Questions about ATC

1

I am awaiting my new EX controller, AV70S, Servo motors and moving rack ATC. The more I read about it, the more psyched I get. You all have really outdone yourselves on this system.

I watched Eric’s ATC Aux Box sneak preview video and with the Ether1616 with the extra relay modules, and the pneumatic valves they added, it looks like there is a lot of room for expansion.

How many spare pneumatic valves are there that are not used to drive Avid specific things, (like ATC rack, draw bar, etc…).

Same question for the relays. I know there are two in the EX Controller box where the M12 connection for the Module Relay box connects. What about in the Aux box? How many relays are unused? I assume we could add another Ether1616 board and two more Centriod relay boards if we really needed it.

And, for the ATC rack, if one was willing to sacrifice a few more inches at the end of the table, is there any reason we could not add additional tool positions on the other side of the moving rack? Does each tool position have its own sensor? If so, that might be another reason to add an additional Ether1616 board, for extra inputs.

2

There is, that’s why we went with the Ether1616 setup

I’ll answer some questions below, big proviso is that these are close to final, but not final.

For inputs you’ll have 8 free if you have a full sliding ATC tool rack from us. If you don’t have that rack you can free up 2 inputs, if you don’t have the smart spindle that will free up 4 more, and if you don’t have the tool presence sensor that will free up 1 more.

(Ether1616 has 16 inputs standard)

For outputs there are 16 out.

Nornally on an Ether 1616 these are plugged into two 8 relay boards for a total of 16 relays. What we have done is use some of those outputs to run the pnuematic bank that we have in there.

There are 12 valves in that bank. There’s a selector switch that let’s you swap the outputs of up to 8 of those between operating an air port to a dry contact relay.

The other 8 can be plugged into a relay board if you want.

For a “stock” sliding rack we are using 2 air ports for the rack, 1 for the tool taper blaster. For laser you’ll give up two more of those.

As you’re probably figuring out we made this box to be pretty darn flexible. It will work well with our “plug and play” style stuff, and if you want to customize it to work differently you’re welcome to do that.

In addition to the 16 in/out these boxes can be chained together. You can have up to 3. To do this you need an ethernet switch, which is already built into this control box. So if you wanted extras all you would need to do is plug 'em into one another and you’ll have a ton of extra IO.

Again, let me repeat: This is NOT the official total. We will be publishing a tech manual right around release time that will have the exact specs.

3

Thank you so much! This is exactly the information I was looking for.

So, you say there is one tool presence sensor. How is this used? Is it just to verify that the tool is picked up or released by the Spindle? Are there no tool sensors at the individual cradles?

Also, is there any reason we could not add additional tool positions on the other side of the moving rack? And, would the cradles be sold separately if we wanted to do that?

Thanks!

4

This is the TBOS (Tool bin obstruction sensor) this is to detect if the machine tries to put away a tool where another one is. Every effort is made in software to prevent this from happening in the first place, but on the off chance it does this will prevent that.

No, we do this in software on conjunction with the sensors in the smart spindle. We know the machine has made it to a particular location (over a tool bin) and with the smart spindle we know if a tool got picked up or put away, so the software tracks where every tool is (And isn’t)

You’ll be able to buy extra cradles to put elsewhere on the table. There are some limitations to as to where, but yes you can add more if you want.

5

Thanks for the thorough explaination.

6

No problem!

7

Is there any particular requirement on the dryness of the air? Do you need a compressor cooler?

Heiko

8

I am running a three stage one similar to this one: MEGAFLOW

I am reasonably diligent about draining my compressor to. I’m sure we will publish some suggestions as to what to use, but in my experience with some different ATC systems of this class something like that is fine as long as you maintain them.

9

Thank you Eric! I’ll go with a compressor driven then, since the cost difference is not too high.

10

I did one of those DIY aftercooler/dryer on my compressor and it does a pretty good job and it wasn’t all that expensive..

11

@Eric Are you able to provide some details on what exactly is the ATC laser compatibility option (~$850) and what this provides?

12

There are going to be a few ways laser is supported. Users will be able to keep most of their laser “stuff” (box, deployment, etc) but there will be some sacrifices. The current deployment doesn’t go up high enough to clear the tool holders so you’ll have to space them out more.

We do have an updated deployment system that gets it high enough that is retrofittable for all lasers (it’s pretty sweet)

The “Aux box” that’s used for ATC (this handles all of the air for the spindle and the rack, etc) will also be able to support laser so if you don’t want to use your laser box anymore you’ll be able to use just the “aux box” if you want.

We also are making a “light” laser box that will put the laser controller anywhere you want on your machine.

Please note: All of this is close, but NOT final, so don’t take what I say here as 100% accurate :slight_smile:

13

Thanks for the details

I have always thought that (I have the original 15w) even before considering ATC.

That could be a deal killer, value wise.

No worries, I’ll wait to see how all this plays out.

Might this support the LaserDock Pro (e.g. easily remove the laser when not needed)?

14

You’ll have less tool holders for sure, but you can always get a new deployment whenever you want. They easily swap in.

The new deployment has provisions for that but we’re not selling it directly. Although, with the new laser going up so much higher you might not need it.