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IndustryArena Forum > CNC Electronics > CNC Machine Related Electronics > Tormach and a part changing robotic arm. How can I make them communicate?
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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2018
    Posts
    2

    Tormach and a part changing robotic arm. How can I make them communicate?

    I have a Tormach 770 and I want to design and make a 6 axis robotic arm. I want to make the arm work with the machine, loading and unloading parts. I want to power the arm with stepper motors, but how I can get the robot arm and the Tormach to operate as one machine?

    To clarify what I am asking, I could use Mach 3, have a breakout board/motion controller, running stepper motor drivers, a power supply, all to control stepper motors, that control a part changing robotic arm. I could then mount this arm next to my mill and program it to change the part, but here is where I am totally lost: How do I make the arm and Tormach communicate? How will the arm know when the mill is finished and the mill know that the arm is finished? I know that I could time the system with delays, or make the robot push a button that starts the mill, but I am really hoping there is a better way.

    Thank you!

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Posts
    88

    Re: Tormach and a part changing robotic arm. How can I make them communicate?

    This is going sound rude no matter how I write it, but it certainly is not intended too.
    I would think if you had the skills to design and construct a 6 axis arm that could correctly grab a piece of raw stock from a stock pile, detect its orientation, transfer and correctly place it in a some sort of auto vice or pallet loader in the correct orientation and location,and then remove it and place it in another bin.... the communication between the arm and the mill would be child’s play.
    I would think you would want the arm controls completely separate from the mill. If there is no spare I/O accessible on the mill, you could probably cheat and repurpose a 4th axis, flood coolant or ATC (no idea what you have) to trigger the arm to do its thing


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jul 2018
    Posts
    2
    Quote Originally Posted by ripperj View Post
    This is going sound rude no matter how I write it, but it certainly is not intended too.
    I would think if you had the skills to design and construct a 6 axis arm that could correctly grab a piece of raw stock from a stock pile, detect its orientation, transfer and correctly place it in a some sort of auto vice or pallet loader in the correct orientation and location,and then remove it and place it in another bin.... the communication between the arm and the mill would be child’s play.
    I would think you would want the arm controls completely separate from the mill. If there is no spare I/O accessible on the mill, you could probably cheat and repurpose a 4th axis, flood coolant or ATC (no idea what you have) to trigger the arm to do its thing


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
    Don't worry, I don't take it as rude, I see where you are coming from. I just graduated college with a mechanical engineering degree and I am just getting into machining. I am clearly still in the brainstorming phase of this project and I am confident in myself to figure out the mechanical components. On the other hand, I have very little experience with electronics and therefore have a lot to learn. I felt like I was missing something, that there should be a straightforward process to make this communication happen. I want there to be a way to signal the arm similar to signaling the ATC, but I also want to have full use of the 4th axis, flood coolant, and ATC. I agree with you, the communication between the mill and the arm should be child's play, but I haven't found any good information on it. That's why I posted the question on here. I will do more research about how the Fanuc Arms are integrated with different machines.

    Thank you for the help!

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Posts
    692

    Re: Tormach and a part changing robotic arm. How can I make them communicate?

    The Fanuc controls probably have this functionality included in them, or at least some way to communicate with the arm controller. It's certainly doable with LinuxCNC, and maybe Mach, all controlled from the same controller, but for something like this where they're really 2 separate machines that don't need coordinated motion, probably much easier to have separate controllers and, depending upon how much communications are needed, you could have it just one output and one input from the Tormach controller to tell the arm to do its thing, then the arm would respond when it's done.
    Which control are you using for the Tormach?

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