Messages

61

Modbus / modbus cubloc help wanted

« on: January 09, 2009, 06:55:14 PM »

I have a cubloc cb290 on my mill for more I/O.To learn all this plc stuff I bought the cubloc study board and cb280.
It is sitting on my desk with the lights turning off and on nicely.I have written several "brains" that work fine on the cb280
and I think I get the whole thing.So I set up the cb 290 on my mill same way.It worked for about 1/2 hour, or at leasdt the
time out error never came up so I assume that I had com between Mach and the plc.Now all I get is time out errors.I ran a small looping progm on the plc to test and it seems to work fine.
 Any ideas on how to get Mach and the plc to get along.
I have tried usb/serial cable that works on my cb280 and a pci serial card that also works with the 280.
The 280 is connected to a differant computer.I have the latest version of mach.

62

SmoothStepper USB / Re: spindle motor

« on: December 31, 2008, 11:18:23 AM »

no ,it is not a proper ac servo.I have a vfd connected to the motor for
speed control.It was the easiest way to explain my delema.The encoder does not
have a reference pulse only the a/b channels.I have an optical sensor I mounted on the spindle that
I could use, this is for a spindle referencing pulse.This is the same devise I have on the lathe for indexing.

63

SmoothStepper USB / spindle motor

« on: December 30, 2008, 06:33:40 PM »

I want to run my ac spindle motor as a servo motor.I need to know the rpm
and would like some form of feed back.I mounted a dif. 1000ppr encoder on the
motor shaft.I have the smooth stepper on this machine.Can I use the encoder
connections on the smooth stepper?Or connect to the Bob Campbell
break-out board.How would I reconise this in mach.

64

General Mach Discussion / Re: more tool change questions

« on: December 20, 2008, 07:32:06 PM »

Hood here are some pictues of the tool changer

65

General Mach Discussion / Re: more tool change questions

« on: December 20, 2008, 05:54:12 PM »

thanks poppa.I had to tweek it a bit but the tool change is working away nicely
Now on to my more involved tool changer.This one I think will have to
run thru the plc .It is on my mazak miil, 24 pockets, 5 proximity sensors to give an absolute position
lots of io for the tool swap arm and spindle orientate.

66

General Mach Discussion / Re: Spindle revs out of control

« on: December 20, 2008, 04:03:03 PM »

If this a Bob Campbell combo board ver.5 just download the manual
and follow the instructions.You may have to read through a few times and
google terms you are unfamiliar with.

67

General Mach Discussion / Re: Threading problem with Mach 3 Turn

« on: December 18, 2008, 04:15:43 PM »

I found that using the printer port the signal for threading is too slow.
I added a dwell at the start of each thread pass g04 p1.This gives the
computer time to sort itself out .I reread your post and it says on the
 return pass,are you not backing the tool out from the cut at the end of the thread?

68

General Mach Discussion / more tool change questions

« on: December 17, 2008, 03:52:49 PM »

I have been trying to implement a rotary tool changer,it is rotated with a stepper motor
and I have it set as the "a"axis.I can enter a goa# on the mdi line and the turret works.
I found that a value of 1.64375 X tool # and it will rotate to that tool.Now I want to do it
with a brain or with a vb macro as below I must have something wrong
with this as I cannot get it to work!.I would rather use a brain as I would like to add
funcionality to my machines as I go.My turret is simple
-a pneumatic cylinder holds a lock closed, release with a signal
-read input from limit switch, to indicate lock is released,
- rotate turret and reclamp
-read lose of input from limit switch to indicate all is good.If IsLoading() Then
  ' do now't, program loading
Else

' dim some vars

  Dim next_tool As Integer
  Dim current_tool As Integer
  Dim steps_per_tool As Integer
  Dim max_tools As Integer
  Dim holdingDRO As Integer
  Dim rotateCW As Integer
  Dim moves As Integer
  Dim axis As String
  Dim zero As Integer


' set up some vars

  zero = 0
  axis = a ' change to what ever axis you use for tool changer
  rotateCW = 0 ' set to 1 for CCW and 0 for CW rotation
  max_tools = 8 ' number of tools on turret
  steps_per_tool= 1.64375 ' set to what ever it needs to be
 
 
  holdingDRO=1050 ' or what ever you have set screen dro to
  next_tool = GetSelectedTool()
  current_tool = GetUserDRO(holdingDRO)
 
' do some tool changing

  If next_tool > max_tools Then
    Message "Tool number too high, program stopped."
    Code "M30"
    End
  End If
  If next_tool<1 Then
    Message "Tool number too low, program stopped."
    Code "M30"
    End
  End If
  If next_tool=current_tool Then
    ' do nowt, we got it already
  Else
  ' lets do some changing
    If next_tool>current_tool Then moves=next_tool-current_tool 
    If next_tool<current_tool Then moves=max_tools-current_tool+next_tool
   
    If rotateCW =1 Then
      rapid_move = zero - rapid_move

    End If
    Code "G92 " & axis & "0"
    Code "G91 G94 G61"
    Code "G01 " & axis & rapid_move & "F" & fast_feed
 
    While IsMoving()
    Wend
    Code "G01 " & axis   "F"     While IsMoving()
    Wend
    SetCurrentTool next_tool
    SetUserDRO holdingDRO, next_tool
    Code "G90" ' back to absolute movement
  End If
End If

' end of tool change   

69

General Mach Discussion / Re: whats happening with threading

« on: December 12, 2008, 07:02:37 PM »

The machine is a mazak v5 micro center.(hardly micro at 9600 lbs), as far as original rapids I have no idea.It came from a university with low hours ,1300 ,and after the shipping company had there way, no control.I had originally tried to fit a Fagor
8055 but dumped that once I got on to this Mach thing.Believe me the support for fagor is not even on the same planet as Mach.
The machine looked like crap with a layer of crud composed of old cosmoline and dust ,it took weeks to clean up.The
paint underneath was great as are all the slide ways.The original spindle speed was 6k but I replaced the original
dc motor with an ac /vfd.Now it runns at about 8k.smooth as silk.The tool changer has 24 pockets and uses 5 proximity sensors to read the binary code on the face of the tool drum.I used the servo drives from Viper and the original motors .
This project started out as a trip to hell but I found that it turned into something more than cnc capabilities for my shop.

70

General Mach Discussion / Re: whats happening with threading

« on: December 12, 2008, 12:28:28 PM »

Kind of ot for this thread but I installed my first smooth stepper.Took about an hour
to mount connect configure and be amazed.Works great on the big mazak.
I'm kind of reluctant to get the speed up much past 400 ipm as the table on the machine is 1500
lbs.Now just have to get the tool changer sorted out.I have a cubloc plc to handle that.
I'll be installing a smooth stepper on to the lathe soon.