Acorn controller card question

[noel-nogal]

Photos of the ATC

[martyscncgarage]

What drives the ATC now?
Explain how the ATC is supposed to work.

Not sure what that last picture is of (Circuit board)

[martyscncgarage]

Ok, no that was just a question i really don't need to move that distance, right now i am working with the automatic tool change, is there any information on the tech boulletin about how to connect the stepper drive to the acorn?

That depends on the brand of stepper drive.....

[noel-nogal]

Well that circuit board is the umbrella stepper motor driver, i am trying to figure it out how to send the signals from the acorn to make it turn to choose the different tool number

[martyscncgarage]

Well that circuit board is the umbrella stepper motor driver, i am trying to figure it out how to send the signals from the acorn to make it turn to choose the different tool number

Please explain the sequence of events for a tool change.

IF the ATC has a stepper motor, you are better off USING CNC12 to control the tool change. Not spending a lot of time trying to interface someone elses circuitry/tool changer board with Acorn.

Does your router have 3 Axis motors or is it using 4 axis motors?
Acorn only has 4 axis worth of motion control.
IF you have a slave axis, you would have to hardware pair it to free up the 4th axis for the ATC.

[martyscncgarage]

I went back looking for pictures of your machine. You never took the time to post pictures of all the machine, the control cabinet (showing all drives).
Remember, we can't "SEE" what you "SEE"
More information you can provide, the better suggestions we can make to help you.

Taking the time to provide the information requested in this post would really help us, not just bit and pieces:
viewtopic.php?f=20&t=383

Marty

[noel-nogal]

The machine is 3 axis i have the 4th axis available, i just didn' t know that i can drive the stepper tool changer with cnc12, thats why i ask if its there any pdf or instruction videos i have been looking for information abou it, maybe i missed the right page on the manual where that information is?

[martyscncgarage]

The machine is 3 axis i have the 4th axis available, i just didn' t know that i can drive the stepper tool changer with cnc12, thats why i ask if its there any pdf or instruction videos i have been looking for information abou it, maybe i missed the right page on the manual where that information is?

viewforum.php?f=63
6th item down.
"ATC Overview"

Your issue is that Acorn is only 4 axis. If it were me, I would have the 4th axis on Acorn control the ATC.
But you won't be able to use a 4th axis Rotary in the future.

Marty

[noel-nogal]

this is my carousel tool changer.

it has 8 tool bins and it is driven by a stepper motor that acts like a any dc motor, it rotates and lock its position, under the ubrella plate there are two sensors, one is sensing each tool position, the other sense every rotation (360º). also there are two relays that starts and stop the sequence.

yesterday i was trying to drive that stepper motor with my cnc12 4th axis as you suggested, but the motor never rotated when i put the step and dir signal, i played with the dip swtches in the driver and still not worked, but i knew that the driver has it's own step generator in the same package so the motor acts as a regular dc motor but with the advantage that it locks it's position, when i apply 24v in the step in terminal, it rotates from one tool to the next and stop no matter if the 24v still on, when i release and apply again, it repeat the same action.

so my concluison is, maybe it can work with the plc grey logic like explained in the (Denford Orac Turret set up and demo under centroid cnc)

[martyscncgarage]

Does the ATC swing in and out to meet the spindle?
It doesn't rotate likely because you have something connected wrong. You would need a standard stepper driver.