Hi All,

  This is my first time here to post.  I've come in search of some assistance to my situation.   I'm not greatly experienced with cnc, however I have made a few machines from scratch and also converted a mini-mill.  They all work fine and I'm quite happy with them.    The situation I have is that now I have built a robotic arm ( I like it too!!)  I would be happier if I could use it to load and unload stock/parts from the mill. (while I'm in the Bahamas or where ever).   The robot, I figure would still run on a separate system; as it is a 6 axis arm, but I need to tell it when it is ok to load/unload.  This I could do with any aux out and mcode, but I would need to pause the gcode while it waits for the new stock, and then when the arm is done loading I need to have the gcode resume.     
How to a pause the gcode?
How do I resume gcode by an external pin input?

Thank you for any help,
Paul

This may help. Program safety Lockout in general config. Wired to input one. With a momentary it will pause as long as it is made. Once released, Mach takes off again.

Thanks Chaoticone,   I'll use the aux out to latch a relay, and pin out from arm to unlatch and this should work.  I don't currently have a copy of mach but hope to get one soon, it seems great.   Thanks again.

Your welcome Paul.Yes, Mach is unreal good.

Brett

Hey another question,  In order to keep my gcode short as possible for multiple runs of the same part;  is there a way to have it restart running from beginning?

Put you a M30 at the end of your code. It will end and rewind the program. Just hit start and it will take off again.

Brett

What I would do, and thats just me....
Put an M30 at the end of the gcode, this will shut off (in my case all inputs, you cand put that in the config somewhere) all inputs, and rewind the gcode to the begining.
Just before the M30 i would put an M code to trigger the output signal to de robot.
Then on the code for the robot i would put a dwell at the begining to let all inputs turn off (spindle spindown time for example), then have the robot do its thing, and at the end of the robots code, put an Mcode for an output trigger that would make a cycle start on the mill.

But youd better not run out of stock parts for the robot to put into de mill!

Regards
Fernando

Ok, I like that.   How do I give a cycle start via input pin?

as for the running out of stock,  the bot would verify the stock and would also run the clamps,  if stock not verified in clamps, then no cycle start signal.

Sorry if I seem to be lookin for quick answers instead of RTFM.   I am very greatfull for any and all help.

Paul

If you just want the program to keep running do this

%
N1 (first line of gcode)
G20 G00 etc.
...
.
..
.
.(more lines of code)
.
.
M1
M99 P1
%

This will loop until you press optional stop.

Graham.

thats another way Graham,

But how do you tell the mill (and code) to stop until the robot gets the part out and in.
Im not familiar with that code, but im guessing you can tell the robot to send the optional stop while it is doing its thing.

As for triggering the cycle start with an input, im not familiar with that either, im sure someone will pop up and tell us how, but if you have a keyboard emulator (i-pac) you could do it by asigning a buton to the ALT-R combination to make a cycle start
Regards
Fernando
PS. lot sof info on the customization wiki about that