Renishaw interface to MX2 control

If your just moving to an xy location and plunging Z then the xy coords are already known--in which case here your really only concerned with Z--see the probe only has a single output..so your alwasy gonna position it in two axis first and then feed in with the third--capturing the trigger point of the third axis loc at the exact instant contact is made.

Or traverse x,(or y)along a surface, and record the z or x, depending on which one I am looking for. The question is HOW to interface the Renishaw MI 5 to the control for either auto motion/reporting, or at least spit out the x,y,z coords into a serial data stream, so I don't have to stand there writing them down with a pencil. (Or more correctly a pen)

I have been on machines 15 years ago that were set up for this, just don't know the black magic/hardware for making the connections.

Even a way to push a button, and spit out each position is better than paper and pencil. Hell what are computers for anyway?

ca

The control needs a Skip Signal input.

Did you chek with Renhishaw? I thought there Was a mention of that control in the (current) documentation.

With a Fanuc, you need a program.. The G31 command is similar to a G01, except it will stop, and capture the the current position when the Skip Signal is encountered from the probe. Renishaw can provide the macros for some of the basic functions, like finding the size of a hole, or the location of an edge, for example.

But following along an edge, I don't think that is something that will happen, unless you have a macro that is constantly bumping the edge, bump, bump, bump as it goes along. The probe does not sense "touch" it only generates a "skip" signal if it does touch, then you have to back it back off to reset it, and approach again. The speed that you are travelling when it does touch and trigger, will determine the accuracy, since there is a delay for the control to realize that it did get a hit, and the amount of time to do that is variable.

For your control, you need to identify the "skip" signal (If the MX2 suports it), and then the macros for the low level functions, then the high level program to do something usefull. The high level program will have something equivalent to a "print" statement to output the coordinates of the features it detects.

Suggest find a tech that specializes in yasnac or contact renishaw likely any open DI port could mapped to probe input you do need a suitable power supply and amplifier ( signal conditioner ) though.

Generally speaking fairly common to for work probe to share same exact pinout for tool length ( and or diameter ) measurements as well as for broken tool detection.

finally something I can use. What is a DI port? Exactly, was hoping to find a Yasnac tech here to begin with.

I know one in the bay area, but he seems to be more of a swap & calibrate tech from what I can tell Heck, that is less than what I do.

The Renishaw interface has solid state relay, or ttl output. I'll try Renishaw.

ca

Beyond xyz abc servo control your remaining machine side interface can be roughly split into two sets namely "data in" ( DI ) and "data out" ( DO )

Good example is where upon startup the controller pulls in the hyd contactor ( data out )....NEXT, a timer comes on which causes a wait state to occur for perhaps 500 millisecond or maybe even a second or two.....FINALLY the controller polls the hyd pressure switch ( data in ) to make sure that there's pressure.....if so then the boot up sequence proceeds....if not, then the boot stalls...hopefully a diagnostic alarm gets tossed onto the screen...

Anyways probly best to get some example code from renishaw and then modify to suit the actual connection youve made after you have mapped appropriate spare pinouts.

Beyond that sorry I can't be of much help as I only have actual documents detailing the connector and pin#s for Fadal.

Beep beep.

Not just any input signal, but the XSKIP signal. A google search brings up a bunch of information...

The Renishaw Probe Installation manual lists everything you need to know for the MX2 control... It even lists the screws on TB2 to use, and which parameters to set.

RTFM!!

I just looked into the Installation manual, and it is all there.