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Our dnc software has been designed
to be really easy for shopfloor use, easy to use
and easy to see by non-computer literate operators.
Most of the vital DNC functions can be performed
by function keys and the keyboard should your CNC
operators be unused to a mouse - or simply because
the computer area gets too dirty for one.
Remote DNC means that the calling up of NC files
between your computer and your CNC can now be done
entirely by the operator at the CNC control, he
no longer has to trudge back and forth between the
two!
Screen Interface
As you can see, the main screen
consists of the large icon buttons, menu items and
a large CNC status area. ProDNC will support up
to 64 DNC connections to your CNC machines. To be
practical, its necessary to have either enough com
ports for you needs on your computer, or install
multi-port serial cards to make up the required
number of ports. DNC using switch boxes is not a
practical solution as you would be constantly walking
over to switch the knob on the box, and that defeats
the whole exercise!
You can easily see the current transfer status of
any of your CNC machines. If you don't need the
64 CNC machines you can easily hide them from view.
That's as un-cluttered as your screen needs be,
you can even minimize the dnc software so you can't
see it at all.
Whilst setting up (or if you prefer to visually
see your NC files whizz by) you can run any or all
of the DNC transfers to their own debug windows...
DNC Parameters
There are many RS232 and CNC parameter settings,
here is a brief run down...
- Baudrate from 150 to 115200
- XON/XOFF , RTS/CTS and BOTH handshaking.
- Com1 to Com128.
- ASCII and EIA character sets.
- Supports long-filename request if you have comments
on your CNC, numeric filenames if no comments
- Send and Receive Files Remotely
- Restart after a toolbreak at exactly the last
block sent successfully
- Queue files for sequential sending to CNC
- Merge multiple files for sending to CNC
- Repeat last file sent to CNC "n" times
- Definable tool-not-found, safe-restart and unknown-command
files - send back to CNC for positive feedback
- Send CNC control codes before and after CNC
file.
- Can send data block-by-block or as user-definable
data packets; useful curing DNC overflow and for
rapid file transfer.
- Wait for XON before sending - great for Fanucs,
just send the file and ProDNC will wait until
you press INPUT at the CNC.
- User selectable end-of-block for send, user
selectable or auto-detect end-of-blocks for received
files.
- List of preset DNC settings for many popular
CNCs
- Setup separate send and receive folders and
file extensions so you can "quarantine"
received files if you want to.
- Easily setup RS232 CNC protocols with our built
in Terminal mode especially for debugging CNC
data.
- Protocol analyzer makes detecting your CNC baudrate
etc a breeze
- Easily "Alias" folders and extensions
so that you can get files from any location on
your computer or network
- Use simple CNC macros to allow remote CNC monitoring:
Tool, Part Counter and Percentage complete status
>> more
Remote DNC - How Does It All
Work ?
Remote DNC is really easy, but like everything else
that's worth it, it takes a while to get your head
around it. In our experience, our users take a few
minutes of us explaining everything, perhaps a few
times, and then its like a light bulb goes on over
their head! From then on its just plain easy.
Sending Files Using Remote
To send a file from your computer to your CNC you
simply store a small program in your CNC memory
that contains instructions inside it that tells
ProDNC what to do and which filename to do it to.
So, one of the simplest examples that we always
use is this
%
(/GET 1000)
%
The /GET instructs ProDNC that you want to get a
file. The 1000 means that you want to get file 1000.
You OUTPUT this little program out through the RS232
of your CNC and then immediately press INPUT on
your CNC. ProDNC gets the file you sent out, interprets
it and a short while later it sends file 1000 (from
the folder you specify in the setup and with the
file extension from the setup) back to the CNC.
The next time you want to get a different file,
say 2000, then you edit the same small program in
your CNC memory to
%
(/GET 2000)
%
And repeat the procedure.
If your CNC cannot use comments, then you can use
one of the axis words, so
%
/X1000
%
Will work equally as well. Don't forget though,
that if you can't use comments, you cant use letters,
you are stuck with numeric filenames.
If you want to specifically name a file you wish
to get...
%
N10 (/GET D//CNCFILES/FANUC/VERTICAL/UK/YORKSHIRE/1000.NCF)
N20 X30 Y20 M3
N30 G00 Z20 M6 T3
....
....
....
....
M30
%
"\" and ":" are automatically
represented by "/" and "//"
for CNC's that dont have these characters.
Receiving Files Using Remote
To receive a file off your CNC back to your computer,
all you have to do is embed the command and the
filename on its own block inside your NC file, anywhere
will do it. So in this example code, you are instructing
ProDNC to save the file away as 1000. All you need
to do is just OUTPUT this file out of your CNCs
RS232 and it will get stored away automatically.
%
N10 X1000 Y1000
N20 (/PUT 1000)
...
...
...
...
N2000 M30
%
Another example
%
N10 (/PUT C//CNCFILES/FANUC/VERTICAL/UK/YORKSHIRE/1001.TXT)
N20 X30 Y20 M3
N30 G00 Z20 M6 T3
....
....
....
....
M30
%
This saves the file to a location specified by you.
If the folder path to that file does not exist,
then ProDNC automatically creates the folders for
you.
Autonaming Files Using Remote
An even niftier trick is to autoname the files the
same as the NC program number in your CNC memory.
For example with a Fanuc, you code may be something
like this..
:1256
N10 X1000 Y1000
...
...
...
...
N2000 M30
%
All you need do is set the colon : as the autoname
and dump out the file through your CNCs RS232. It
gets automatically stored as 1256.
Autonaming now supports multiple files, so you
can dump out all the files and ProDNC will split
up the data and store them back on the computer
as individual files with the same filename as the
NC program name. Works great on Fanucs.
Aliasing to other Folders
In addition to getting files from a single folder
you can easily up to 80 other folders anywhere on
your computer just by adding a simple extension
to the filename so,
%
(/GET 1000.1) gets the file from a folder that you
"alias" to folder 1
%
%
(/GET 1000.2) gets the file from a folder that you
"alias" to folder 2
%
Dead easy and it saves so much time
typing in those long filepaths!
Restart After Toolbreak
ProDNC keeps track of the last file sent and the
last block successfully sent. You can therefore
recover from a toolbreak simply by issuing a command
such as
%
(/BRK) << This will start from the last block
sent
%
%
(/BRK 7689) << This will start from block
7689
%
Queue Files For Transmission
ProDNC can send files sequentially to your CNC
%
(/QUE 7689 1234 8907 5673) << This will send
files 7689, 1234, 8907 and 5673 to your CNC
%
Merge Files For Transmission
ProDNC can merge multiple files and send to your
CNC
%
(/MRG 7689 1234 8907 5673) << This will merge
files 7689, 1234, 8907 and 5673 and send as single
file to your CNC
%
Repeat Files For Transmission
ProDNC can send repeat files to your CNC
%
(/RPT) << This will send the last file you
sent to your CNC again
%
%
(/RPT 10) << This will send the last file
you sent to your CNC 10 times in succession
%
Sending and Receiving Files "Manually"
Even though sending files using remote is dead easy,
there may be times you just want to transfer files
at the computer. It may be you need to go to the
computer and search for a specific file, or it may
be that its easier for a specific CNC just to be
able to do this. No problem at all, you do it how
you want to do it!
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