Entering Messages for DPRNT Statements

Some machines have the facility to print text out of the serial port when a program is running (Fanuc with macro B, Fadal, Mazaks with macro option fitted and Mitsubishi are some that can). This method can be used to indicate when the machine starts and stops instead of a hardware box in the machine. But be aware this means these commands have to be added to each CNC program (DNC-Max can do this for you).

On the main DNC-Max Server screen click Setup / Configure Server. Then select Events/Messages on the left side tree menu and check the option Enable events/messages.

Click the Add button to the right of the messages list box to add a message as before but this time set it up as below:

Adding the CYCLESTART message.

Notice that the only difference to using the MDC box is that the Trigger field is set to MAXCYCLESTART, everything else is the same. This means that DNC-Max will look for the exact string "MAXCYCLESTART" coming out of the machine and then generate the CYCLESTART message. Do not confuse the Trigger string and the Message tag - they are similar but not the same.

The other messages can be setup in the same way as below:

Adding the CYCLESTOP message.

Adding the PARTCOMPLETE message.

Again the only difference between these setups and the hardware ones is the addition of the trigger string starting with MAX.

Please refer to Extraction of Barcode/DPRNT Messages to enable the extraction of "DPRNT" style messages.

Why MAX?

Any text string from the machine or barcode reader that we want to treat as a message trigger has to have a unique prefix string of characters that would not normally appear in the first few lines of a CNC program. Otherwise you could find that receiving a CNC program generates MDC messages as well. We normally use the MAX prefix as it is unusual for this to be at the start of a CNC program but you can use any other unique prefix (avoid the use of MSG as it is used for comments on machines such as the GE2000).