Fanuc Robodrill

[cnckeith]

Engineering responded to my question regarding internal positioning profiles which are available on some drives. In this case it appears no there isn't an option for that. They do allow up to 4 "home" positions so you can clock the spindle in up to 4 discrete positions, but there doesn't appear to be a motion profile you can save. I did watch a youtube video on a KEB drive that allowed up to 34 discrete programmable options which must be similar to the delta drive you mention from the EMCO thread. A neat option I'd not heard of before, but not a solution for my spindle motor/drive combo.

Hoping the Centroid team can comment on Mark's remarks above regarding the possibility of switching back and forth between a high speed spindle and a positional axis in the milling software.

with the right drive, yes this can be done and has been done by a few users.

[Wolfenstien]

Engineering responded to my question regarding internal positioning profiles which are available on some drives. In this case it appears no there isn't an option for that. They do allow up to 4 "home" positions so you can clock the spindle in up to 4 discrete positions, but there doesn't appear to be a motion profile you can save. I did watch a youtube video on a KEB drive that allowed up to 34 discrete programmable options which must be similar to the delta drive you mention from the EMCO thread. A neat option I'd not heard of before, but not a solution for my spindle motor/drive combo.

Hoping the Centroid team can comment on Mark's remarks above regarding the possibility of switching back and forth between a high speed spindle and a positional axis in the milling software.

with the right drive, yes this can be done and has been done by a few users.

Thanks Keith.

Judging by the section above you referenced I'm not sure you were looking at the question I was hoping you could answer.

Here is the original comments from Mark Leonard:


That would be part of the battle. The other part would be figuring out how to get the Centroid Mill software to deal with an axis that comes and goes: that sometimes is available for positioning, and other times will just spin for no reason apparent to the motion controller. The Lathe software has such support, for a C axis. I don't know of a comparable feature in the Mill software.

It would almost seem like you could just remove power from the axis servo (e.g. with "M93/C"), and that then CNC12 would not care that it was spinning away while the PLC ran the drive as a spindle. Unfortunately, CNC12 currently re-enables all axes at the start of every job, and possibly in some additional circumstances. Trying to run the drive as a spindle while CNC12 thinks it is enabled will result in a "410 ... position error". Nonetheless, that might be an avenue to pursue, if you can get some help from Centroid.


Is this something that has a solution?

Thank you,

[cnckeith]

others use a drive that can be switched in out and out of spindle vs position mode. and simple tell that drive which mode to be in with an output from any one of our control boards.

[cncsnw]

Keith,

Supposing you use such a drive with an Oak control, and configure it as an axis named 'C' in the CNC12 mill software. How do you configure CNC12 Mill so that it recognizes when that axis has been switched to spindle mode, and so will be moving rapidly with no position commands, and will not respond to axis enable or position commands?

[Wolfenstien]

I'm not sure how to get Keith to look at this again and weigh in on the issue you pointed out Marc.