[Machineit]

Good Morning all,

Just got a new to me 97 Haas VF-2 setup yesterday, my second. Machine seems very sound, but when running checks on it last night I found one thing I need to find a fix for.

It will not send programs. It will receive but not send. That could be why it had 169 programs in the control when I got it. You know, load them up and then you makes changes but are unable to save to programs to a computer, so you just leave them in the control.

It's not the cable, disconnected the first and then used the cable from my other VF-2 nearby. Still only receive not send. When you attempt to send a program, the button functions okay as you can hear the beep, but no action takes place and nothing appears on the machine. The send and receive area on the screen remains blank.

Is there perhaps a setting somewhere to disable sending a program?

Thanks and any help would be very much appreciated.

Cheers----Mike

[Machineit]

Update, I tried the floppy drive and found it was not working, just kept getting 435 alarm errors. Opened the cabinet and found no power cable to the drive. Rigged up a cable and now the floppy works fine, send, receive, directory etc. So not totally stuck with not being able to save programs, but need to fix the RS-232 for sure.

So, everything works except that when RS-232 "Send" is pushed it does absolutely nothing.

Mike

[Ydna]

I had a similar problem but it was a different machine. Older 80's lathe. I never figured it out...

[cygnus x-1]

I would try a lower baud rate and see what happens.

C|

[HDowns]

Please, install Advanced Serial Port Monitor (Free download | Advanced Serial Port Monitor) (there's a demo period, which may be enough time to test the port) on the computer, switch it to the manual mode, set the correct baud rate, parity, etc. and try to send something to the computer. Do you see any activity in the monitor?
If not
1. Verity the cable layout. Usually it should be a null modem cable (2-3, 3-2, 5-5, etc)
2. Verity the port on the computer (connect something other to this port)

[Machineit]

Okay, before we go any farther, it is not cable or computer setting, baud setting etc. etc.... Nothing happens when you push send except for the beep! It is either a bad board or a parameter (if it exists) that is turned off.

Mike

[cygnus x-1]

Okay, before we go any farther, it is not cable or computer setting, baud setting etc. etc.... Nothing happens when you push send except for the beep! It is either a bad board or a parameter (if it exists) that is turned off.

Mike

That's seriously weird. The only thing I can find in the manual that's even close is a 9xxx program edit lock. It basically hides these programs so they can't be edited, sent, or received.

Since it beeps, it is registering the key press. But it should say "sending" or something on the screen even if there is no data being sent. If nothing, then there is an internal problem somewhere. The fact that the floppy drive power cable was missing seems fishy too, like someone was monkeying around with it.

If I had to guess, I would say the keypad control board is at fault.

C|

[dcoupar]

Sounds like maybe a bad serial port? IIRC, there are 2 identical serial cards on the side of the electrical box, one for program in/out, one for an indexer. It seems to me they were identical, and you could swap the plugs on the I/O board and use the other "card". But it was a long time ago, and I could be mistaken.

[Machineit]

Sounds like maybe a bad serial port? IIRC, there are 2 identical serial cards on the side of the electrical box, one for program in/out, one for an indexer. It seems to me they were identical, and you could swap the plugs on the I/O board and use the other "card". But it was a long time ago, and I could be mistaken.

That is an interesting idea. I'll have to check that out. Can't hurt!!!!!

Thanks---Mike

[dresnerm]

Hey Mike,

The behavor by itself does sound like it could be the serial interface board and/or it's internal cable (not your external since you swapped it from a working machine). The only concerning thing still to me is the lack of display change when you press SEND. I'd think the display of "Sending" would be shown even if it wasn't actually communicating properly. I know on mine, I can press send and it will say Sending and not a dang thing might be going across the pipe but it think it is.

But, the easy first .... I once had my keyboard ribbon cable ever so slighly NOT seated fully and I had a couple of keys that did not work...... assuming the end most pins were not making contact..

The lack of floppy power you found to me sounds like the machine probably wasn't originally configured with a floppy and perhaps the serial problems you're seeing was where a prior owner attempted to add a Floppy. Quite possibly because of e serial problem you're seeing. I could see that being a common mistake when adding afterwards, get the ribbon cable but not know how to get power to the drive itself. Glad to hear that at least got you able to send and receive from the machine via the floppy, albeit not the most efficience means.

Along with swapping the serial boards though (they should be the same) you could try first to swap around the serial cables in the cabinet... although the serial board swap is easier and you wouldn't have to monkey with the PCBs.The lack of prompt/display changes when you press send might also be some program corruption, etc..

I recently replaced several PCBs and IFBs myself trying to uncover my anomoly. You guys helped me a lot. But now having dug all over mine, I know the speaker is on the KBIF in the front pendant.... so it's then logical to me that the key press and beep event could simply be captured localy at the KBIF level and the true signal may not be making its way back to the keyboard/processor PCB.

There's a keyboard diagnostic OHM check you can do ... there's diodes for each keypress event that can be captured on a volt meter if you have one. I didn't do this on mine, seemed a little cumbersome but it may help as well. I have it in my service manual I can forward or locate for you if you need me to. Doesn't show how to do it just the expected readings you should see, etc.

Is your KBIF up front in the pendant area a Serial version or the older style? Older style will have a 34 pin ribbon connection that goes back to the cabinet (same size as the floppy ribbon). Newer serial style uses a smaller ribbon (like 16-18 pin), can't remember without looking .. it's the same size as the serial cables in the back from the ports to the boards -much smaller than the 34 pin.

My 98 VF0 originally had a serial keyboard KBIF up front. I had earlier picked up a Keyboard/Video PCB that although slightly older vintage and worked in my machine, did not fix my problem. After that didn't work, I picked up an older style non serial KBIF that uses the larger 34 pin ribbon cable like the floppy. Because I only had (1) accessible 34 pin ribbon heading to the pendant (my floppy cable), I temporarily sacrificed it and used as a keyboard cable. In the cabinet I moved it from the floppy port to the keyboard port on the Keyboard/Video PCB.

Said that to say this, If all the troubleshooting above doesn't work and you suspect it may be a KBIF, and ...IF you have the newer style serial KBIF I'm currently not using mine (older boards are working find for me, I'm happy) so I could make arrangements to get it to you to test if you're comfortable in swapping things. The KBIF is super simple to swap... I can get the part # for you but I'm pretty sure 97 WAS the transition year between non and serial enabled front KBIFs so you could have either.

I know it sounds crazy but I was able to get some great deals on Ebay. Although I got boards I didn't ultimately need, I was able to rule things out AND they all winded up working. So I have some great spare inventory at the shop now. If anything happens to gets zapped or breaks I have a good chance of having parts to swap and be back running in a matter of a few hrs as opposed to weeks. The absolute best feeling I have is with ALL of this I've bought, I've spent less than 1/2 of the drive time HAAS would charge just getting to me (6 hr round trip). Don't even want to state their quote for parts replacement ;o)

Another thing I've done a few times is if it's memory corruption, you can save the files you want to floppy, save your parms and settings and you can reinitialize the sofware from the DEBUG screen. This resets everything so be sure you save what you need, expecially your parms and settings but is the last resort short of having HAAS flush the software and reinstall. This can be done by yourself and resets the machine back to a base level. You'd have to restore the parms and settings but if the software is corrupt and causing this it may correct.

Good luck Mike!