

- #LAPTOP NO RSC232 PORT CNC HOW TO#
- #LAPTOP NO RSC232 PORT CNC SERIAL#
- #LAPTOP NO RSC232 PORT CNC UPDATE#
- #LAPTOP NO RSC232 PORT CNC SOFTWARE#
- #LAPTOP NO RSC232 PORT CNC CODE#
Serial flow is a stream of bits over a single wire (such as on the transmit or receive pin of the serial connector). Inside the computer, data bits flow in parallel (using many wires at the same time). It converts the data from parallel to serial and changes the electrical representation of the data. The serial port is much more than just a connector. The other pins are for control purposes and ground. Computer programs can send data (bytes) to the transmit pin (output) and receive bytes from the receive pin (input). Each has a 9-pin connector (sometimes 25-pin) (pic.1) on the back of the computer. There are many types of I/O devices such as serial ports, parallel ports, disk drive controllers, ethernet boards, universal serial buses, etc. An I/O device is just a way to get data into and out of a computer.
#LAPTOP NO RSC232 PORT CNC UPDATE#
I can then update it accordingly, give my main program the opportunity to update the PC screen then loop back to the top for another status request.The serial port is an I/O (Input/Output) device. Once I have the status I know what the mill is doing, where it is, the current feed rate, what space is available in the buffers, have we been paused etc. The status will be several bytes long so while waiting for them to arrive I can releases the processor and keep Windows happy. My version of this seperate program sends an 'S' on the USB which is my request for the mill status. My way to get around it is to start a second program that goes around in a loop, real easy to "spawn" off a new program you just write a subroutine that returns twice. If a program doesn't release the processor umpteen times a second it will be declared as "Not responding", unfriendly and needs to be time sliced. We could just insist you only plug one mill in at a time but how boring is that when you can run multiple mills simultaneously in different windows? If you only have one mill definition file, it knows where to go. If definition files include pet names for the mills the choice won't be gobble-de-gook. If we have more than one mill connected then we should have more than one mill definition file. Windows likes text files and they are dead easy to update with NotePad.

The mill controller responds to ENQ with a filename, if that name exists on disk we have found a mill and we have a text file that defines it. Now the mill is USB it can be anywhere on the list, we can't insist on COM1: it could be COM17: for all we know. ENQ is kind of safe to send to any serial device. We can ask Windows for a list of available serial ports then send an ASCII ENQuiry character to each in turn and see what comes back. The latter is a lot more friendly so best to go with that so as not to frighten people off writing controllers. USB devices can be either Hand Held or serial.
#LAPTOP NO RSC232 PORT CNC HOW TO#
We can draw the tool paths on the screen and have lots of neat buttons but how to find the mill?
#LAPTOP NO RSC232 PORT CNC SOFTWARE#
I am quite happy to offer mine as a start point, but I doubt many would agree with it or even join inįirstly we don't know which serial port holds the USB to serial adaptor with a mill on the end of it so the software has to find it. Maybe we should start a M圜NC thread and hammer out a protocol that covers all the bases and define our own standard so anyone can make the harware. All the big machine makers have their own protocols and use Ethernet. I don't know of any convenient standard protocol for sending the data and interrogating the mill. I have a basic system that works and it is totally convenient to take a Win 7 laptop to the machine, plug in a USB and start cuttting but I would never describe it as commercial. If it takes a whole second to sort the mess out you would never notice because the machine is paused, but it ain't easy to make it bullet proof :naughty: It's not too bad, you start with a bit of panic braking and after that you have all the time in the world to sort out how you are going to get back up to speed. I didn't find the big snag until I added a pause button.
#LAPTOP NO RSC232 PORT CNC CODE#
When I started writing the code to do it everything seemed straight forwards. I am trying to get away from Windows timing problems.īoth my milling machines run on USB.
