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Brother BII Accuracy Mode Settings

Peroni

Cast Iron
Joined
May 18, 2007
Location
Yadkinville, NC
Last thread with any real discussion on this topic was back in summer of 2018. Yamazen was supposedly going to get to the bottom of this subject but the thread was never updated. So has anyone ever really figured out what the settings are supposed to be for the various BII M codes? We have a S700X1 built in Aug of 2015 with 27K spindle. The AII settings are partly filled out but the BII are all identical. I've been searching for more info on this but have not come across anything definitive. Was this mystery ever solved?
 
There was a software update since then that simplifies this. I believe it is version 11. Your local support can update your software and assist you with the new settings.
 
Last thread with any real discussion on this topic was back in summer of 2018. Yamazen was supposedly going to get to the bottom of this subject but the thread was never updated. So has anyone ever really figured out what the settings are supposed to be for the various BII M codes? We have a S700X1 built in Aug of 2015 with 27K spindle. The AII settings are partly filled out but the BII are all identical. I've been searching for more info on this but have not come across anything definitive. Was this mystery ever solved?

It seems it's a secret that is more closely guarded than the location of the Ark of the Covenant.
While the settings I have now (probably from that '18 discussion) seem to work... ok, they aren't perfect and IMO need to be better.
Around that time I asked my local dealer to update they software. That never happened and I can't remember how to find out on the control where the V number is.
 
It seems it's a secret that is more closely guarded than the location of the Ark of the Covenant.
While the settings I have now (probably from that '18 discussion) seem to work... ok, they aren't perfect and IMO need to be better.
Around that time I asked my local dealer to update they software. That never happened and I can't remember how to find out on the control where the V number is.

Is your local dealer Yamazen or Turnkey Solutions (Grand Rapids)?
 
Is your local dealer Yamazen or Turnkey Solutions (Grand Rapids)?

Yamazen out of Novi.


I haven't really raised a fuss about it because I don't like making waves (despite what some of my replies look like lol). Like I said, it works ok, but I'm spoiled by the Hi-Cut on the Okuma where I can adjust extremely easily and not be limited to 4 or 5 settings even though those settings are changeable.
 
There was a software update since then that simplifies this. I believe it is version 11. Your local support can update your software and assist you with the new settings.

What about for a facility that does not believe in keeping things updated? I'm serious they will never pay for a tech to come out and update the software. They still haven't had anyone out to fix the grease lines to the Z axis that keep blowing out. Somewhere there has to be more detailed info on what those fields should be changed to and why. Regardless if that parameter section has been updated or not the info has to be out there and I'm having a hard time understanding why it is so damn hard to find. The person who did our install and training had no idea about either of the high accuracy modes. He called a couple other guys at the dealer and no one there knew either. Should I be contacting Brother direct?
 
What about for a facility that does not believe in keeping things updated? I'm serious they will never pay for a tech to come out and update the software. They still haven't had anyone out to fix the grease lines to the Z axis that keep blowing out. Somewhere there has to be more detailed info on what those fields should be changed to and why. Regardless if that parameter section has been updated or not the info has to be out there and I'm having a hard time understanding why it is so damn hard to find. The person who did our install and training had no idea about either of the high accuracy modes. He called a couple other guys at the dealer and no one there knew either. Should I be contacting Brother direct?

Contact Brother direct. I called and asked about V11. My office hadn't heard there was a new version, and didn't know anything about it. The next morning a tech was sitting in my driveway. He installed V11 but we didn't really have time to mess around with it. He had never seen it before. He was in the area doing some work at another place.

I was told if you ask nicely, they will send it to you and walk you through install over the phone. :D
 
IF I remember correctly, I copied mode A to mode B as in the video, and adjusted M286 to a feed rate to 800IPM for non cutting moves. My Cam system (InventorHSM) has a parameter for non cutting feed rates. Under the default M265, and M261 modes I get a feed rate error if I go over 400. With the new settings, I can rough with 800IPM positioning moves .
I know very little about this, just dabbled so far. There was a thread years ago with pictures of surfacing results under all the various settings. I've searched for it, and I swear I book marked it. But can't find it. It's really cool that you have parameter access to fine tune the machine for a given application. I'm just ignorant as to the possibilities. I'm too busy making parts to fine tune parameters. I get into them as needed.😁


.
 
IF I remember correctly, I copied mode A to mode B as in the video, and adjusted M286 to a feed rate to 800IPM for non cutting moves. My Cam system (InventorHSM) has a parameter for non cutting feed rates. Under the default M265, and M261 modes I get a feed rate error if I go over 400. With the new settings, I can rough with 800IPM positioning moves .
I know very little about this, just dabbled so far. There was a thread years ago with pictures of surfacing results under all the various settings. I've searched for it, and I swear I book marked it. But can't find it. It's really cool that you have parameter access to fine tune the machine for a given application. I'm just ignorant as to the possibilities. I'm too busy making parts to fine tune parameters. I get into them as needed.��


.

That is my problem as well. I don't have enough band width. I'll be running a part and think, hmm I wonder if that could be changed... but I'm too busy trying to keep the thing fed to have the time to tweak and improve!
 
So Brother realized that folks were getting frustrated with all this Mode A/B crap, and in about V8 or V10 of the firmware, we found a new interface for High Accuracy in the control, but turned off. They call it the "Quick Setting" function. I believe that they really intended this to be a feature improvement they were going to really trumpet with the new X2 update that came out in the beginning of the year, but Brother seems to allow software only upgrades to work on previous machines (new rotary fixture offsetting, for example, was for the M200/M300, but also works on the S series machines).

Having said that, while the interface and parameter pages are there and you can turn on the new Quick Setting function, the actual driving parameters are *still blank*. This is frustrating and requires not just turning on the new system, but playing Keyboard Commando for a while and plugging all the numbers into various parameter tables.

When this was a hot topic a year and a half ago, I found that the Parameter Manual actually had values for High Accuracy Mode A and B, though they were not burned into the machine at the factory. They provided a solid set of baselines that we could look at and have a much better understanding of how the system functions. I experimented with those numbers and did some tweaks, then published a PDF to try to walk folks through how this all works.

Yamazen has that PDF and I know Andy's West Coast team basically inputs them in as part of the install process. I don't know how other regional offices have this set up, but all the application engineers should know about it and, at the very least, send owners a copy of that PDF if they ask.
 

Thank you for this. Ours is V8.02
I loaded up all the numbers, created a test part like similar to the one in the PDF, and ran it with M289 L2 with a feedrate of 450ipm.
Set my back feedrate (using Mastercam Dynamic Mill) to 600ipm (I use 1100ipm for my Okuma) for air cutting an it didn't like that, it was pretty jerky movement. But the overall part looked good, finished with L5 feeding 125ipm and no clipped corners from rough or finish.
I'm a little concerned about the jerky movements though on the air cutting.
 
Yamazen says ~$1500 to upgrade our firmware from 6.011 to the current 12.3 and a tech must do the install so that will never happen. They still did not know anything about accuracy modes or settings. I've got a message in to Brother and will see if they can help.
 
Yamazen says ~$1500 to upgrade our firmware from 6.011 to the current 12.3 and a tech must do the install so that will never happen. They still did not know anything about accuracy modes or settings. I've got a message in to Brother and will see if they can help.

I worked for a company like this for awhile. It took the entire time that I worked there to finally realize if the company, and the management that ran the company didn’t care, then there was no reason I should feel stress or loose sleep over it. It finally set in after several years, that was why no one on the floor cared, or cared to improve.
 
Thank you for this. Ours is V8.02
I loaded up all the numbers, created a test part like similar to the one in the PDF, and ran it with M289 L2 with a feedrate of 450ipm.
Set my back feedrate (using Mastercam Dynamic Mill) to 600ipm (I use 1100ipm for my Okuma) for air cutting an it didn't like that, it was pretty jerky movement. But the overall part looked good, finished with L5 feeding 125ipm and no clipped corners from rough or finish.
I'm a little concerned about the jerky movements though on the air cutting.

L2 (Rough) is still using Mode A as the underlying algorithm which is the superior one for roughing. Without looking at it, I'm running with the assumption that your jerkyness is coming from the 8003 parameter (Machine/High Accuracy/Common is where you'll find it). This parameter clamps the maximum feed rate that can be cut. When the machine goes to feed linking moves, Mode A is throwing it into emergency slowdown in order to meet that maximum feedrate.

Go and crank that parameter up to maximum (I think it is 30,000mm/min).
 
L2 (Rough) is still using Mode A as the underlying algorithm which is the superior one for roughing. Without looking at it, I'm running with the assumption that your jerkyness is coming from the 8003 parameter (Machine/High Accuracy/Common is where you'll find it). This parameter clamps the maximum feed rate that can be cut. When the machine goes to feed linking moves, Mode A is throwing it into emergency slowdown in order to meet that maximum feedrate.

Go and crank that parameter up to maximum (I think it is 30,000mm/min).

Maybe jerky is the wrong term. I have it set to 20,000 per your pdf.
The more accurate term would be that it seemed too loose and was banging when reversing direction during the air cuts.
 








 
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