CHIPS and CNC12 not Changing Tools

[ALSjosh]

Hi Everyone,

Hopefully someone can help me figure out what is going on here with my tool changes. I am using CHIPS for the probing a tool changes and everything seems to be working well except when starting a job and loading the first tool. I will outline my procedure below. When I get to the portion where I click cycle start and CHIPS appears, I am supposed to be able to click "all tools for job" to touch off my newly loaded tool and start the machining. However, when I click that button I get this error message. I have confirmed that CNC12 also shows that my probe is the loaded tool (which its not) and the only way I can seem to get it to work it to go into the MDI and enter T1 to force the loaded tool to change. I have talked to Swissi and he ran the job on his machine with no problems and the tools changed as expected. I am wondering if I have a setting in the wizard wrong. Thank you in advance for your help!

Procedure:
- Before starting the Job, open CHIPS and use the 3-Axis probing cycle with the TP to set WCS X0 Y0 Z0 on your part.
- While the TP is still in the spindle, open CHIPS again, use the “Set Reference Height with TP” button on the right and make sure you check the box “WCS Z0 already set with TP”.
- Now you can start the job file and you will be prompted to insert the first tool. Press Cycle Start when the first tool is mounted,
- CHIPS will open and now you use the “All Tools of Job” button to touch off the tool on the fix TT.
- Repeat above step for all consecutive tools in the job until the job finishes.


https://aerologicsolutions-my.sharepoin ... Q?e=qGZW1A

[swissi]

I looked into this issue with Josh and the problem is much simpler as described as it has nothing to do with CHIPS at all.

The issue is that when a job file is started and CNC12 has the TP (T10) currently as the active tool, the job file will run to the first M6 tool change asking for T1 but CNC12 does not change the active tool to be T1, it still says the active tool is T10.

I can't reproduce this problem and I've never seen this happening before. My conclusion is that there must be a CNC12 parameter that I'm not aware off that's impacting this behavior or it is a bug in CNC12.

Does Centroid have an explanation for this?

-swissi

[swissi]

Hi Everyone,

Hopefully someone can help me figure out what is going on here with my tool changes. I am using CHIPS for the probing a tool changes and everything seems to be working well except when starting a job and loading the first tool. I will outline my procedure below. When I get to the portion where I click cycle start and CHIPS appears, I am supposed to be able to click "all tools for job" to touch off my newly loaded tool and start the machining. However, when I click that button I get this error message. I have confirmed that CNC12 also shows that my probe is the loaded tool (which its not) and the only way I can seem to get it to work it to go into the MDI and enter T1 to force the loaded tool to change. I have talked to Swissi and he ran the job on his machine with no problems and the tools changed as expected. I am wondering if I have a setting in the wizard wrong. Thank you in advance for your help!

Procedure:
- Before starting the Job, open CHIPS and use the 3-Axis probing cycle with the TP to set WCS X0 Y0 Z0 on your part.
- While the TP is still in the spindle, open CHIPS again, use the “Set Reference Height with TP” button on the right and make sure you check the box “WCS Z0 already set with TP”.
- Now you can start the job file and you will be prompted to insert the first tool. Press Cycle Start when the first tool is mounted,
- CHIPS will open and now you use the “All Tools of Job” button to touch off the tool on the fix TT.
- Repeat above step for all consecutive tools in the job until the job finishes.


https://aerologicsolutions-my.sharepoin ... Q?e=qGZW1A

Josh you need to post at least a fresh report file and two screenshots would be helpful too that show the following:

• CNC12 displaying T10 as the active tool

• CNC12 running the job file asking for T1 but CNC12 still displaying T10 as the active tool

-swissi

[ALSjosh]

I seem to have figured out the issue. If I close the runtime graphics, the tool changes just fine and everything works as excpected. I guess this must be a bug. @cnckeith

[swissi]

I seem to have figured out the issue. If I close the runtime graphics, the tool changes just fine and everything works as excpected. I guess this must be a bug. @cnckeith

Good catch Josh. I'm able to reproduce the issue know.

Looks like there's a bug in the Centroid API function tool.GetToolNumber. When Runtime Graphics is active in CNC12, the API function tool.GetToolNumber does not return the active tool number right after a tool change.

-swissi

[RogDC]

Which version of CNC12 are you running? Can you post this under the beta software section with a fresh report?

[PFM Dave]

All,
I encountered this yesterday as well. I will try closing the graphics today and see what happens.

Is there any updated on this issue I have not seen?

Thanks in advance,

PFM Dave

[swissi]

All,
I encountered this yesterday as well. I will try closing the graphics today and see what happens.

Is there any updated on this issue I have not seen?

Thanks in advance,

PFM Dave

The Centroid API function to retrieve the active tool in the spindle has been fixed in the beta version of CNC12. To work around the issue for version 5.10, I have changed the way CHIPS is retrieving the active tool in spindle.

-swissi