Fusion control and USB

Scruffy887 · Jan 5, 2013

Has anybody done this? Feed programs to the machine from a USB stick. Not necessarily drip feed but at least load from a stick. This is the only way I do it with the Fanuc, drip or load.

Joe788 · Jan 6, 2013

Does your Fusion control have a USB port?

Scruffy887 · Jan 6, 2013

Nope, that's why I asked. They all have a slot next to the screen, PCMCIA? Other than that there is a centronics printer port and a floppy disc. Newest QT has a network jack on the same panel as the floppy.

Joe788 · Jan 7, 2013

I don't know how much luck you'd have installing a USB port on a machine of that age, but you can get an ethernet card. Remove the two allen screws on the front of the control, and the panel swings open. Up at the top, behind the monitor, there's a slot to install the card. Getting Windows 95 to talk with a Windows 7/XP network is a whole other challenge though.

Also, somebody here on PM bought a 3.5 floppy - to - 128MB SD Card adapter that he was quite please with. Allowed him to use the SD card for file transfers instead of an old temperamental floppy disk.

Scruffy887 · Jan 11, 2013

I talked to Mazak this morning. Seems they have a replacement for the floppy disc drive. Remove the drive and put this in its place. It will not accept any file or files bigger than the original floppy. And it has a Mazak price.
Looks like the best solution is to install a wireless network card. Or maybe find a USB card to plug in and run a short extension out of the cabinet. Last option is just a standard network card and a laptop right at the machine. I have some perfectly good XPs kicking around and had already planned on having one at the machine for other uses.

Justin_Terry · Jan 11, 2013

i ordered a chinese floppy/usb emulator should be in next week going to try that and see if it works

jelrod1 · Jan 11, 2013

Joe788 said:
Also, somebody here on PM bought a 3.5 floppy - to - 128MB SD Card adapter that he was quite please with. Allowed him to use the SD card for file transfers instead of an old temperamental floppy disk.

I think you are talking about my post a while back. It is still working well, although it would be better to use the network card and board, it's just alot more expensive. To the OP below is the link to the post.

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/v...my-file-transfer-problems-220607/#post1522490

ETA: Here is a pic of the contraption.

BD42D273-B065-4E7B-A2B8-5D2ADFB64B87-7417-00000A71A83B7E35.jpg

Scruffy887 · Jan 12, 2013

jelrod1 said:
I think you are talking about my post a while back. It is still working well, although it would be better to use the network card and board, it's just alot more expensive. To the OP below is the link to the post.

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/v...my-file-transfer-problems-220607/#post1522490

ETA: Here is a pic of the contraption.

Thanks. I knew something like that existed. I am still going to set up a laptop at the machine. Just need to get off my butt and do this. I started taking pics of repeat job setups and it is nice to have them at the machine on screen. Printing the pics work but having them on the screen saves the time to print.

Joe788 · Jan 12, 2013

jelrod1 said:
I think you are talking about my post a while back. It is still working well, although it would be better to use the network card and board, it's just alot more expensive. To the OP below is the link to the post.

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/v...my-file-transfer-problems-220607/#post1522490

The network card is actually dirt cheap - the tricky part is FINDING one, and then getting the windows 95 drivers installed.

You have to get a 16 bit PCMCIA card with a pigtail on it, because there isn't enough room for the regular laptop kind to protrude out.

This should do it:

PCMCIA Card Lot of 6 Ethernet Cards etc Free Shipping | eBay

Scruffy887 · Jan 12, 2013

Inside the control there are 2 empty PC type expansion slots. Should take a standard network card or wireless card. Mazak tech and also Griffo tech said wireless works fine inside the cabinet. Mazak said the PCMCIA slot next to the LCD screen goes into the control, not the internal PC.

jelrod1 · Jan 12, 2013

Joe788 said:
The network card is actually dirt cheap - the tricky part is FINDING one, and then getting the windows 95 drivers installed.

You have to get a 16 bit PCMCIA card with a pigtail on it, because there isn't enough room for the regular laptop kind to protrude out.

This should do it:

PCMCIA Card Lot of 6 Ethernet Cards etc Free Shipping | eBay

Thanks. I actually had several of those and they are the cheap part. Inside the control there is a board that this plugs into. If you don't have the option you have to buy it. It is a Mitsubishi board that is around 700.00 from them or around 750.00 from Mazak. I had to buy several other options out of necessity when I got the machine and looked to doing something else instead. It's worked out fine so far for loading large programs to the hard drive but it would be better with the network setup. This works differently than other devices because the software is telling the computer it is a disk drive instead of a floppy and this gets around the limitations of floppy file size.

Here is the part i need for the network method. It is the interface for the card you referenced.

http://www.meau.com/eprise/main/sit...atnrid={4E96E7EC-4A67-40DF-AF01-454C1C12C98B}

Joe788 · Jan 14, 2013

Are you sure you're not talking about the Ethernet Operation function? That was about an $800 option, and allows the machine to actually drip feed a program through an ethernet connection. We've got a 510C here that was not purchased with any special option, and the old 16 bit ethernet card just plugs right in, sorta parallel to the LCD screen inside the panel. Then you just drag and drop your programs into the MC_Backup/Other/xxxx folder, and load it into the control through the Data I/O page.

jelrod1 · Jan 14, 2013

Yes I'm sure. Mazak told me the earlier versions of the 640 nexus controls had it as an option. I don't have that HR841 interface or an IC Board. They told me I needed to buy from them or Mitsubishi. It was disappointing looking inside the control and not having a place to plug in my network card.

ETA: Here is the option as listed in the Mazak Quote at that time. Now it is more money of coarse.

NO8305633C0 A PCMCIA INTERFACE (2-SLOT) $580

Joe788 · Jan 14, 2013

jelrod1 said:
Yes I'm sure. Mazak told me the earlier versions of the 640 nexus controls had it as an option. I don't have that HR841 interface or an IC Board. They told me I needed to buy from them or Mitsubishi. It was disappointing looking inside the control and not having a place to plug in my network card.

ETA: Here is the option as listed in the Mazak Quote at that time. Now it is more money of coarse.

NO8305633C0 A PCMCIA INTERFACE (2-SLOT) $580

Well that's a bummer. There's a 2004 640 Fusion and 2005 Nexus Fusion here and they both have it, and neither were purchased with that option.

For anybody else who's curious - here's a picture of where the card goes. This is the backside of the control, behind the monitor.

1E292BBE-0C3D-47CA-960E-6E914FD35E81-8844-00000E4127C00A0F.jpg

jelrod1 · Jan 14, 2013

Yeah it is a bummer. Mine is a Jan 2004 model. Note the lack of an IC card also. I had to purchase the EIA option cassette and the Synchronous tapping cassette also shown on the right side of the bottom pic.

333E393A-6451-4CD7-920F-108BE718C1E7-9333-00000CE91E577BD4.jpg

C354BA0E-A11D-443F-8F37-56AF1F252699-9333-00000CE93DDB74DD.jpg

Scruffy887 · Jan 14, 2013

Joe788 said:
Well that's a bummer. There's a 2004 640 Fusion and 2005 Nexus Fusion here and they both have it, and neither were purchased with that option.

For anybody else who's curious - here's a picture of where the card goes. This is the backside of the control, behind the monitor.

Yup, they are PCMCIA cards and slide in from the top. My pendants are kinda high and I could not see in from the top behind the card. Just spent some time with Mazak tech on the phone. I thought they were the slots on the right where Jelrod has the add on cards. Those slots will not accept a standard pci type network card. Mazak has these PCMCIA network cards in stock. Made by Linksys and under 100.00 PCMCIA card in front goes straight to the NC. And I just checked and all 4 Zaks have the card with the slots. Guessing I could even find a PCMCIA to USB card and run an extension out too.

Duak · Jan 16, 2013

One thing to be aware of when adding a USB or network card to an older windows machine is the possibility of a computer virus. Because the older stuff had no protection whatsover, all it can take is exposure to a virus and even if it's not malignant can take a long time to deal with. In theory, if you've got a closed PC, isolated from the 'net and don't allow any unchecked media you should be OK. Although I've never seen it myself, I hear tell that USB sticks can be infected easily and are a great way to spread viruses. Google 'stuxnet'

I didn't fully appreciate this and remember foolishly connecting a windows 98 PC directly to the 'net about 5 years ago. The hardware firewall had just broken, the PC didn't have a firewall and within an hour it had picked up a boot virus and wouldn't start up any more. The disk was fine and all the data was there. A virus scanner showed the infection but I was never able to eradicate it.

Hope this makes sense,

Cheers,

Duane

bigdaddyengel · Jan 17, 2013

another way to transfer files is to use a desktop to transfer a program from a memory stick to a floppy on the desktop and then load it from the floppy.

Fusion control and USB

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