This situation is entirely on Fanuc for taking relatively simple concepts and implementing them with as many layers of complexity as possible, while providing murky documentation and refusing to produce adequate, modern training materials. On top of that, Fanuc enforces no standards for how their controls get implemented on a machine tool - you can go on Alibaba and buy a complete control/servo package and have at building a totally junk machine that still has the vaunted "Fanuc Control!" name on it.
Handenhain discriminates on who they sell a control to, so you have some level of assurance that a TCN controller machine is not going to have been badly tuned, or the builder/distributor screwed you over by not optioning the control with all the appropriate options you need, but never even heard about until you purchased the thing and found out it was missing deep-in-the weeds control functions.
Maybe, then again maybe not.
Standards of implementation. Fair enough. I've got a fair amount of experience with a number of machines that are FANUC controlled. One does things COMPETELY different from the others. The one uses DATA bits to do all the things the other builders use Keep Relays to do. We asked for a ladder modification one time and they said they were out of DATA bits. I said "...ya know every other builder I know controls that stuff in Keep Relays, why are you using DATA bits?" In hindsight I should not have said anything <laughter>. To say they got indignant would be quite the understatement. All that said, when you buy a product from a company, what they do with it is up to them. You can buy a crate motor, put new chips in the computer and end up with a completely different product. They have no control over how you tune that engine. Obviously there's parameters you cannot exceed or failure or worse will ensue.
FANUC offers all the information integrators need to implement their controls in their CNC applications. Heck, they even offer training for the CNC laymen in most of their US tech centers. I took the 4 and 5-Axis Functions Class a few yerars back to get a better handle on the WSEC function. After that class the function became clear, AND once we figured out some probing software stuff... that was a whole other issue <laughter>, but we're solid on that now too. I think EVERY machine tool dealer should adequately train their AE's. Few do. Even fewer will send them to a class. Personally, I'm hoping to get the Custom MACRO B class under my belt some time this year. I know probably 90% of it... just like I knew 90% of the 5-Axis functions before I took the class... that last 10% is always the most challenging. Maybe the CNC companies that implement Heidenhein controls require their AE's to get properly trained before they go out and train customers. If they do, kudos to them. I think that's a solid business strategy.
Now, how you apply a function on a head/head machine is going to be different than how you apply it to a head/table, table/table, a nutating head, a nutating table, or some other complex machine configuration. A FANUC control can control that machine, and it's pallet magazine, and it's tool magazine, and the pallet workstation, and a robot, all at the same time, all with the same control, and do it reliably, year after year, decade after decade. Heidenhein cannot make that claim. Fact of the matter is Heid's first control (VRZ 59.4 or something like that) didn't come out until 8 years after FANUC's 220 Control. FANUC controls guarantee parts availability 25 years after discontinuation, but I digress.
"Murky documentation"... perhaps. I have a FANUC 6M Manual (probably late 1980's vintage) and yeah, 100% the Jinglish... yeah, it is definitely strong there. However, since the 16/18 era (mid 1990's), things have cleared up significantly.
"Heidenhein discriminates on who they sell a control to...". Hate to break it to you
@gkoenig , you have been misled. They most certainly do not discriminate. They will sell a control to a guy building a CNC in his garage just like every other motion control company will. I personally know a guy in Canada that did that very thing and he had to do all the setup and servo tuning himself.
As far as options go, there is such a thing as "price point". Everything has a cost. If a machine tool builder needs ot keep a cost in a certain range there are only so many places they can control cost. Options is one of them. I don't like it any more than anyone else does, I just understand it. That said, FANUC has option packages. There's one option package that has all the function options that people should have on a 5-Axis machine. The high end 5-Axis builders that typically utilize FANUC controls (Mitsui Seiki, SNK, Makino, Yasda, Matsuura, G&L, MCM, Parpas, etc...) properly option their machines. A great many others... especially commodity machines do not. And sadly more often than not, are not up front about it. That is not a FANUC problem, that is a machine tool builder/dealer problem. Do some control manufacturers give away option packages? I don't doubt it. Honestly, controls like Mitsubishi, Heidenhein, Siemens, Fidia, etc... they are all trying to gain market share so they
HAVE to do that. Now, will FANUC make changes in the way they handle options in the future? I guarantee it. They dislike the game even more than you or I do. It hurts their brand. It hurts their customer relations. It hurts everything.
JM2CFWIW
