Pete C. wrote:
Karl Townsend wrote:
On Mon, 15 Nov 2010 02:26:10 -0600, "Pete
wrote:
Karl Townsend wrote:
Existing ATC has WAY more I/O than that. About 18 outs and 24 - 30
ins. I could reduce ins considerably with two encoders. But, that's
next year's problem.
Good grief, are you sure? Looking at it I can't see where they could be
using that many I/Os.
I've only spent a few minutes with the ins going to the ATC. Just
enough to know there's no need to wire now. But I did count 30 and
have to leave that much room on the input panel for later. The outs
are connected and the solenoids all click, Here's a note listing:
relay green tape power panel - coolant
110- SOL 3R Key lock (Right)
110- SOL 7 Shift H
110- SOL 8 Shift L
110- SOL 11R Drum Revolution CW(Right)
110 SOL 12R Drum Revolution CCW (Right)
110 SOL 13R Drum Revolution Rapid (Right)
110 SOL 14R Drum Pin Out (Right)
110 SOL 9 Oil Mist
110 SOL 10 4 axis clamp
110 SOL 1R Arm Forward (Right)
110 SOL 2R Arm Down (Right)
110 SOL 4R Arm Swing (Right)
110 SOL 5R Unclamp (R )
Keylock (L) SOL 3 (L) 110
Drum Revolution CW ( L) SOL 11L 110
Drum Revolution CCW ( L) SOL 12L 110
Drum Revolution Rapid (L) SOL 13L 110*
Arm Forward (L) SOL 1L 110
Arm Down (L Sol 2L 110
Arm Swing (L) Sol 4L 110
Unclamp (L) SOL 5L 110
hydraulic pump
Spindle Brake 110 volt Or Z axis clamp
Look to the bottom of the IO panel. Its the Opto with all 24 red wires
connected. I'm OUT OF OUTPUTS! The 72 inputs look to all be spoken
for also.
I'm working on a trick to get 16 more outs from the two galil boards
at the very bottom of the IO panel. Don Foreman did the design work on
my last CNC mill when I ran short on that one. Generation 2 will be a
slight improvement. Right now, I'm only a couple short that I know of
- oil cooler and air blast, but there will be more.
Karl
Ok, some of those connections look like they have nothing to do with the
ATC, such as the 4th axis clamp output, shift H/L outputs and the
hydraulic pump output (since hydraulics needed for spindle
counterbalance also).
I see this machine actually has two separate ATCs. The obvious answer
there is to just use one initially and ignore the other, cutting your
I/O needs in half. You're not doing production stuff, right, so I can't
see where you would ever really have a use for the second spindle and
ATC.
Presumably "drum" is referring to the tool carousel. Since you're not
doing production, you can probably dispense with both the CCW rotation
and rapid rotation outputs, and simply use one CW rotation output. This
of course would be slower to select the correct tool than bi-directional
rapid searches for the correct pocket, but for non-production use, does
the extra 45 seconds to index fully around vs. reverse one pocket
matter?
Looks like that gets you down to around 8 outputs or so:
1 ATC rotate
2 ATC arm swing
3 ATC arm up/down
4 ATC arm forward/back
5 Spindle unclamp
6 Oil mist (spindle blow I think, this could share an output with
spindle unclamp)
7 Drum pin out (ATC carousel lock?)
8 Keylock (possibly for spindle orient?)
I would expect around 8 inputs as well:
1 ATC carousel home
2 ATC carousel index
3 ATC arm at ATC
4 ATC arm at spindle
5 ATC arm up
6 ATC arm down
7 ATC arm forward
8 ATC arm back
I plan to go the other way, actually more I/O. This machine is a gift
and I promised better than new. On the computer end each I/O point
costs about $5 so there's no reason to drop stuff that makes the
machine better. I will be at a limit of 40 outs and 90 ins (plus 15
more for limits and homes) The one indisputable strength of Camsoft is
how well it integrates I/O with the control.
Sorry, both EMC/EMC2 and Mach3 also handle as much I/O as you need quite
happily 
Now, this tool change logic will be a stone bitch. "The Kid" has asked
for ability to load tools every other pocket and then always put the
tool in the empty next to the one you need for very rapid tool change.
This could get REAL COMPLEX and may not happen.
That would be pretty insane since you'd have to constantly be changing
the tool table. The big machines do fast tool changes by using a double
ended tool changer arm, pre-fetching the next tool on one side and then
doing the quick swap at the spindle letting it get back to work while
the old tool is being put away. Looking at the pictures, you don't have
clearance to change to a double ended ATC arm.
The most practical way to modify the machine for a super fast tool
change that I can think of would be to add an intermediate stop position
to the arm swing and an extra tool pocket above that position to allow
you to pre-position the ATC carousel to the next tool, remove the
current tool from the spindle, park it up in the intermediate tool
pocket, grab the next tool from the ATC carousel, install it in the
spindle, and then when the machine is back to work, retrieve the old
tool from the intermediate pocket and return it to it's ATC carousel
position.
Many machines use random tool selection. You load the tool in an empty
pocket and tell the machine an assigned tool number. The machine
remembers what pocket it puts the tool and will go to that pocket to
load it when you call up the tool number. The machine usually puts the
unloaded tool in the pocket of the tool that just got loaded. It will
also compute the fastest way to the new called up tool and rotate the
carousel in the shortest direction. Some machines you can also call up
the tool by the pocket number rather than the tool number at your option.
John