I have used a tormach 1100MX for maybe a year and this problem just came up. When i do a tool change with the ATC, the spindle comes down before the pneumatic cylinder moves forward and causes it to crash into the spindle. i think it could be a macro problem or and update problem which i am going to try at some point to day. I have seen people having similar problems with the ATC indexing to the wrong place, or in running the tool change proccess in the wrong order. Does anyone have any tips or had the same problem?
Duncan,
From your description you’ve got a mixup between what tools are actually in the spindle/ATC and what Pathpilot thinks is in the spindle/ATC. Pull the tool the safest method to correct this is to pull the tool out of the spindle, disconnect air from the machine, pull the carousel over to the spindle by hand, and unload all of the tools (rotating the carousel with TRAY FWD/TRAY REV). Then press DELETE ALL.
After that I generally recommend to people who get in this situation to avoid trying to put tools in the ATC by hand and all of the manual ATC commands on the ATC page, misusing them is the #1 reason people get in this situation. Put tools in the spindle, use the tool number box in the bottom right of Pathpilot, then press STORE CURRENT TOOL. To take a tool out of the ATC, call it to the spindle, then command a tool change to a different tool number (or tool 0 to empty the spindle) . When the popup asks you “do you want to store the tool using the ATC” select “no” for it to not go back to the ATC and then take the tool out of the spindle.
Thank you,
Norman
When I was beta-testing the the ATC and had a few crashes (some intentional), Bob used to say “you lie, you die”.
Ever since I only used the PP load/unload tools (annoying as it is sometimes), I’ve not had an issue, but in the early days sometimes it would get out of sync and cause all kinds of havoc, so make sure what is in the ATC is what it thinks is there and what is not is not.