Program Storage help

LP08SS · Aug 13, 2020

Im having an issue with our shops program storage. we currently use compact flash cards which worked fine up until recently. i was getting a 111 data overflow alarm but when i looked there was still tons of space left on the card. i did some poking around to find out compact flash can only handle so many writes until it needs to be split into sub folders. so my main question is can fanuc controls traverse the file path so that i will be able to have access to all of the programs under the different sub folders or am i stuck having to use a fresh flash card? I have 4 hardinge mills 2 with 18i-mb controls and 2 with oi-md controls. thanks for any help!

beege · Aug 13, 2020

If I remember correctly, the file allocation table (FAT) can only have so many entries at the root level. If all of the programs were saved under a sub-folder (subdirectory) then the entries have a much higher limit. If I remember....

camhead420 · Aug 13, 2020

I do not think it will see sub-folders. I am more concerned if that is your only storage. You do back those up right?
I have had a many of cards or thumb drives just stop working. If they are on a laptop that has a back up to, then there
is no reason to fill that card up.

LP08SS · Aug 13, 2020

mr.greenman said:
I do not think it will see sub-folders. I am more concerned if that is your only storage. You do back those up right?
I have had a many of cards or thumb drives just stop working. If they are on a laptop that has a back up to, then there
is no reason to fill that card up.

so you are correct i could not see any subfolders, before i left work i emptied one of the cards made 2 sub folders and just dumped a handful of programs into each, plugged it in and didnt see a single one. so unless someone knows of a different way or can point out something im not doing right i think im kind of up a creek in a way.

we do in fact back up all of our programs regularly. as to why we use flash cards over a laptop i honestly couldnt tell you, my only thought is that theres no other device input atleast for our 2 machines with 18i controls our oi's have usb but we never made use of it since we could still use flash cards with them. either way point is we would like to keep using the flash card if we can make it work and fact is our programs are typically so small its going to take just as long to fill a flash card as it will a laptop hard drive.

camhead420 · Aug 14, 2020

So, i was just using a laptop as an example, we dont do laptops. All our programs are on the network and are available at any work station.
I am still confused, what exactly is the problem? you can load and unload programs on and off the cards.

LP08SS · Aug 14, 2020

mr.greenman said:
So, i was just using a laptop as an example, we dont do laptops. All our programs are on the network and are available at any work station.
I am still confused, what exactly is the problem? you can load and unload programs on and off the cards.

the problem is that there are a limited number of writes to a flash card, ive hit that number so i can no longer write to it unless its split into sub folders and since fanuc controls (from what i can tell so far) cant read those sub folders i cant continue to write to that card, so if we continue this way not only will we end up just amassing flash cards (with only a limited amount of programs on them) but there will be no organization to the cards, so i imagine it will be a pain trying to figure out which programs are on which cards. oh and i checked this morning the flash cards are the only input into the machines with the 18i controls. which i found weird!

camhead420 · Aug 14, 2020

Are all your programs on a computer? is that how you load the card?

LP08SS · Aug 14, 2020

mr.greenman said:
Are all your programs on a computer? is that how you load the card?

they are on a desk top computer but the computer is on the far side of the shop, and programs arent typically transferred between the two very often. basically programs are made or modified and saved onto the flash card where they end up staying until the cards are ultimately backed up down the road.

Mtndew · Aug 14, 2020

LP08SS said:
they are on a desk top computer but the computer is on the far side of the shop, and programs arent typically transferred between the two very often. basically programs are made or modified and saved onto the flash card where they end up staying until the cards are ultimately backed up down the road.

Have you looked into Cimco? Your problem could be solved easily and for a reasonable price.

EmGo · Aug 14, 2020

There's FAT, VFAT, FAT16 and FAT32 .... they all have slightly different capabilities, with straight (original) FAT being the worst. Digital cameras added FAT16 at least ten years ago .... have you tried newer filesystem versions in your control ?

mhajicek · Aug 14, 2020

Using the cards for transfer, or to drip feed from, is fine. Using them for primary storage makes me cringe. Flash cards get flaky and die over time, just like floppy disks, and if you haven't backed it up it's gone. I would have some kind of super cheap ($50 each off craigslist even) computer in front of every machine or cluster of machines. Use them to transfer files, look up prints, track cutter use and job status etc.

LP08SS · Aug 20, 2020

EmanuelGoldstein said:
There's FAT, VFAT, FAT16 and FAT32 .... they all have slightly different capabilities, with straight (original) FAT being the worst. Digital cameras added FAT16 at least ten years ago .... have you tried newer filesystem versions in your control ?

Yea I'm guessing since FAT what the cards are formatted in that's what the file system is. No we have not tried a newer version, not even sure how to go about doing that lol.

Sent from my Pixel 3a XL using Tapatalk

LP08SS · Aug 20, 2020

mhajicek said:
Using the cards for transfer, or to drip feed from, is fine. Using them for primary storage makes me cringe. Flash cards get flaky and die over time, just like floppy disks, and if you haven't backed it up it's gone. I would have some kind of super cheap ($50 each off craigslist even) computer in front of every machine or cluster of machines. Use them to transfer files, look up prints, track cutter use and job status etc.

Yea you're probably right for the time being this is probably the best route to go. Honestly I'm not quite sure why our mill side doesn't use a laptop or 2. our lathe side does and there's not problems over there lol.

Sent from my Pixel 3a XL using Tapatalk

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