Ah ok then that will likely be your problem, Mach/IP-A  will, I would imagine, need to control the spindle with M3/M4 and Spindle Speeds.

Maybe you can alter things so that it does the control and the PLC is just used for the tool change?
Hood

That is going to be the only way it will all work together. The only problem is spindle orientation for the tool changer. For the tool changer to work, the spindle turns at a very low rpm until a pneumatic dog locks out the spindle and orients it. All this is performed by the DL06. I think to make this work I'm going to have to program half the tool change in VB in the M6 macro. Hmmm. Any ideas for a good resource on learning VB enough to program input and output logic in VB? One of the good things about the plc was that I could program the plc to never rotate when the limit switch signaling the engagement of the dog was active.

There is a manual on the Mach Support website that has most VB commands.

Hood

Thanks Hood. I should update in a few days when I have this worked out.

Hopefully it is not too much work.

Hood

I think I have a bit newer matsuura we are in the process of converting.  I ran into the same problem with the spindle - how to mount an encoder...

Our solution was to mount a gear and use a gear tooth sensors for the quadrature and index.

It is a 69 tooth gear so that is 276 counts.  We are in the middle of the conversion but I was able to rigid tap in air - seemed smooth.

http://forum.linuxcnc.org/forum/38-general-linuxcnc-questions/30441-matsuura-mc-500v2-retrofit?limitstart=0