Extra characters for macro programming Fanuc OT-B

I've got a Hardinge conquest 42 with a Fanuc Ot-B control. I recently had a lightning strike wipe out part of the mother board and I cannot send or recieve programs. I have changed the line drivers and several other chips but there's at least one of the processors bad and I'm not going to repair the board untill I get thru a little backlog of work.

I lost all of the macro programs...mainly my deep hole drill sub program, and I need to re-enter it via the key pad. Can anyone tell me how to shift the keys or where to find an overlay of the extra characters? I've searched my manuals, but I've gone blind reading so much .

I rember calling Hardinge tech support once about changing the brackets back to parenthesis, but can't find my notes either.

I'll put a call or email into Hardinge applications support Monday, but thought I'd see what I could find out on this great forum.

Thanks!

Which extra characters are you after? For the parenthesis, once you start typing, IIRC you hit the right arrow soft key under the display twice and then you can select extended characters. "EXT-CHA" or "CHA-EXT", something along those lines. Then you'll have soft keys for parenthesis and a few other characters.

There is a parameter you can change to make the brackets on the keyboard into parenthesis, but you'd obviously need to change them back for macro programming at the control. I have that written down at work on my cheat sheet, it was in a FANUC parameter manual, not the one that came with the Hardinge. I'll post it Monday if you want.

Thanks for the info. What is IIRC? My control does not have the ext-cha soft keys. I will look thru the parameter manual. There may be an option not turned on or maybe my control doesn't support manual entry of the extra characters. I have entered brackets and had a parameter changed for parenthesis though, so I suspect a parameter issue.

The extra characters are entered with the key pad, but they are not shown on the key pad buttons. I'll need to do a "shift" but I do not have a shift key. So, I'm looking for the sequence of keys for the function and an overlay of what the extra characters on the key pad are.

IIRC = if I recall correctly (it's text-ese)

Ahhh... duh! Thanks! I started to panic wondering how I was going to enter IIRC and what kind of programming that was! HAHA!

"once you start typing, IIRC..."

And I thought it was just an acronym...

Sorry, I reread your post and realized that I'm talking about an Oi-TB control. I'll still check what the parameter is for the brackets though.

You have entered () on a Fanuc 0t-b without a shift key? Or even entered Macros? Without a "full" keyboard my understanding was rs232 only for macros and comments. Those old zero controls on a Hardinge only had the standard keyboard.

If you get it to work, please update.

I'm 99% sure you can't have any useable ()# characters with the short keypad. Full keypad only. I've been known to be wrong before, but we've got lots of 0m controls with short keypads and we'd love to know how to do it if it was possible. All leads have pointed to NO before...

If you have an (extra) full keypad laying around, you could probably plug it in (?) and change the parameter that controls whether its a full keypad or not (assuming the 0 b had a full keypad option? 0c does)

Hog-zilla said:

You have entered () on a Fanuc 0t-b without a shift key? Or even entered Macros? Without a "full" keyboard my understanding was rs232 only for macros and comments. Those old zero controls on a Hardinge only had the standard keyboard.

If you get it to work, please update.

Click to expand...

Ditto here as well. hopefully awaiting a solution.

If you have brackets, setting parameter #3204 bit 0 to 1 should make them parentheses.

larstonx said:

If you have brackets, setting parameter #3204 bit 0 to 1 should make them parentheses.

Click to expand...

Thanks! I'll see where mine is set. I do know I have used the brackets and parrenthesis before. The parentesis for comments and the brackets for macros...had to change them from brackets to parentesis, now I need to change them back.

I have changed the keypad from the original and the new key pad doesn't show me the extra characters. I do not remember how to "shift" the keypad either.

And I'm totally aware that I may not be able to do the macro because of teh extra chacters, but I do know I have entered parenthesis and brackets before. Since I have had to reload all of the parameters by hand, I suspect I've not set the macro-b programming option or an associated parameter.

I'm programming the "long" way around my deep hole drilling cycle, but it sucks!

Thanks everyone!, again...