USB Drip Feeding (FNC)

Have you ever wanted to run a program and it is too large to fit in the machine memory?

One option was to connect your Haas machine up to a computer via an RS 232 connection and through a communication package or NC editor, to talk to the machine and drip feed in a program or DNC.

This involved getting the wiring in the RS 232 plugs correct, ensuring that the computer settings and machine settings were all set correctly and then hoping that while the program was running nobody touched anything on the computer to stop it communicating.

With the introduction of the USB port from 15 and 8 series software and the introduction of the device manager in LIST PROGRAMS it is possible to run a program straight from a USB stick.

To run straight from the USB, press LIST PROGRAMS and then open up your USB device, once the device is open find the program that you require to run in the root directory or in a sub folder on the USB. Once you have located the program you want to run, instead of copying the file to the memory on the machine use the SELECT PROG key.

When this is pressed the program that you want to run will appear on the screen but won’t be in MEMORY like a normal program it will be in FNC and will say FNC USB and the file name.NC above the program.

This program can now be ran like a normal program in MEMORY, you can search through the program e.g. tool changes etc and start from where you need to in the program.

Once you have finished with the program you will need to tell the machine you have finished with the program.

Go back to LIST PROGRAMS, usually this will take you straight back to the USB device and you will see your program you’ve been running, if not find the program.

There will be an FNC symbol next to the program which needs to be removed by pressing the SELECT PROG key again.

The program is now turned off FNC and the machine will use the program last selected in memory again.

N.B. If you don’t close the program and just remove the USB stick, the USB timeout alarms will appear as the control is still trying to read the USB.