[MikeHTech]

One of our operators accidentally deleted everything on one of our machine's controllers. It is a Puma 700L with a Fanuc 21i-TB controller.

We had to call out a tech from Fanuc because they require a password to modify any #9000+ parameters. We had the machine up and running so the tech left, but later we discovered it alarms whenever a program calls M0

We get alarm 5040 : "CAN NOT COMMANDED B-AXIS MOVE"

Fanuc alarm: 5040 - CAN NOT COMMANDED B-AXIS MOVE (T series) | CNC Alarms.com

According to the website I posted the error might have something to do with parameter 8250. 8250 is currently set to 0. We looked at another machine with the same controller (Puma 400L) and that machine's 8250 parameter is also set to 0. I thought maybe M0 was calling a 9000 program that no longer existed, but there are no 9000 programs on the working Puma 400 either.

Any Ideas? Our maintenance guy is making phone calls, and I can't find anything more about this on the web.

[Mhoppe]

Hmmm. I know you can write custom G/M codes, or even redefine existing ones to add additional functionality behind the scenes. It makes no sense to me why an M0 would create an alarm referencing the B-axis. That would indicate to me that M0 been modified to perform more than a pause. This is a bit outside my expertise so YMMV. The book CNC Programming Using Fanuc Custom Macro B by S.K. Sinha has at least one chapter dedicated to writing custom macros and assigning them to G/M/T Codes. I believe those macros were stored in the O9000 series and there was a parameter somewhere else you would set to specify in the #6000 range to determine which program corresponded to which m/g/t code etc. I will refer to the book when I get back to work and see what I can find.

CNC Programming using Fanuc Custom Macro B: S.K Sinha: 0000071713328: Amazon.com: Books

[MattMSConsult]

Did you get any leads?

Kinda lame they require a password to modify parameters, but not to delete them, apparently! Did the tech at least give you the password? First of all, there's a procedure for backing up parameters, so definitely look into doing that once you get her straightened out. In my days as an apps engineer installing/repairing machines, I saw some pretty confusing stuff because a seemingly unrelated bit was selected/deselected. In the past, I've found the most simple way to trouble shoot a problem like this is to download/upload the parameters from a different machine of the same type and control that's working. Is there a Puma distributor near you? I'd start there, first. It probably wouldn't hurt to change that bit to a 1 and see what happens...

[MikeHTech]

Haven't made any progress yet. The Fanuc guy did not give us the password, we might have to call him out again. We didn't have a backup of the parameters, so we contacted the company we purchased the machine through, and they gave us a set of parameters.