Thread: Acramatic A2100 curiosity

Normally the G04 works exactly as I think it should...
Tonight I tried to do an M70 followed by a G04 and it skips the G04, or at least it doesn't stop and wait for the G04 to time out before it continues.
It acts like a comment...

Any ideas ? Anybody here do much with an A2100?
What do I have to do to get it to execute a G04 after an M70?

Thanks!

Pete

what time interval did you put down? I have to look up the g04..don't use it much. The time may be in milliseconds or such silliness, so a g04P5 may be 5 milliseconds. try more like a g04p10000 and see if it takes it.

G4 F5.5 should dwell for 5.5 seconds. Unless your M70 is doing something odd this should work.

Dwell Examples on A2100
G4s5 = Dwell for 5 spindle revs.
G4 F1.5 = Dwell for 1.5 seconds
G4 = Dwell for .5 seconds

HTH

ARB

Time interval works in any other part of the program, just not after an M70, And the interval is programmed in seconds.
Apparently I just found another "undocumented feature" I guess.
Just curious if anyone can shed light on what magic secret combination of whatever it takes to make the G04 start working again after the M70 makes it stop working.

Pete

What are you doing with the M70?

I've programmed the M70 to wait for a response.
And the response is connected to a pushbutton.

It takes 30-45 seconds to spin from 0-10000 rpm and back to zero again. I have thousands of parts with a very short cycle time...
I can't afford to start and stop the spindle when it takes longer to start and stop than it does to cut the part.
So, I was cutting the part, stopping the coolant, sending the table forward, and hiding the spindle near the back of the table. And output a dummy M70.
The M70 waits for an input acknowledge. (the push button)Once it gets the acknowledge, it moves the spindle up, and waits for another acknowledgement (M70) to be sure.. Then it starts the next part.

Apparently I've found another bug.. I've done that enough times before by now...
The original 6502 microprocessor, the intel 80258 ADMA, Cad/Cam packages etc.. I found some unexpected quirks in them too.

But in this case, I need to find out how to un stick the control so it will once again process a G04.

Another interesting quirk is this code:
S10000 M03
G04 F7.0
M08

On one machine it will allow the spindle to get rolling before it turns on the coolant, and the both come get up to speed at the same time.
The other machine will not start the G04 timeout until the spindle is all the way up to speed.

Must be slight differences in the "ladder" since the A2100 doesn't use ladder code as such.
Both machines the same vintage. '97

Thanks in advance!

Pete

why not just use a looping program and an M01? do a program loop with a M9 M26 G28P4 that loops back to the program top just under the spindle start?

Pete

I am windering if M70 causes it due to block lookahead. What I mean is that it looaks at the code after the M70, and when the signal is received it just skips over the G04 thinking it's been done.
See if you can add a dummy move after M70, like
G00 U0 V0 and then add the G04.
As for the spindle wait, I would prefer the second machine that actually waits for the spindle to come up to speed before the next line executes.

why not just use a looping program and an M01? do a program loop with a M9 M26 G28P4 that loops back to the program top just under the spindle start?

?? Because the M01 stops the spindle.
Which is what I need to prevent.
Pete

I also tried to add an (INP .... ) statement, So it would pause waiting for an operator numerical input, but that requires purchasing the extra cost advanced programing option.
All I need is a way to pause, waiting for operator input without stopping the spindle.

I did do it this way:

G04 F9999.
M02

Operator hits FEEDHOLD
Operator hits RESET
Operator hits CTRL <-> HOME
Operaotr hits CYCLE START

That is clumsy, and gets coolant all over the keyboard and pendant because you don't stop to wipe your fingers everytime..
Pete

As for the spindle wait, I would prefer the second machine that actually waits for the spindle to come up to speed before the next line executes.

Neither machine will cut until the spindle is up to speed, but the second machine denies me the opportunity to time the two events with each other.
There is quite a difference in timing to spin up to 10,000 rpm vs get the pump rolling.
And after months of 10,000 rpm with the coolant spraying on the tool waiting to spin up the evaporative losses are pretty significant.
Just a nit to pick really...Just an observation.
The M70 is troubling, and the second machine does not even have the M70 option in it. :mad:

Pete

Cut and paste your program into MDI and remove the M2 at the end.
This will let you keep the spindle on. [img]smile.gif[/img]
We do the same thing here on certain jobs.
In MDI the control returns to the top of the program automaticallly.

Works good.

If you want a parts counter just use M83


ARB

ARB,

I'll bet you have no idea how glad I am to see that suggestion! Genius.

And guess what?
G04 no longer works. Period.
It just falls through, reagardless of the timing value. No longer an M70 anywhere in sight.

G04 F200.
Passes through without a delay.
I am re-booting now, if that doesn't fix it, it is time to do an emergency uninstall of the software.

Any other ideas?

Pete

Rebooting will likely cure your problem.
The ultimate fix would be to get rid of the effin PC behind the awsome A2100 and get something stable. We are having all kinds of fun in this heat. One of our machines is taking long pauses and visually scanning the program before running. That is a new one for me and I thought that I had seen everthing an A2100 could do wrong.

Once the weather gets better things will calm down.

What Machine is your A2100 hooked to?

ARB

uninstalling the software did not fix it.
It still does not stop for a G04. :mad:
Got a call in to the tech support center.

These machine have been really great and realiable, very few quirks like this.
The A2100 is an awesome control. So much visually easier to look at than what I have seen of even a Siemens 840, with all the text the same size, and not nice graphics to direct your brain to the spot on the screen.


This is on a Sabre 500, the other machine is a Arrow 1000.
Once in the new building I (have to)/(want to) get another one to keep up(?) with the workload.

Thanks for the ideas so far.
Pete