Adding MSM Turn to a working Mach3 Lathe

[the flying scot]

I currently have a boxford lathe with 8 tool turret working well with Mach3 and as I have my Mill running on MSM I would like to change the lathe to MSM turn so that I am working with similar screen sets.

If I add MSM turn to my machine will I still be able to use the same tool change macro that I am using with Mach3 as it took a lot of time and effort to get it right? Will I encounter any other problems as I hate changing a working system?

regards
Art

[DaveCVI]

Hi Art,

I currently have a boxford lathe with 8 tool turret working well with Mach3 and as I have my Mill running on MSM I would like to change the lathe to MSM turn so that I am working with similar screen sets.

If I add MSM turn to my machine will I still be able to use the same tool change macro that I am using with Mach3 as it took a lot of time and effort to get it right?

We'd had many people successfully use a tool change script written for the mach 1024 screens set with MSM.
I'll outline the basic steps that are needed to convert a "1024" tool change script to a MSM tool change script. For more details of the info I'd about to overview, please see the mill manual sections 5.1.4.3 and 15.9.1., Reading thru those sections will be helpful.

OK, when you install MSM lathe, be sure to make a new profile to run MSM with. This will isolate any changes you make for MSM to the MSM profile and you can go back to running your pre-MSM profile at any time. Since you've already installed MSM mill, you are probably familiar with how to do this (the info is in the MSM readme file in case you want to look at it again).

I'll give names to the two profiles so that it's easy to talk about them in this post. We'll call your current 1024 screen set based profile "1024profile" and the new MSM lathe profile "MSMLatheProfile".

For 1024 screen sets, ATC code lives in the M6Start.m1s script. M6start is located in a directory that is specific to the profile name. Using the example profile names, your code is probably in c:\mach3\macros\1024profile\m6start.m1s

You want to copy that script and turn it into a MSM M6ATC script. The fist step is to just do a file copy...
1) copy c:\mach3\macros\1024profile\m6start.m1s as c:\mach3\macros\MSMLatheProfile\M6ATC.m1s
You now have all your box ford ATC logic (almost) ready to be used by MSM.

Some folks stop here and they have a running MSM tool changer script.
Technically, there is one more step that should be done...
2) Open the M6ATC.m1s file you just created with what ever tool you use for editing. Look for the line that says
SetCurrentTool( NewTool )
That may not be the exact line; that is the line of code that the stock 1024 M6start script uses to tell mach that the Tool has been changed.

Comment out the line of code.
I prefer to comment it out rather than delete the line as it will remind me what the difference is between the 1024 and MSM versions of the script the next time I look at the code.
I then add a comment something like this:

Code: Select all

	' The above line this was commented out for use in a MSM M6atc script. 
        ' This was part of the stock m6 sequence used by mach.
        ' With MSM, this action will be taken care of by the MSM M6 routines.

That's it, you now have the code ready to run with MSM.
Put the Lathe profile in auto tool changer mode and MSM will run your existing code that is in the M6ATC script.

Will I encounter any other problems as I hate changing a working system?

regards
Art

While every system is a little git different, and my crystal ball is a bit cloudy , but I don't know of anything in particular to tell you to watch out for.
If you should run into something, let us know and we'll try to help out.

Dave

[the flying scot]

Thanks Dave,

I have now upgraded Mach 3 and installed MSM lathe and all seems well so far. Still to get the tool turret working but as I do not have a home switch in mach3 I had to set the turret to tool 1 and then zero the A axis. from then on mach knew where the turret was. I am not sure how this is going to work in MSM.
Also in yesterdays post you said to put the lathe profile in auto toolchanger mode. how do you do this?

Best regards

Art

[DaveCVI]

Thanks Dave,

I have now upgraded Mach 3 and installed MSM lathe and all seems well so far. Still to get the tool turret working but as I do not have a home switch in mach3 I had to set the turret to tool 1 and then zero the A axis. from then on mach knew where the turret was. I am not sure how this is going to work in MSM.

When you say "zero the A axis" - do you mean set zero for the Work coordinates of the A axis?
If so, you do that in MSM the same ways you can with the 1024 screen set.
How did you zero the A axis in 1024?
(I think the issue is that the Z axis is not displayed in either the 1024 or MSM screen so there is no zero button to use?).

Also in yesterdays post you said to put the lathe profile in auto toolchanger mode. how do you do this?

This is the same in mach for both Mill and Lathe - Go to mach menus, Config; General config and in the dialog box look for the tool change option box (upper left of the dialog). There are 3 options for mach's tool change mode:
Ignore the tool change
STop & wait
Auto Tool Changer

"Auto Tool Changer" will cause Mach and MSM to use the M6ATC stuff.

Dave

[the flying scot]

Hi Dave,

Nearly there, but homing the turret seems to be a problem. I managed to get it to work correctly once.
I refed all axis changed tool by MDI t0101 then manually jogged the turret to tool 1 reverse jogged against the stop and hit ref all again and all further tool changes were perfect. I was assuming ref all also set the turret

I have tried many times now and tool changes just seem random. I have X, Z and A axis enabled. I have attached my M6ATC file.

Any ideas where I am going wrong

Regards

Art

[the flying scot]

Hi Dave,
It looks like I will need to add an A axis DRO with a zero button but I have no Idea where to start. I have installed real draw but have not been able to use it yet. Can you point me in the right direction to get started?

Regards

Art

[DaveCVI]

Hi,

Hi Dave,
It looks like I will need to add an A axis DRO with a zero button but I have no Idea where to start. I have installed real draw but have not been able to use it yet. Can you point me in the right direction to get started?

Regards

Art

Skip real draw for now. The graphics sources were done in realdraw, so real draw is used to make new button images. That's nice if you want it all pretty etc, but that can be a 2nd step.

What you really want is MachScreen - it is the program that modifies set files and let's you put buttons etc on a page. You can just use "stock" buttons to get it working (they don't need bitmap images), sure they will look a bit different, but who cares to start? I tend to suggest that you make it work, then pretty it up. That way you get the satisfaction of seeing it work sooner.

here is a post that I made for another fellow a couple of days ago that will help with the concepts involved:
http://www.calypsoventures.com/forums/v ... &t=80#p318

Dave

[DaveCVI]

Hi,

Hi Dave,

Nearly there, but homing the turret seems to be a problem. I managed to get it to work correctly once.
I refed all axis changed tool by MDI t0101 then manually jogged the turret to tool 1 reverse jogged against the stop and hit ref all again and all further tool changes were perfect. I was assuming ref all also set the turret

I have tried many times now and tool changes just seem random. I have X, Z and A axis enabled. I have attached my M6ATC file.

Any ideas where I am going wrong

Regards

Art

I'm a bit backed up as a holiday weekend approaches here - so I'm afraid that I won't be able to look at your code in detail right away.
A quick glance gave me the impression that is is a turret that operates by going a bit past a position, then reversing onto a pawl/stop?
If so, that is how the Emco changers work, and there is an emco example in this post that may be informative:
http://www.calypsoventures.com/forums/v ... p?f=7&t=73
The Emcos have a different number of positions, but the idea is the same.
Read thru the comments in the emco changer code, they point out pitfalls to worry about.

Also, check you mach general config settings between the 1024 profile and the MSM profile. Do you have some global Rotational setting different?
Look at the "rotational" box in the mach general config dialog as these can have a huge impact on the way mach handles rotary axis directions for motion etc.

Dave