Fanuc 0-MC: Macro B but no brackets?

Hello,

Q: Does anyone have a '97-era Fanuc 0-MC that reads brackets in their macro programs? (not "0i-MC")

I'm "refreshing" my '97 Yang mill with upgraded memory, tool & spindle probes, new vises, etc. I purchased the Renishaw probe macros and when installing them, discovered that my control won't accept brackets: [ ] Every program I read with brackets causes an alarm.

I had previously tested for Macro B by checking some simple programs with "#100 = 1", and copying parameters from system memory (#5000+) into program variables. I verified that I have variables #1-33, #100-#199, and #500-#999 visible in the offsets pages, as well as the "Macro A" and "Macro B" options enabled. As far as I can tell, everything works fine except brackets.

DNC works fine for part programs, so my cable & PC settings should be good to go. I can register programs into memory that have hash-symbols #, parenthesis ( ), and equal signs =.

Could anyone help verify the following questions:
- Do you have a '97-era 0-MC that runs Macro B, with brackets?
- Is there a way to type brackets into the control (to test if it is an RS232 issue, not a control issue)?
- Is there another method for inputting programs, without RS232?
- Is it possible to plug a "full keyboard" (with brackets) into my control in place of the smaller keypad?
- If it is a control limitation, is it possible to swap ROM chips with a later 0-MC model and gain the functionality? (I have a A20B-2000-017 motherboard)

Thanks!
--Bryan

I've never tried having Macro A and Macro B options enabled at the same time. I'd turn off Macro A to start.

Hello Bryan,
I've seen it often where the MTB has provided a Macro B Tool Change Macro but the key pad did not provide support for square brackets and therefore, seemingly no Macro B. However, you can get around this by preparing the program external from the machine and uploading it to the control. I would do as Vancbiker suggests and turn off Macro A as G65 in Macro A is a function call command and a Macro Program call in Macro B.

Regards,

Bill

Vancbiker,

Thanks, I'll give that a try, that had not occurred to me. ;-)

Bill,

Yes, I'm writing the macros on my computer then transferring via RS232. The transfer seems to work fine for all the programs I've tested until I tried one with brackets. This leads me to suspect that my RS232 settings are correct (works for all characters except brackets). My guess is that I'm missing a parameter in the control that allows brackets to be received/interpreted.

Before I go toggling dozens of parameters that might affect this, I'm asking to verify that this *should* work -- that someone is using Macro B with brackets on a Fanuc 0-MC?

Thanks!
--Bryan

Bryan Turner said:

Vancbiker,

Thanks, I'll give that a try, that had not occurred to me. ;-)

Bill,

Yes, I'm writing the macros on my computer then transferring via RS232. The transfer seems to work fine for all the programs I've tested until I tried one with brackets. This leads me to suspect that my RS232 settings are correct (works for all characters except brackets). My guess is that I'm missing a parameter in the control that allows brackets to be received/interpreted.

Click to expand...

Hello Bryan,
What happens when you try transferring a program with Square Brackets? I suspect that the control is set to EIA format ("[" and "]" not available), rather than ISO. You can check and set this via the control's setting page.

Check also that your communication software is not set to transmit in EIA format and that there are no settings that will exclude particular characters from being sent by your software.

Bryan Turner said:

Before I go toggling dozens of parameters that might affect this, I'm asking to verify that this *should* work -- that someone is using Macro B with brackets on a Fanuc 0-MC?

Click to expand...

That would be a dozen or so of my clients.

Regards,

Bill

Bryan Turner said:

Could anyone help verify the following questions:
- Do you have a '97-era 0-MC that runs Macro B, with brackets?

- Is it possible to plug a "full keyboard" (with brackets) into my control in place of the smaller keypad?

Click to expand...

YES and YES.

In fact, on the one machine we did this, there was not technically room for the keypad where the small one was. So we made room.






Note that piece of delrin I cut out to cover the back of the keypad. The keypad is pretty thin. Change a parameter, done. Now we can actually type macro stuff at the horizontal (because screw having to bring up the laptop all the damn time!)

Not the prettiest thing, but it works. yeah, there's a couple missing screws in it. my bad.

Thanks guys, that gives me hope! I'm crossing my fingers that it's just a parameter issue..

Bill; If I recall correctly, the control throws 004 P/S Alarm when it reads a bracket. I am currently using ISO, transferring from a "DNC One" usb-flash-to-rs232 box (from eBay). I considered switching to EIA and messing with the parameters that define what a bracket is for that code set, but haven't tried yet.

Any chance I could get a copy of the NC Params from a working machine to compare against? I've been going through the parameter docs and the list of possibilities is quite long, but they're all in the first ~100 parameter numbers (0000 - 0078) or so. I think a diff would be faster than toggling each one by hand and rebooting the machine.

Of course.. my Phase Perfect just blew up so now I can't test any of these suggestions until that gets fixed.
--Bryan

Do you have a '97-era 0-MC that runs Macro B, with brackets?

Click to expand...

Mine is older, and I'm sure it wouldn't run macro's.

Is there a way to type brackets into the control (to test if it is an RS232 issue, not a control issue)?

Click to expand...

Doo you have a param 3204?
Bit 0 (the last one) will change from () to []

- Is there another method for inputting programs, without RS232?

Click to expand...

You can't key it in by hand?



-----------------------

Think Snow Eh!
Ox

Ox said:

Do you have a param 3204?
Bit 0 (the last one) will change from () to []

Click to expand...

No, my NC params skip from 3128 to 6140. My understanding is that #3204 is for the 0i-series, it is not in any of the 0-series parameter manuals I have. Though I've never tried just reading the values via macro (such as #500 = #3204). I'll add that to the list... ;-)

Ox said:

You can't key it in by hand?

Click to expand...

I have not found an extended extended character entry option that allows me to type brackets. Dandrummerman21's reply confirmed that an extended keyboard might do the trick.

--Bryan

Did you try turning off the Macro A option?

Is parameter 2 (or 12 depending on which RS232 port you are using) bit 3 set to 1? That forces the ASCII character set for code input and output.

Sorry to interrupt the thread; the power failure has caused some other issues that need to be remedied first. I'll start a new thread for that (axis not moving after power failure).

Thanks for the suggestions so far!
--Bryan

Back at it..

- Definitely not an issue with RS232:
I turned off Macro-A and Macro-B. I was able to register a program containing brackets inside a comment. So the character signals for brackets are definitely getting sent correctly, and being received by the control correctly. But they are being rejected by the program checker when used for writing a macro.

- Macro-A works fine:
I turned on Macro-A (with Macro-B off) I found several test programs for Macro-A and can register them to memory, as well as execute them correctly (assigning to #100s common variables, and calling Macro-A functions for math).

- Macro-B odds and ends:
I turned off Macro-A, turned on Macro-B. I can register programs with IF, GOTO, POPEN, PCLOS to memory and they display as keywords, not separate letter-addresses. I can DNC a program to assign "#1=1" and it works correctly, but "#2=1" or "#100=1" cause an alarm 004. I cannot register any of the programs such as "#1=1" to memory, it gives alarm 114.

G65 Macro-A commands throw an error in Macro-B mode (missing program number Pxxxx).

So, I'm left with what appears to be a partial implementation of Macro-B?
This seems highly unintuitive, hoping I just missed a parameter somewhere..
--Bryan

EDIT: Here's the screen with various symbol characters in a comment (minus, plus, times, hash, equal, open and close bracket).

I haven't had to change it myself, but my boss once was trying to make macro b work, and at least on one machine, he had to remove a fanuc custom macro cassette (they are yellow) to make it work correctly.

I don't know how those cassettes work, or what was on them. It was probably related to the tool changer on that machine. Don't know what else he did besides parameters and pull the cassette, but the machine is still working.



on second thought, I think the cassette was for CAP but I am not positive.

I'm not saying that pulling a cassette (if you even have them) would work or even if its a good idea, but it worked for him at the time.



Also, alarm 114 seems to suggest that macro A is still on, according to the alarm list. verify that it is really off. might have to cycle the power on that option, even if it doesn't give you the cycle power alarm.

Bryan Turner said:

- Macro-B odds and ends:
I turned off Macro-A, turned on Macro-B. I can register programs with IF, GOTO, POPEN, PCLOS to memory and they display as keywords, not separate letter-addresses. I can DNC a program to assign "#1=1" and it works correctly, but "#2=1" or "#100=1" cause an alarm 004. I cannot register any of the programs such as "#1=1" to memory, it gives alarm 114.


So, I'm left with what appears to be a partial implementation of Macro-B?
This seems highly unintuitive, hoping I just missed a parameter somewhere..
--Bryan

EDIT: Here's the screen with various symbol characters in a comment (minus, plus, times, hash, equal, open and close bracket).
View attachment 198283

Click to expand...

Did you ever figure this out? We now have a machine with the exact same problem you had.

Could you please give me Omc Boards configuration