting the 25VDC supply of pin 25 seems pretty ill advised to me!

Thanks

.