Machine suddenly going in wrong Z on ATC

[justcrankinit]

I haven't had much time to button up all my ATC issues but I did at least have a working macro and was making good tool changes. However, just yesterday I went to run a program that required a tool change as the first step in the program and everything worked great until the release was initialized and then the machine traveled in the wrong direction (pushing the tool further into the spindle) instead of moving up to remove it. I ran a successful too change about 3 weeks ago and haven't made any change to the machine or cnc configuration

[cnckeith]

what kind of machine? what kind of ATC?
make and model of axis motors?
how do you have them wired?
photos please.

[cnckeith]

hello. not to add to your work load, but you are running a really old version of CNC12, suggest you use the latest version so we can help you out.

make Wizard screen shots with the windows snipping tool.

make a copy of the cncm directory, save out to a thumb drive or another computer for safe keeping

and download and install CNC12 Router v5.30, Open the Wizard and configure the machine with the data collected in the wizard screen shots in step one. press write settings to cnc control and follow the instructions.

[justcrankinit]

CNC Keith, is all that really needed when the ATC function just suddenly stopped working? That's an awful lot of information to provide every time there is an issue.

It a retrofitted Multicam series A with an HSD spindle. The ATC is a linear rack. All the tool positions are mapped and have worked in prior testing. I'm not sure how photos and wiring are really relevant when everything worked fine a few weeks ago?

I will work on updating the version -thanks for responding!

[cnckeith]

wrong Z = or only in one direction = probably the direction wiring of the Z motor broke or came loose
or maybe the G28 position got changed.

carna the magnificent.jpg (9.22 KiB) Viewed 866 times

no not necessary, but there are tools and features in v5.30 that make things much better and easier to get things running well and debugging a system vs the old version you are running. and improved rack ATC support along with about 1000 other improvements.

[justcrankinit]

I hear you but wouldn't that mess up the ability of the machine to get to the tool location? It travels perfectly in all directions to the tool holder then slides the tool in and then travels in the wrong direction? I would think a faulty wire would cause other issues before ever making it to the tool holder.

[cnckeith]

sounds like the atc height got mixed up? sign flip? or macro got changed? do you have a report.zip from when it was working well?
make a backup copy of the cncm directory as it is now , then go restore that report. look in the reportbackups folder find one with a date from when you remember it working well.

[Ken Rychlik]

If it's only during a tool change, I would dig into the tool change files. This is from your M6 tool change file. I would put a pause after the M15 that unclamps the tool. 1/2 sec is normal for me. The G53 Z-1 after that takes the z up one inch from the top machine z home. That seems ok.

You can go into your mdi and type the G53 Z -1 and verify that is is doing that correctly.

I also put a pause after the tool clamp. 1/2 sec pause looks like this... G4 P.5 ;1/2 sec pause

This section should probably be one line
G91
Y1.65 g1 F80

Probably should look like what I did below....
G91 g1 Y1.65 F80

Add the two pauses after the clamp and unclamp, put the G91 move on one line, and try it? You can read your other G91 lines to see what normal looks like. Just that one of them is jumbled up.



G53 Y4 ;safe zone for tool rack
G53 Z-1 ; Move to tool change height (change to a -z amount once vetted)
M5 ; Turn the spindle off
M98 P[#150 + 9100] ; Go to tool location for the tool that's in the spindle 910x subprogram
G53 Z[#100] ; Move Z down to the tool rack
G91 g1 Y-1.82 F80 ; put incremental movement here to move to engage fingers
G90
M15 ; Unclamp the tool
G53 Z-1 ; Move to tool change height
G90
M98 P[#4120 + 9100] ; Go to the desired tool location
G91 g1 Y-1.82 F80 ; put incremental movement here to move to go over tool
G90
G53 G1 Z-5.69 ; Move Z down to the tool rack
M16 ; Clamp the tool
G91
Y1.65 g1 F80
G90
G53 Z0 ; Move Z up to tool change height
;M20 ; End Orient Request
IF #50001 ; Prevent lookahead from parsing past here
#150 = #4120

[justcrankinit]

Keith - So I went ahead and did the update after taking screen shots of all of the current configurations and I've worked all day today trying to get my machine back up. My version was old enough (but working) that there are new functions and configurations that my screen shots/version didn't have. Regardless, upon testing a simple file (contour of a circle/logo) the machine wouldn't hardly move on curves and circles and it didn't make a circle it made an oval. So I found that smooth stepping was off so I turned it on an got smoother behavior but it still makes an oval - like the x axis isn't traveling at the that right ratio (yes the ratios are the same a before). I am leaving the ATC issue alone at this point until I can all the movements ironed out. When jogging in the x/y/z from the MPG everything seems smooth but it does seem like the x drive isn't getting the right signal...seems rough

NO RESPONSE NEEDED - I made some positive progress this afternoon - I did have an issue with my X settings

[justcrankinit]

Think I made some progress -