Centroid Community CNC Support Forum

Hi,

I have a 4 axis mill that I completely designed and built from scratch, I'm at the stage where I am doing bench testing of all the electronics before it goes on the machine.
What would be the right setup to get a button in VCP that releases the tool from the spindle?
Here are the steps I did in my attempt to do this:
1- Assign OUTPUT#4 (relay #4) on the acorn wizard to be “UnclampTool”
2- Copied the Aux 13 button folder, renamed folder and files in it to ToolUnclamp then I edited the xml file for the button to have Skin Event #205 and LED output #1120 as stated on the outputs list on page 20 of the VCP manual
3- Edited the VCP skin file to have the right button name for location of aux 13
4- Assigned macro “mfunc15.mac” to Auxiliary key 13 (Pages # 43 & 48 states that this macro is to be used for unclamping tool operation)

This did not work, the solenoid does not get energized when clicking the button. Any idea where to check or what to do?

I just noticed that vcp manual page#43 lists the wizard outputs as UnclampTool which is spelled different from what Page 20 has (ToolUnclamp Vs UnclampTool). I might have been caught by this (step 1 and 2 above have different spelling).

I did very similar process for adding a button to activate an electric lubrication pump and it worked as intended, so I guess I have a good understanding of this process of adding buttons and editing macros to control external devices.

Any help from the Centroid champions will be highly appreciated.

Thanks

pls post a fresh report so we can see your settings.

Uwe

You can also refer to this list with function descriptions:

https://www.centroidcnc.com/centroid_di ... ctions.pdf

I did not have access to my machine last night from where I was posting, I knew the report would be needed at some point, anyway, here it is.

Tom, the list you sent seems to be from an updated version of cnc12 compared to the one in the VCP manual, it has more items listed, however the parameter we are looking for is still showing the same in both sources, here is a combined screenshot where I show the parameter in the VCP manual as well as the PLC output document

The list I referenced is from the latest release of Acorn, which, of course you should be using. That list will supersede what is printed in the older VCP Programming manual.

don't forget to install your Mill Pro license file for ATC functionality.

And I wonder why it did not work, because report shows installation is correctly.

Did not notice it is the Free Version.

Uwe

cnckeith wrote: ↑Wed Nov 30, 2022 3:28 pm don't forget to install your Mill Pro license file for ATC functionality.

Keith, you are right I am using the free version since I don't own a pro license, I am not planning on having an ATC on this mill so you are saying that these set of variables won't be available for me to use.
so in my case What would be the recommendation then to do this simple operation: " have a button on VCP that energizes one of the 8 relays and I can call it whatever I want in the button graphics without needing to have specific plc output name"

I am starting to wonder that if no one has come across this yet then how does everyone release the tool? Am I already going on the wrong route?