help with axis limits please

I have new Haas Office Mill.

HFO has limited the Z-axis for my own good...???

I cannot set-up my Renishaw tool sensor this weekend, or anything else I was wanting to do with the Z-limited to 4" above the table.

I want to turn off or edit the Z-axis limits.

Also, Position for TC (Tool Change) on 4th/5th axis seems to do weird things. It makes homing return to the TC position or go to bizar places that make no sense to me.

Tool Change still happens in home position, but now home backs up to the TC position! Stupid machine! LOL

I unlock parameter 7 to allow parameter change.....go to Z axis...and then get lost! Do I need to find a screen to display the absolute encoder counts? Some 6-7 digit number to define position of limit? Then, I enter that value to make a limit? Can I turn off a limit for a single axis?

HELP!

Anyone?

How to display the absolute encoder counts on axis, and how to limit the travel of an axis (On/Off and desired limit position/count)

I think I worded that correctly?

Scott

Wait a second. Before you go crazy how much Z-travel does the machine move? Are you sure you are limited? The machine won't travel down all the way to the table. None should. With a tool holder in the machine and a tool you should be able to set all of your tools on the probe.

scott@dmc said:

Also, Position for TC (Tool Change) on 4th/5th axis seems to do weird things. It makes homing return to the TC position or go to bizar places that make no sense to me.

Click to expand...

I really have no clue what this means. There is only one tool change position - is this a 5 axis machine? Even if it is the tool change happens the same way...

The home position is the tool change position for the z axis. When you start up the machine the Z-axis will go to the machine limit switches though which is some amount above the tool change position depending on the machine. When you zero the machine it goes to the tool change position.

Yes, it was limited. The HFO service dude did it. Now I have the full 12" travel that I am to have, after it was removed yesterday.

There is not just one tool-change position.

Normal is home, unless you choose to add parameter into "TC OFFSET", which is found in all axis parameters. Obviously, you do not want to mess with the Z offset for tool-changes! That would result in serious damage. Haas already entered a value for that encoder/position to match the tool changer itself in Z.

I changed the X and Y positions to non-home positions for a Tool Change already and that worked fine. A and B axis also have this parameter, but weird things happen when I do similar change to those axis.

Obviously it is 4th/5th with an A and B rotary.

Figured it out. (I'm new at this...)

Read absolute encoder counts by entering debug.

Those encoder reading are what the limits use, and not position in in or mm.

Value is entered in the Axis section of setup/parameters.

Something like that?

I'm not familiar with the office mill so perhaps limiting the travel is something done on 5 axis versions of this machine?

Can you post a picture of where it would stop above the table just so anyone else may see what was going on? I am surprised that a HFO would go in and limit your travel knowing you wouldn't be able to use the tool probe. Did they install the probe?

I think anyone can add axis travel limit on any axis to any Haas mill.

Unlock parameters (7)

Go to Axis section of set-up

You will see travel limit, or something like that.

The value you enter is an encoder count, that you would normally not see.

I find this info in the debug mode. I enter or adjust the limit based on encoder numbers.

There is also a place to enter axis encoder position for Tool Change.

I did not sign off for delivery of machine until yesterday. So, I guss HFO decided to limit my travel until they were finished messing around and trying to figure out stuff.

I can't believe this thread has hundreds of views and not one answer.

This is simple simple basic set-up stuff.

I am a total newbie at this, but understand now.....moving forward.

No answers eh?

I think everyone here realizes you can limit the travel of our machines...however, I doubt any of us ever need to...I know I haven't ever needed to. I was just curious why the dealer did it to your machine and why they would set it up so your tool setter was un-usable. I was interested in seeing where the spindle would travel to as initially I figured it was like all Haas' and would stop well above the table.

I guess your chain of events just seem a little different than normal.



I would advise extreme caution when randomly changing parameters.