The ISC has specific functions for machining tools and Machining Center.
ISC supports drivers of primary brands, such as, CNC Siemens, Fanuc, and Heidenhain.
When uploading drivers, there are additional functions available, as part program transfer and sending of working documents in Documents folder.
Remote part program transfer (machine instructions)
Not all families/versions of CNC support these functions (e.g. legacy CNC families).
When adding a device and choosing a driver of supported CNC brands (described in previous sections), Part Programs name CNC page will appear.
Follow this procedure:
- Connect gateway’s Ethernet port to CNC’s Ethernet port (very old CNC might not have Ethernet ports);
- Enable communication and connection ports from CNC: in some cases you should enable Ethernet port to allow the CNC to send data. Verify that the CNC can send data to the third parties (in some cases you should purchase additional optional functions of the CNC, provided by its manufacturer);
- Setup the Ethernet ports, as described in sections 4 and 5. Pay attention to the correct settings of assigned IPs to the CNC, gateway and local LAN network in order to avoid conflicts. The devices equipped with DUAL LAN allow the gateway to connect to CNC with IP of a certain family and, for ex., with the office PCs or servers with other IP, without coming into conflict;ù
- Make all communication TCP/IP Tests that can be found at Configuration tab (see section 5) and test a single IP address to ping on the CNC, office PC and server. In case of a successful outcome, the screen icon next to the device will turn green.
In case of communication problems the screen icon will turn red . If the communication test succeeds but the icon remains red or the CNC icon remains red, it means that you should enable CNC’s ports.
After setting up the connections and the communication ports, click Part Programs. The screen as in figure
below will appear.
In the box you will see all part programs on the monitored machine’s PLC.
Then you can download and upload the part program files (machine instructions).
So it will be possible to send the instructions directly from a PC to the machine and transfer new part program.
- Click Upload, in the popup window select the file from your PC (as shown in the figure below) and click Open. The system in few seconds will transfer it to the machine’s CNC, at any distance it is.
In this example TEK1 part program was used. - Click Open, wait for a few seconds.
- When the system has finished the file transfer (it depends on the file dimension and the kind of connection), you can check the transfer: click F5 button to refresh the web page and scroll the list of part programs on the CNC. You will see TEK1 file in the list: the file transfer was successful.
On-board controller can start the program or work.
The purpose of this function is to organize/program all sequences of working that the machine performs, to
organize and plan the production, etc.
CAUTION
If you are accidentally trying to transfer remotely a part program to the CNC, which is already on the machine, the operation will not have success, as the files are protected from being overwritten remotely. Rename the file, adding revision (TEK1rev, TEK1r1 and so on).
CAUTION
The files that start with “O” cannot be downloaded and managed remotely, for security reasons.
Rename the file (add another letter in the beginning).
To download a part program from the machine’s CNC (for ex., to modify the instructions remotely), select
the file and click Download.
Choose the folder to save the file.
The file WILL NOT BE DELETED from the CNC. For security reasons, when working nothing is modified or overwritten.
After that, on the on-board CNC screen you can easily check that the file has not been removed or modified.
CAUTION
In some cases in might happen that, after selecting the part program to download, clicking the
“Download” button, Google Chrome is set by default to download files in “Downloads” folder (see figure below).
To change the folder, go to Google Chrome settings, check Ask where to save each file before downloading box.
