rx8pilot
Aluminum
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2009
- Location
- Los Angeles
About 6 months ago I took over a shop that is all Doosan machines with Fanuc controls. They range from 2005-2007 including mills, lathes, and mill/turn machines. I am struggling with the deadly limitations of the Fanuc controls. 256K program memory and RS232 limited to 19,200bps are perhaps the most dramatic. Each machine has a different variant 18i, 21i, 0i - I can't remember all of them off the top of my head but they are the usual suspects from the era.
The horrifying user experience of Faunc controls can be a separate topic. They are reliable, but indefensibly horrible operationally. The goal of this thread is to figure out how to make the best of the very limited memory and extremely slow RS232. Many of my programs for the mills and the mill/turn are larger than the available 256k. The programs that do fit take an enormous amount of time to load.
Is it possible to get the RS232 to go faster than the 19.2k that I see in the documentation? Loading a 200k program at that speed is brutally slow.
Are there practical options to get 1M or so of program memory (or more)?
For the inevitable DNC, what are your favorite options from a user-friendly perspective? Hopefully, one that makes program restart reasonably easy.
I have considered the Calmotion products, but not tried them. I have also considered putting a full PC at each machine with some DNC software. A full PC can be helpful with display of drawings, setup sheets, and other support information for the operator. Perhaps if we had a well thought out DNC solution that is controlled on a PC at each machine, the memory and RS232 limitations would not be as much of a problem.
The Doosan hardware is really quite good, so I feel like defeating the shortcomings of the controller will extend the life of these machines.
Thanks in advance to all that choose to offer any hints, guidance, or insights.
The horrifying user experience of Faunc controls can be a separate topic. They are reliable, but indefensibly horrible operationally. The goal of this thread is to figure out how to make the best of the very limited memory and extremely slow RS232. Many of my programs for the mills and the mill/turn are larger than the available 256k. The programs that do fit take an enormous amount of time to load.
Is it possible to get the RS232 to go faster than the 19.2k that I see in the documentation? Loading a 200k program at that speed is brutally slow.
Are there practical options to get 1M or so of program memory (or more)?
For the inevitable DNC, what are your favorite options from a user-friendly perspective? Hopefully, one that makes program restart reasonably easy.
I have considered the Calmotion products, but not tried them. I have also considered putting a full PC at each machine with some DNC software. A full PC can be helpful with display of drawings, setup sheets, and other support information for the operator. Perhaps if we had a well thought out DNC solution that is controlled on a PC at each machine, the memory and RS232 limitations would not be as much of a problem.
The Doosan hardware is really quite good, so I feel like defeating the shortcomings of the controller will extend the life of these machines.
Thanks in advance to all that choose to offer any hints, guidance, or insights.