Has anyone taken a stab at modifying any of the built-in routines linked to PathPilot’s UI buttons?
My ETS has a nozzle for an air blast to clean off the surface before setting tool heights. I have one of the USB I/O expansion board’s outputs rigged to a pneumatic solenoid to control the ETS air, and for the time being I can modify my post-processor appropriately to accomplish this for posted programs, but I’d like to make it work anytime the tool height is set using the PathPilot UI as well.
You don’t need to modify anything, or code anything. I did this by adding a proximity switch to control the air solenoid instead of an I/O board. I set up the proximity switch to fire when the table moved into position for a tool change - so every time the table moves to that position, it fires a 3 second air blast.
Clever idea! That won’t work for me unfortunately, as my tool setter is between my main work area and my microarc. I have a good amount of experience in Python, so I’ll be taking a stab at this over the weekend. I’ll definitely post the results if all goes well.
It could still work - just depends where you put the proximity switch. Mine is nowhere near the tool setter. I have on the table (one end) and the other end on the frame.
I don’t mean to say I wouldn’t have room for the proximity switch due to the microarc, moreso that I may end up with a lot of false triggers as any 4th axis operations I run end up very close to my ETS position.
I ended up putting together a subroutine that I can use in place of G37, but I don’t think I’ll go through the effort to modify PP to make it work with the built in button. As it sits now, I just call the subroutine with one line to MDI if needed and I’ve edited my post-processor to suit. Gonna do a writeup of the process soon and probably make a new post for it.
You could add the solenoid trigger with a delay after the tool changer draw bar trigger. You would have to calculate the delay depending where your ets is on the table but it would be easier to tack it onto the ATC program that making a whole new subroutine.