Centroid Community CNC Support Forum

Hello,

I have been trying to setup my ATC rack mount no finger system. I believe I have the programs pretty well setup as far as code goes. I'm having trouble with the CNC 12 Tool in spindle/Tool/Bin number programming. Since I am using a 'pot' style tool changer, the tool has to go back into the same bin it came from. For some reason, when I do the tool change it always says tool 1 is in the spindle but the bin number for whatever tool I actually picked up goes to 000. If I return the tool to the bin, the bin number does not change from 000.

If I manually change the bin numbers back to their respective taken numbers, the tool change works no problem. I'm assuming I'm missing a line of code that tells the bin number to change back??

Thanks in advance for any help!

More information after troubleshooting...

It looks like the program is not finishing. Every time I run a Tx M6 program in the MDI it picks up the tool and goes home but the screen just says "moving..." but does not finish. You can see in the original picture it says "operator abort: Job Canceled". I think since it's not completing the program, its not writing all the variable back into the control, messing up the tool sequence.

Thoughts?

Hi CSpurge,

The default Rackmount Macros use a variable #150 to remember the tool location. If you followed the provided instructions correctly, it should always put the tool back in the same location it got it from. However, these macro's do not use the Bin system from the software and is strictly a "Tool 1 is always Bin 1, Tool 2 is always Bin 2, ect" type deal. Ensure you have read over the instructions in the Mill_Router_Rack folder for these macros. The in Software "Bins" location will be set to 0, but the "remembering" is being handled by the macro and not software in this case.

Now, i have previously explained how to get Bins to work for a Rack Mount Tool Changer, this will require some PLC editing. Please refer to my post in this thread, i also provide an example of the PLC and macro modifications i did if you are interested in getting the bin functionality working for your Rack ATC.

[I see Chris has already addressed your question, but I will post a redundant answer anyway, since I typed it]

I am guessing that if you do not change the bin numbers back, the tool change still works with no problem (at least for tools 1-5 in bins 1-5).

I would further guess that if you said T1 was in bin 4, then told it to load T1, it would go load from bin 1.

There are several changes that would have to be made to your M6 macro before it will use the bin numbers in the tool library; and there is an added line you would need in your PLC program for it to maintain the bin numbers properly as it runs.

See the thread: viewtopic.php?f=60&t=3860

Okay, thank you for the replies!

I think the BIN situation was throwing me off from the actual problem. I found another pattern... I have a 4 position rack mount so I set the max number of tools to 5 so I could have an empty spindle. If I always empty the spindle to 5 before picking up a tool it works, no problem. But if I try to go directly from tool 1 to tool 2, it drops off tool 1 then moves back home, unclamps and clamps the spindle, then stops. I'm not sure how the logic could be messed up for this situation.

Here is a link to a video of the operation.

Try Adding a G90 After your G91 Move.

That worked!!

Thank you!