Shop floor management software?
 

What method do you guys that work in, or own a machine shop use to transfer programs from a central location?
I know you can run cables from each CNC machine, but what I am wanting to know is can you store all programs on a laptop, then upload to your CNC via a RS232 cable without any special software?
I am trying to talk the owner here to purchase a shop floor control system for that purpose, but he wants to do it the cheap route.:roll:

Thanks for your help guys!"thumbsup"

Paul

Using Cimco here.

We have every machine wired up to a box that you can switch one cable from to another output. BUT I do use my personal laptop to program and I use a USB to serial adapter made by gearhead. Purchased from FRYS

There are alot of variables to this set up. You will have to configure baud rates, handshake, and figure out which null modem you need. Also PC set up is viable as well, you will have to mess with system management settings to match the ones of your DNC.

I run matsuura mc-510 with yasnac controller.

I also use null modem D25nm-3 (full handshake)

Its going to be trial and error and a long time to figure out, but with the internet and machining forums I fgured it out.

Good luck on the pain in the arse adventure your gonna have! LOL :lmao:

Don't feel too bad if your bossman won't spring for the control system. At my last job we manufactured fan reversers for Pratt & Whittney jet engines, we were owned by G.E. so you would think that we had the latest and greatest of everything, right? WRONG! We got all of our programs delivered to us on a 3 1/2" floppy disc!! There wasn't a single CNC machine in the whole factory that ran on a CD drive.

At the machine shop class I am in we use a desktop hooked up to an old Fadal mill with an RS232 cable... draw the part in Gibbs, type in "TA,1" on the Fadal, and send the posted program to the machine "thumbsup"

That said... sometimes the complexity of something like that can make for more issues than help. With my Sherline mill, I would transfer the programs from my desktop {in my bedroom} to the mill via a flash drive... I then loaded the program and ran. My question is how long/hard is it to transfer a program via a flash drive or floppy... in my experience it doesn't take that long to do vs. setting a whole big computer system "thumbsup"

cheapest way is to do the switch box method, picture at bottom


you have one switch box that the pcs feed into and with that you select which pc you are sending from,

the first switch box feeds into another switch box that selects the machine to send to.

it pretty easy and inexpensive to set up.

also we have used 2 or 3 different dnc setups.

so far the best price/value/service has been refresh your memory the pc dnc plus system. very cool guys, no yearly support charges. one fee for software and it does everything we need to do as far as dnc, spoon feeding, data collection, and cycle time analysis. cost was about $3500

http://rym.com/

What he said. This is what we use.

Years ago, when I worked in a shop, this is what we used. We had 2 Fadal 4060 mills with auto tool changers & flood cooling & an Okuma lathe with auto tool changer & flood cooling. These were all run off a PC in the office.
We also ran the CMM into the PC as well.

Most of our work was aluminum, the owner ran the speeds so high it sounded more like a wood shop than a machine shop cutting metal.:shock:

I'm probably abit spoiled, but the haas machine i was using, i just plugged the usb into the cpu, in cam i just hit save nc (to the usb drive) plugged the usb into the mill (or lathe), pushed list program, arrowed over to usb, choose my file, then i either pressed write/enter or select program (i can't remember its been afew months) hit F2 (copied it to memory, and it was there in the machine...i usually ran the sim right afterwords to see if the machine likes the code....it takes longer walking from the computer to the mill, than it does to transfer the program.

But i'm sure this doesn't apply to older cnc's :flipoff:

The fadal is similar, just tell it to "take the program", send it over from Gibbs and go make some parts "thumbsup" Now if the machine could automatically load and unload... :roll:

That said the switch idea looks really smart for sending stuff around from a central point 8)