Hi all,

I am after some advice on setting up my spindle to orientate to a set position for tool changer, Back ground is I have a Zenford milling machine running Mach 3, Controller is a Ethernet smoothstepper, 1024ppr Spindle encoder wired to ESS, Fanuc spindle motor controlled by a VSD (No Positioning), & I can lock the spindle by energizing the High & low speed clutch solenoids.

My plan was to have the M19 macro run the spindle as slow as possible (20 rpm in low gear), Use the encoder for position feedback & when in position disable the spindle motor & engage the solenoids to lock in position for the tool change.

The issue I have is getting the encoder feedback to rollover or reset every revolution so I have a 0 to 360 degree spindle position, Currently the feedback continuously increments. I should be able to reference it from the Index pulse somehow, but I am unsure of the best way to proceed, Macro? Brain? is there Mach settings I am Missing? Would Mach 4 be a better option?  Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Brad

played arrount with this a lot, ended up in having a proximity switch witch is connected to an input and
a little bit of macro code, witch was good enough for me.

    Code "S10 M3" 'turn to prox
    While Input1 = 0  'wait to be on
    Wend
    While Input1 = 1  'wait to be off
    Wend
    Code "S1 M4" 'reverse to prox
    While Input1 = 0  'wait to be on again
    Wend
    Code "M5"

but i have a pul/dir driven servo spindle, witch allows very slow rotation.

I dont have a servo spindle but with the VSD has sensorless vector control so I can run my spindle down to just a few Hz, I'll give your code a try on the weekend, I should be able to use the Index pulse on the encoder instead of a prox. I like your code it is nice and simple, Like usual I think I was trying to make it more complicated than it needs to be! Thanks.