We have 9 FANUC based machines including Robodrills and Feeler mills. The Robodrills are all 18i or 31i controllers and the Feelers are all 0i-M controllers except ONE of them, which is an 18i-MB. That particular machine is the only one in the entire shop that does not display the "Start from middle of program" alarm when you do not cycle-start from the top of the program. If you hit cycle start in the middle of any block of code it takes off from that point and will accept any command until it crashes itself. It has bitten us in the past and probably just cost us $13k today when an operator accidentally hit cycle start from an incorrect location in the program and crashed the spindle into the 4th axis, bending a bunch of teeth on the ring gear and probably bending the worm gear. I realize that enabling the alarm may not guarantee that this can't happen, but it at least requires a short pause from the operator which can be enough to glance at the screen again and realize the current program position is incorrect. Parts are not currently available for these units and a new one is the above mentioned $13k. I don't really want to get into a conversation about operator responsibility and training, which is what these discussions always seem to digress into. I want a technical answer to the following question, if one exists, and nothing else.
Is there a way to enable the "start from middle of program" alarm message like the rest of our machines by some fairly simple means (such as a parameter change) or is this something that the MTB builds into the machine somehow? I really can't edit ladders or anything like that, so if it is more complicated than a parameter change I probably can't do it. I have searched a ton of threads for this same problem and there is a lot of discussion about issues like this but never a very clear answer as to whether it can even be done. Anyone ever dealt with anything like this?
Thanks for reading!