I have a CNC machine that the computer started not talking to the daisy chain RS232 of 13 motors. Using SMI 3.0.0.29 and an oscilloscope, I see the nice square wave signals arriving at the receive pin on the DB15 connector of motor 1. (Motors are SM3416D-DE, V4.15.) And they are being commanded to ECHO. But I get no response on the transmit pin of motor 1. Only 1 LED is lit on the motor. It's red. But earlier, it was green but still had the communication problem. I've tried power cycles repeatedly. Sometimes when I do that, SMI find the first or second motor and then lose communication.
I found at another place on the forum that someone had trouble with getting SMI to find motors and he found that if he went back to an obsolete version of SMI, his problems all went away. Being I do have a legacy version of motors, maybe that's my problem. The original computer actually failed and so I don't have the legacy version of SMI to try. Is there a copy of a legacy version of SMI that I could try? I've looked around on the website and didn't come up with anything.
Hello,
Could you please provide the information seen in SMI when you navigate to: Tools->Options->Terminal in regards to the echo timeout?
Also ensure that your Port Properties allows for max motor addresses up to 13, or however many you are using. The default is 10. Right click on the port -> Port Properties.
OK. I got some solutions. I have a bad motor. I thought I had eliminated that, but not. So after that's eliminated, talking happens. The bad motor is getting clear signals in but not ECHOing and not responding.
A different problem turned up. Motor 3 (and several others) have NO LEDs lit on them even though there is 38VDC on the power terminals. I pulled the power plug (SM3416D) to try to make reboot happen. When I plugged it back in, something hummed for a couple seconds, then stopped. Checking motor 2 then, the LED that HAD been green was out - no LEDs now in motor 2 either. What's going on?
Is there any program in the faulty motor that could be interfering? Are you able to communicate with that motor when it is connected individually?
Please use an ohmmeter to measure the voltage drop across either A1 and A2 of the 7w2, or 14 and 15 pins of db15.
Are you using a switch-mode power supply?
I'm back on this project. Had to go do some other things. Replace several bad motors. But now I can't get SMI to even find the first one in the chain. (Chain is 12 right now.) I have and "end-device" that finishes the chain. If I install that ahead of the first motor, the sniffer shows the return signal just fine. If I install that end-device between motors 1 & 2, I do not get a response. In other words, motor 1 is not responding. If I jumper the send and receive pins on motor 1, then the loop is again complete.
Motor 1 has a green LED steady on. I tried moving one of the other motors into the motor 1 position. That motor also has steady green LED. But same result. My COM port 6 is set to 9600 baud, no parity, 1 stop bit.
I had this setup working before, so I feel like I'm missing something.
Tools>Options>Terminal has check mark in Automatically Calculate Echo Timeout. I unchecked that and changed it from 100 to 1000. That really slowed down the detection process but got no more response than before.
Power supply is not switch mode.
Hello...
Have you been successful previously with the same wiring setup that you have now? In the 13-motor daisy chain, are all motors displaying a single green LED? Are you able to connect to the motors individually? What are you other current setting in the Options for Terminal?
Right now, to eliminate possibilities, I have the chain shortened to having only ONE motor. Talking in on the motor RX pin and returning the signal to the computer from the motor TX pin. So this is the only motor and it has green LED. I tried a different motor (also green LED); same result. If I jumper the TX & RX pins on the motor, the loop is complete - so that eliminates wiring & connection problems, I think.
In Options > Terminal:
Check mark in "Automatically Calc..."
Echo Timeout: grayed out
Response Timeout: 500
Network Delay: 1000
Byte Add Delay: 260
The wiring setup was being used successfully before.
Try changing 260 to 400. No response is received/seen in the serial sniffer window? Have you tried the Communication Lockup Wizard?
I changed 260 to 400. Still nothing in the serial sniffer window. I have not tried the Communication Lockup Wizard. Don't know what that is or how to use it.
I found the wizard. I will try that in a couple hours.
OK, now just tried the Communication Lockup Wizard. It goes in an endless loop of "power off, click continue, power on, click continue, cannot establish link..., power off, click continue, power on, click continue, cannot establish link...
I did notice that the LED that normally starts out red and quickly turns green, during the wizard activity, stays red after power up until partway through the detection activity, it turns green again. I assume this means the wizard is doing it's job - keeping the program stopped until detection can begin...?