Rack ATC Macro Help

[cnckeith]

hebs, please update to v4.20.. it is quick and painless.(follow the instructions, and have no fear it is easy to go back to 4.18 ) this way we are all working with the same version and can provide help. thanks,

[Gary Campbell]

Clint...
As I was told when I started with my first router with a straight rack system, the tool locations are stored in the "O subs", aka, the O9100 sub-routines. I did it slightly different than the OEM Centroid examples, as I used the Osub to load variables for the X, Y and Z tool storage locations. Here is an example:

O9102
#101 = 7.6804 ;enter tool X position here
#102 = 52.7311 ;enter tool Y position here
#103 = -8.1399 ;enter tool Z position here
M99

Since I am using a slide-in tool fork, my positioning looked like this:

M98 P[#150 + 9100] ; load tool location for the tool that's in the spindle
G53 X[#101] Y[#102 - 2.5] ; move to XY location outside of fork
G53 Z[#103] ; move Z down to fork height
G53 Y[#102] L200 ; move into fork

My next project will add a bit of complexity. 40 tools on 4 straight racks. the 10's and 30's will move in negative Y and the 20's and 40's will move in positive Y to slide into the forks. (fingers) To save space the center rack will be a "double" with fingers going in both directions and will be on an air slide that moves a few inches to give clearance to the tool being loaded/unloaded

Those O subs will look like this:

O9101
#101 = 7.6804 ;enter tool X position here
#102 = 52.7311 ;enter tool Y position here
#103 = -8.1399 ;enter tool Z position here
#104 = -2.5 ;pre position amount and direction (neg or pos)
#105 = 1 ;air slide operation 1=yes, 0=no
M99

That will require a positioning line similar to this:
IF #105 == 1 THEN M68 ELSE M88 ;set center rack position
G53 X[#101] Y[#102 + #104] ; move to XY location outside of fork

Attached is an example of my M6 macro for slide-in forks on my system. YOU MUST CHANGE TO SUIT YOUR MACHINE. DO NOT ATTEMPT WITH LIVE TOOLING!!!

mfunc6.mac

(2.73 KiB) Downloaded 161 times

[cbb1962]

hebs, please update to v4.20.

He already has, in the video of it working, it shows v4.20

[hebs]

Have you had any feedback on using the bin location variables? Tool Bin variables.pngBoth show that you should have Read/Write access. The only difference is that the 17000 variables are floating-point. (Is this a mistake in the documentation?)

From re-reading the manual it appears that Parameter 160 needs to be set to 1 in order to access the bin fields.

I haven’t had any feedback yet. I have tried to read the 17000 variables in every way that I can think of including calling them as each of the different types of variables. Parameter 160 doesn’t seem to change this either.

I’m interested to know if centroid can offer a way of accessing them properly.

[Gary Campbell]

Isn't the BIN location feature designed, supported and hard coded for use with rotary umbrella type changers? Allowing "first available" slot changes to save time?

Why would you want/need that with a straight rack?

This may be an instance where you can open a complicated can of worms, unsupported of course, that need not be opened

[hebs]

Clint...
As I was told when I started with my first router with a straight rack system, the tool locations are stored in the "O subs", aka, the O9100 sub-routines. I did it slightly different than the OEM Centroid examples, as I used the Osub to load variables for the X, Y and Z tool storage locations. Here is an example:

O9102
#101 = 7.6804 ;enter tool X position here
#102 = 52.7311 ;enter tool Y position here
#103 = -8.1399 ;enter tool Z position here
M99

Gary, thank you for your examples, the issue that I am trying to solve is that I have more tools (40+) than tool bins (11) on my ATC. I have to keep swapping them around for each job and I don’t want to have to keep changing The first 11 tools in my tool library. I don’t have room for more ATC bins.

The macros for rack style ATCs (including the samples from centroid) all use the bin number, not tool number, which means that when I ask for tool number 11 which is in bin 5, it goes and gets whatever tool is in bin 11 - the wrong tool.

If you watch my videos, it will explain why it is needed.

[cnckeith]

The CNC12 ATC Tool bins feature has been designed for typical Umbrella and Swing Arm Tool changers that are commonly found on VMC’s. Centroid has had this feature running well for many many years. The tool bin feature has not been implemented in combination with the sample Rack Mount ATC macro posted on this forum.

Part of the code that makes the Tool Bins feature work is contained in the PLC program and in CNC12, they work in conjunction to keep track of which of the 200 tools is in which tool bin. We think it is possible to implement the Tool Bin feature on a Rack Mount ATC and Chris will post a beta rack mount atc macro using tool bins with instructions.. this will have some limitations and require the user to add a line to the PLC program and compile it. Eventually we will make this all much more users friendly by adding it to the Wizard....but, For now I would recommend most Rack Mount Acorn users follow the instructions, guidelines and use the sample Rack Mount Tool Change Macro without the Tool Bins features and Tool 1 goes in bin 1, tool 2 goes in bin 2, tool 3 goes in bin 3 etc… that has been sorted and works. on first page of this thread. viewtopic.php?f=63&t=1340
But if you are a power user and adventurous that by all means give Chris’s beta Rack Mount ATC with Tool Bins macro a try and help out with the development of this feature for Rack Mount ATC’s.

[hebs]

Count me in Keith! That’s great news, thank you. This is why I love centroid.

[Allin1Chris]

For Bins to work, Parameter 160 must be set to 1, otherwise they cannot be used. Bins are a Enhanced ATC functionality. Enhanced ATC for our software is mainly used for carousel or umbrella style tool changers, and requires some PLC to work correctly.

When the software "grabs" a tool the bin number for that tool will be set to zero as it is currently not in a bin it is in the spindle. Thus we must be able to recall the bin it previously came from (in non random) or the bin we are putting it in (for random, like swing arms). I managed to accomplish this by having the macro set a parameter, which the plc will then read and assign to the SV_PLC_CAROUSEL_POSITION, this will assign the bin to the tool when it is put away.

Attached is an example of m6, m18, and PLC (v4.20) that would be required for it to work this way. For the PLC, if you are using custom PLC, Simply add the line,

IF True THEN SV_PLC_CAROUSEL_POSITION = SV_MACHINE_PARAMETER_700

In the PLC in the "MainStage". The macro handles writing to parameter 700.

For this example i used parameter 700, but any unused parameter will do, Ensure that Parameters 6 and 160 are set to a 1 for this macro to work. With this it should be possible to fully list out the bins for each tool without needing to change them all the time. For example if you have 8 tools bins but 16 tools, u can assign 1-8 as bins 1-8, and then tools 9-16 as bins 1-8 as well, i had no issues in my testing.

Let me know if you guys come across any issues with this. Simply extract the Zip into your cncm directory and overwrite files, or if you have your own PLC already, Extract the M6 and M18 macros, and make the necessary change to your PLC and recompile. The PLC in zip is v4.20.

If you are interested in learning more about editing PLC, Centroid offers a great video Tutorial series.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... i2WKIedQlQ

[cnckeith]

please use v4.20, free support for v4.18 has ended.

how to compile a plc program.. viewtopic.php?f=61&t=1455&p=8871&hilit=compile#p8871

and if you do this.. you need to put the v4.20 into "custom PLC" mode. so it doesn't overwrite the PLC program when you use the wizard. ( a feature added to v4.20 and not found in 4.18)