HAAS MDC

[JonasSWE]

Hi All,

We are working on a small python code that will quickly help us with deciding which tools to remove and which tools to put in our machine (HAAS UMC-750) for a certain CAM-part.
We tought that it would be possible to read the machine tool table through the MDC, but now when we got a bit deeper into it, we got the understanding that this data seems not to be available through MDC.

Do anyone have any experience around a client reading the machine tool table, is it possible for us to get this data out from the machine?

BR
JW

 

[thesidetalker]

My guess is that data probably isn't available, but I could be wrong. I've been wanting to do something similar, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

An alternative method you might consider is to read the active program number and match that up with a database to see which tools are active?

My plan was to use a block of macro variables to store which tools are currently loaded. (sometimes more than one program is active - say OP1, 2, etc so no WIP) I'd change my post to spit out the tool table's index or tool reference number at each toolchange, and store that in a variable. They are all unique numbers, so no worry about overlapping tool numbers on the machine.

These macro variables could be retrieved from machine data collection and matched up with the tool database to give me the name of the tool.

Issue in my case is we wouldn't necessarily know if tools have been removed or not, so I'm not sure how useful this would be. My guys are supposed to remove tools after a job is complete, but this doesn't always happen. I have a program setup to load and measure tools and I've been meaning to do the opposite - make a program to remove those tools (they are random and not sequential numbers) - perhaps that way it could work. At the same time it cycles through the tools to remove, it clears the variable

 

[JonasSWE]

My guess is that data probably isn't available, but I could be wrong. I've been wanting to do something similar, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

An alternative method you might consider is to read the active program number and match that up with a database to see which tools are active?

My plan was to use a block of macro variables to store which tools are currently loaded. (sometimes more than one program is active - say OP1, 2, etc so no WIP) I'd change my post to spit out the tool table's index or tool reference number at each toolchange, and store that in a variable. They are all unique numbers, so no worry about overlapping tool numbers on the machine.

These macro variables could be retrieved from machine data collection and matched up with the tool database to give me the name of the tool.

Issue in my case is we wouldn't necessarily know if tools have been removed or not, so I'm not sure how useful this would be. My guys are supposed to remove tools after a job is complete, but this doesn't always happen. I have a program setup to load and measure tools and I've been meaning to do the opposite - make a program to remove those tools (they are random and not sequential numbers) - perhaps that way it could work. At the same time it cycles through the tools to remove, it clears the variable

Thanks for reply!

We mainly produce "one off" parts. So we have a lot of machine rigging with tools. So the main idea for us is that we should not need to think so much abot what tools to leave in the machine after the part is done, and have a simple tool quickly tell the other guy what tools to mount and dismount in the machine depending on his CAM-program.

I think you suggestion to load the tools to macro variables that is reachable with MDC is good. I will look into if we could have a small "standard" program in the machine that load the current machine tool table into macro variables, that we can run just before we set up the machine.

Another though I had if what we just take a picture of the tool table at the machine that read out the mounted tools and send it to our app in the CAM software.

Lets see what happens

 

[Booze Daily]

Anything here that helps?

Machine Data Collection - NGC

www.haascnc.com