Machine Tool Monitoring

[Mark Mathews]

Looking for insight on machine tool monitoring. We have Doosan/Mazak/Takamaz/Fuji/Miyano machines. The Miyano and Mazak's have Mitsubishi controls. The others have Fanuc controls. I've seen inexpensive systems like the Patlite Stack light system with wireless transmitter to a cloud based software that is pretty simple and affordable, but only gets you Green/Red/Yellow light info. Fanuc and Mitsubishi have their own systems. And plenty of 3rd party systems with varying degrees. Cycle time and pcs made data is also helpful.

Any reccomendations on a systems that give Red/Green/Yellow light and also cycle time and pcs made detail?

We also are an ECI/E2/Shoptech/Job boss user. They offer a system called Alora. Does anyone have feedback on that product and how well it integrates with Job Boss?

Thanks!

Mark @ Chipmatic

 

[wjohn13]

We have JobBoss2 at our shop and have had the demonstration of the Alora system. I thought it was really nice, but we passed on it. Like all systems now adays, it is subscription based and was just very pricey. I know there is another system similar called Factory Wiz or Whiz. I thought that one was cool, because it woudl take inputs directly from the machine and tell you if the machine was running at 25% or 100%, cycle start and stops, and even give you error codes if the machine stops for any reason. I would like to relook at both those systems in the future, but I doubt my owners will do anything because of cost.

 

[Billy_C]

There is an open source Fanuc driver software to pull and convert data from Focas to MQTT (and other formats). Once it’s in a more standard format, there are a bunch of software options to log it and display it via a browser page. That all requires a little bit of IT expertise and messing around but it’s a good system.

I’m not sure about the Mits way of hosting the data. It could be similar to Fanuc in some proprietary format or ideally through rest API. Again, requires some knowledge to reverse engineer but lots of software out there to pull data and host it an easy to view format.

 

[Billy_C]

There is a short thread there that’s sparse on info but could get you started.

Fanuc Controller + FOCAS + PC = real-time data transfer?

Hi, I have gained interest in reading and understanding about Fanuc Controllers and CNC machines. I am interested to know if it is possible to: 1. Connect a CNC machine with Fanuc Controller (0i-TF Plus), having USB and Ethernet Slot (and possibility to activate FOCAS) to a PC or a Raspberry Pi...

www.practicalmachinist.com

 

[Triaged]

...I've seen inexpensive systems like the Patlite Stack light system with wireless transmitter to a cloud based software that is pretty simple and affordable, but only gets you Green/Red/Yellow light info. ...

I'd you put the data into Excel you can manipulate it to show a good bit and make fancy charts. Counting the green light turn on will get you parts count. You have the time to get rate.

I bought one of these with plans to do machine monitoring with it but haven't sat down to actually do anything with it. https://www.amazon.com/Arduino-Nano-RP2040-Connect-Headers/dp/B095J4KFVT/