Hi all! My Mach 4 ATC Screen Set (and code) is ready to use! I’ve been testing and working on it for a few months, and it seems quite stable. Jason Parker also has been testing it, and gave me a lot of great feedback that I incorporated.
Here’s a video with details on how to download it, install it, setup input/output pins, setup tool pockets/forks/stations, and do some tests before going full speed. It’s “open source” and free.
My goals:
- Easy setup UI, no coding or macro editing required
- Non-fixed positions; any tool number can be in any pocket. Tool 1 doesn’t have to be at tool station 1.
- Support manual tool changes for things not in the rack; this works, but it could be better.
- Estop support: Most M6 scripts would fail badly if you e-stop in the middle; mine will usually exit gracefully due to error checking.
- Easy fetching and “put back” for tools via buttons
- Fix Avid’s touch plate to allow any ATC tool to be used to touch off your material with the touch plate
- Fix the screen layout to be more intuitive and better. Stuff you always want to see is always visible, and commonly used buttons are closer together (Enable and Home)
- Optional Case Pressurization and/or fan relay control
- Optional Pressure check input, to avoid doing a tool change if there is no air pressure
Things to do:
- Have “Put back” put an un-assigned tool into an empty pocket, if available
- Make the manual tool change process better
- “Touch Off” to auto-measure any tool when freshly put in a holder
- Optional “Touch off” on each tool change, to check for breakage
In the next video…which I’ll release as soon as I can…I’ll talk about setting up a ‘master tool’ and tool heights, along with post processor setup.
A few screen shots:
UI for setting up tool pocket positions; you will use this once when you setup the ATC tool rack:
ATC Tools setup tab: this is the mapping from a particular tool pocket/station to a particular tool number. It also allows an easy way to set tool heights (copied from Mach 4’s screen):
The Main Program Run UI, with the modifications I mentioned above.
Corbin