[upnorth]

I have a small CNC lathe its a Hercus compulathe. I would like to use the tool turret. Can the PLC in the acorn be used to control it?

[cnctechml]

That depends on the I/O requirements of your system. You need to provide more details about your turret. There have been some PLC programs for various types of turrets.

1- Tool counter input and tool 1 input.
2- Gray code logic.
3- Time based.

Some of those PLC programs have been created for systems that use either 1 output or 2 outputs for the turret motor. There has even been a custom tool change macro for turrets that are driven just like any other axes. You can find all this information on Centroid's forum Centroid Community CNC Support Forum - Centroid Community CNC Support Forum.

[upnorth]

That depends on the I/O requirements of your system. You need to provide more details about your turret. There have been some PLC programs for various types of turrets.

1- Tool counter input and tool 1 input.
2- Gray code logic.
3- Time based.

Some of those PLC programs have been created for systems that use either 1 output or 2 outputs for the turret motor. There has even been a custom tool change macro for turrets that are driven just like any other axes. You can find all this information on Centroid's forum Centroid Community CNC Support Forum - Centroid Community CNC Support Forum.

I'm going by memory because I'm currently away from home. My turret has 3 outputs. Home, position count and turret lock. It also has 2 inputs. Turret forward and reverse. The way it works is it starts by finding the home position. Then it moves forward and gets a pulse each time it passes a tool. When it gets to the correct position forward motion stops. The motor reverses and the turret locks. If it does not lock within the set time it faults out.

I have never seen this turret run so I'm piecing things together. One of the guys on here had the same machine a while back and got it running. I can't remember the details though. I want to get a jump start on getting things ready so when I get home I can jump in and get the thing working. I can't make a macro from scratch but I could probably edit one that is close.

I'll check out the Centroid forum you mentioned. Thanks for the response.

[cnctechml]

It sounds like the counter and home switch PLC program will work for you. Unfortunately, there is nothing on that PLC program that looks for a "turret locked" input. I believe the turret associated with that PLC program would either turn on an output to reverse the motor or turn off the Turret Forward output which would essentially cause the turret motor to reverse and it would reverse into a pawl which would mechanically lock the turret. The PLC program can be modified to look for that "turret locked" input and if it doesn't see that input in the correct state within a certain amount of time, it would fault with a timeout error.

[upnorth]

It sounds like the counter and home switch PLC program will work for you. Unfortunately, there is nothing on that PLC program that looks for a "turret locked" input. I believe the turret associated with that PLC program would either turn on an output to reverse the motor or turn off the Turret Forward output which would essentially cause the turret motor to reverse and it would reverse into a pawl which would mechanically lock the turret. The PLC program can be modified to look for that "turret locked" input and if it doesn't see that input in the correct state within a certain amount of time, it would fault with a timeout error.

This is what I was looking for. It probably would not be too difficult to add a line to look for the lock.