video camera

Just wondering how many guys out there have web cams or some type of video camera on their cnc machine to monitor it from a remote location. If so what type and how is it working for you.

I'm all ears on this one too!

I wanna hear more about that too.

I once did it with a 10 hour program on our local network, using a cheap logitech. More or less taped it to the machine and used vnc to see my other computers desktop and cam. My dncmax server from cimco has some sort of webmonitoring, problem is that my company has closed all "unused" tcports so i can even play with it for fun
I did succed to upload a picture every 5 sec to my home ftp, but that isnt really any fun, and they soon found out i was doing it and closed those ports too.

an easy way out it to hook up your cam, start up some IM, either yahoo or other that supports webcams, set it to accept video connections from your own client at home and *puff* live video and audio.

At the moment I have a Sony webcam mounted in the machine, I program in the office and can watch the machine thru my computer, its also nice to listen to how the machine is cutting too, since it has audio. I use vnc viewer software so if need be I can also control the machine and stop it from the comfort of my chair in the office, the only thing that's not the greatest is since its streaming over the shop server their is a slight delay in the video, it's not "real time" but only a fraction of a second. I just want to pick the brains of some poeple out there to see if there is any other ideas.

I was thinking of buying a cheap surveillance camera setup and dedicating it to that. I see an advantage in that it would be independent of the network, but I hadn't really considered using the network before. How much $ and time is involved in doing it your way?

Five axis Fidia,

Could you give a short primer on how you did that for us video/digital/computer challenged folks. I don't have a need to monitor from home but from the office with the ability to slide hold or single step would greatly reduce some of the almost comical sprints to the machine...... I do a lot of dnc and on short programs run from the control. I do not dry run as the nature of what I do will not afford that...

Many machines can be monitored remotely through data outputs as well. Our cell systems can be completely monitored by remote. It gives information on jobs run, tool life, machines alarms, current (and live) machine status,..... basically anything you "see" when you're at the machine less video.

Some machine tools as an option have web equipment you can integrate. This helps out quite a bit for tech service and what not. Still yet to be popularized but its "just around the corner".

For many of the older machines, you can use macros to output information from the machine as it runs with DPRINT. On the receiving end, there's software out there that can pool the info and email the bundle to where ever. Not exactly the most timely thing (not "live" anyway" since you have a lag for the data) but could be useful.

Also, many of the newer machines and controls that run in a Windows environment (or some other platforms similar) like Mazatrol, some Fanuc i series and such, can be networked to like a PC and use software like ReachOut or PCAnywhere to view the control.....

To mudflap and smallshop, I am afraid I am slightly video challenged as well, I had our companys admistrator do all the leg work for me with this, I can tell you this though, the camera is indeed a surveillance camera and is quite easy to setup and cost about $1000 bucks. All you do is load some software and log on as an administrator to give people a password and then all you need is the cameras IP address, for example I could give you a password and the address and you could view my machine from anywhere there is an internet connection, I also view it from the machine as well, it makes it nice to see the backside of a block your working on without having to peek behind, of course the Fidia control is windows based so this makes it easier because I have internet access at the machines control.

Now if you could just load up the 'gatling' bar feeder with a big run, use a laser interferometer to QC the dimensions and reload offsets while sitting at home munchin' on a ribeye.

Ah, yes.

But, how do you replace worn inserts from 20 miles away?

Rod

Back up tooling if your machine can support it....

ankaka said:

I really like my Canon 550D. It's called the Canon Rebel T2i in the US. It has an 18 mega pixel sensor and takes great photos. It also has 1080 HD video, with a choice of frame rates. The video quality is superb, it looks great on my high definition TV.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the non useful spam. So do you just tape this camera to a machine and start the video?

Pretty good video on video surveillance (we use this in our shop) and installation of a Sony unit.

Video: Remote Machine Monitoring : Modern Machine Shop

If you want to access the machine control over the web, I'd recommend looking into Remote Machining. Some functions like 'Cycle Start' are locked out though, due to OSHA regs but you can view the controller right there at your computer. With a video cam, you've got a pretty nice overview of everything.