Messages

61

VB and the development of wizards / ATC Screen TOOL Slot DRO's

« on: January 22, 2016, 01:20:12 AM »

I have been working on this for some time now.  I have an ATC screen that I put together and have the attached pic of it.  I have no clue of how to put a tool table together to get the Tool DRO's to read the tools in the slots and also the tool lengths from my mach3 tool table.  Any help on that would be awesome.  As can be seen from the PIC of the ATC screen,  I have a GET TOOL FROM SLOT buttons.  I would like to be able to push on the button and get the tool from the carousel and run the program and put it into the spindle.  I would like this so that I can just push the button without having to run a M6start script, sort of a manual tool change without touching the tool.  I  tried for 6 hours several different things to the script to get the Get Tool From buttons to work but just had no luck.  I would think that I could run the script for the tool change for each button but did not work.  I am missing something and that I am sure of.....


Thanks,

Jeff

62

VB and the development of wizards / ATC M6Start macro

« on: January 16, 2016, 10:51:15 PM »

Here is my ATC M6start macro that I had lots of help with!  I had to tweak one to come up with this one.  A little description of my machine
G0704
ESS smooth stepper attached to C32 board
attached to the ESS board is a C52 board to give me more outputs on the 3rd port
attached to the C52 board is a M23 board to give me more inputs for the ATC

Slide air cylinder for tool carousel to move ATC under the spindle
Output4 operates the slide air cylinder
Input1 slide Ext.
Input2 Slide RET

Fabco multi power 4" air cylinder
Output5
Input3 PDB release   OEM823
Input4 PDB grip        OEM824

ToolDownDRO  User LED 2000
ToolUpDRO       User LED 2001

The motor for the Tool carousel is a Nema34 1220oz.in   Yes its overkill attached to a planetary gear box 5:1 ratio
For the slide I used the IGUS double rail with bearing slide.

I am running 3 air selenoids
1 for slide cylinder
2nd for Pancake PDB
3rd one is to blast air onto the tool after it is put back into the tool carousel

I am still working on the mechanics of the ATC but the electrical and the programming is coming along.

I could not of achieved my goals of building this ATC without the help of everyone on this forum so many Thanks to all!!!!

63

VB and the development of wizards / User LED

« on: January 13, 2016, 05:39:34 PM »

I have an LED that I made for my ATC Tool Carousel slide extension.  I have a reed switch hooked up to my tool carousel air cylinder that has a magnetic piston.  The reed switch which is Normally Open will close when the Piston goes under the reed switch.  This in turn will close the circuit and activate the on screen LED.   The LED is to let the M6START Macro and the user see that the air cylinder is in the Extended position. 

The question is how do I make the LED work?  I have made others but for some reason I just can't figure this one out.  I do have an output that runs the air cylinder on output 4.  I think all of this is correlated but don't know how to put it into words.

Thanks,

Jeff

64

General Mach Discussion / PoKeys57E can this be used on a 64bit OS

« on: December 29, 2015, 01:42:39 AM »

I have been looking at building a new control box for my mill.  I was looking at this controller PoKeys57E.  I am using Windows10 and my computer is a 64bit OS.  Will this board work on my system?  Another question is, how hard is this board to setup with Mach3 versus the ESS Smoothstepper and a C32 Board?

Thanks,

Jeff

65

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Z Down Feed Rate DRO

« on: December 27, 2015, 11:33:33 AM »

Ger, I think I see what you are saying and yes making another screen is not a big deal but making the logic in the Macro will be a challenge for me but with help from the members on the forum I could do it. 

One of the problems I am facing right now is my I/O space.  My control box is made up of a CNC4PC C32 with a ESS smooth stepper.  I ran out of I/O when I added a index pulse board for my spindle RPM.  To fix that problem I put a C52 board onto the ESS smooth stepper to add a third port.  I then needed another Output when I added two more solid state relays to the control box.  Those relays are connected to the C52 board with an RJ45. 

So I need 5 inputs now with the ATC tool changer.  2 inputs for the slide carousel cylinder for the extend and retract LEDS and 2 inputs for the Power Draw Bar cylinder Grip and Release LEDS.  The 5th Input would be the homing sensor for the Tool Carousel at start up of the program. 

My solution to this problem may be to take the Last Port on the C52 board and plug in a MODBUS from Automation Direct.  From what I can tell, the MODBUS could be connected to the C52 board with a RJ45 cable.  At that point I could use the MODBUS to handle the whole ATC functions.  If anyone has any knowledge of this please chime in and let me know.  If I had it to do over I would of used a Pokey with the ESS.

Thanks,

Jeff

66

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Z Down Feed Rate DRO

« on: December 26, 2015, 10:14:39 PM »

TP, thanks for the encouragement!  Yes as you can tell I am not up to speed but working on that.  As for the tool table  I totally understand what you are saying.  I can just swap the tools around in the tool table to make things less complicated.  I think most of this is very overwhelming, but if it was easy everyone would be doing it!  

Say I have 16 tools in my tool table, which I do and I have tools 1-10 in the carousel but on the next project I need to put tool 13-16 in the carousel.   I would need to go into the tool table and swap tools 13-16 to be say tools 1-3.  If I understand you right that is how it will work.  So i just line select the tool in line 1 and move it to line 16 and take tool line 16 and move it to line tool 1 and so on.  I can see how that would work.

I hope to move forward more when I get all the hardware in my hands and have the limit switches wired up and working on the cylinders.  As you can see on the screen I have put the Input and Output labels next to the LEDS and buttons so that when writing the M6START macro the user can see what is going on.  I am a visual person so helps me understand the logic as well.

Jeff

67

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Z Down Feed Rate DRO

« on: December 26, 2015, 08:01:07 PM »

Wow that attachment was huge.  Here is a smaller one I hope.

68

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Z Down Feed Rate DRO

« on: December 26, 2015, 07:56:38 PM »

TP, here is a screen shot of my Mach3 ATC screen11.  The LEDS For the Slide EXT/RET are so that I can see that they are going to the proper position, same as  the PDB LEDS.  In a big quandary of how to figure out how to write the code to get the Current Tool DRO, Current Slot DRO, Empty Spindle Button, Home ATC Button and Get Verify Tool Lengths button to work.   Any constructive criticism on the ATC screen would be helpful, as it's my first screen I have ever made.  I am going to pickup The slide cylinder, PDB FABCO-Air Pancake cylinder, air compressor, limit switches for the Slide Cylinder ext/ret inputs, PDB Grip/release inputs, carousel home switch input and one more 110vac air solenoid valve.  As you can see on the ATC screen, I have a relay that will open and close an air solenoid to blow air on the TTS tool after it is put back into the tool carousel.  I want to have everything hooked up even if it is just laying on the floor to see the stuff working.  To me making all the brackets to get the Tool Carousel mounted to the Mill Table won't be a hard as this programming stuff!

Jeff

69

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Z Down Feed Rate DRO

« on: December 26, 2015, 06:30:39 PM »

TP, Iol good stuff!

Jeff

70

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Z Down Feed Rate DRO

« on: December 26, 2015, 06:09:11 PM »

TP, Thanks for the input and yes the old adage KISS, I'm sure you know what that means.  This is my first time doing this or even messing with VB scripting but trying to learn.  I will get it and it will all come together at some point.  Thanks for all the help and input pointing me in the right direction.  I will post the screen I put together later tonight when I get home.  Some of the screen works but not all of the buttons function.

Jeff