CNC Apprentice
CNC Apprentice
TRIAC 1986 Baud Rate DIP Switches
Hi
Can anyone tell me precisely on the PCB where the baud rate DIP switches are and what configuration relates to 9600.
I wish to change this to try and increase the program upload speed.
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CNC Expert
CNC Expert
I've probably got something somewhere as I have done it before - give me a few days to have a look. Ours is set to 9600 and it will still take about 40min to download and fill the memory.
CNC Apprentice
CNC Apprentice
Hi

Can you explain why it takes about 15 min to upload a 700 block program to the machine and only something like 20 Sec to download a program of similar size?

Regards
CNC Apprentice
CNC Apprentice
Hi

Can you explain why it takes about 15 min to upload a 700 block program to the machine and only something like 20 Sec to download a program of similar size?

Regards
User avatar
CNC Expert
CNC Expert
I'm guessing it is beacuse on a download it sends a line down then waits for the acknowledgement code and also does a certain amount of error checking of the code.i.e. as it downloads it, it interpets what it is receving as it get it.

On the upload side, the PC simply holds one line high to signify it is ready for data - as long as this line is high the Triac just spews the data out.

I now have the manual to hand so I will see if I can take some pictures of it in the next few days.

Cheers

Dave
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CNC Guru
CNC Guru
Here are some settings to play with in the TRIAC.OPT file.
Add these lines and play about with the numbers to see if you can improve things. The values shown are the default values (so these are the values assumed if the entry is missing in the .OPT file) and are in milliseconds. They will have been conservative values so you may be able to reduce them to improve transfer times

DOWNFEED 10
DOWNFEEDEOL 50

Descriptions...
DOWNFEED = delay inserted between each character sent to the machine when downloading
DOWNFEEDEOL = delay inserted between each NC Block sent to the machine when downloading
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CNC Expert
CNC Expert
One interesting point - what PC are you using? We have a robot system at work (SCARA) that needed an 8086 to run it. For many many years they tried to find a replacement but discovered that the port timing was critical. Recently however they discovered that modern high-speed PCs run so quickly that the port timings have had to be tightened up to slow the whole process down. This tight control of the timing means that they have been able to swap out the 8086 for a new PC.

If your using an older PC (probably before P3) you may want to try a faster machine in conjunction with Mr Magoo's tweaks to the comms protocol.

I wrote some windows software years ago to transfer programs to the Triac and getting the timings right was a nightmare. I could never get it as fast as the original software so gave up.

Cheers

Dave
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