[gisbertz]

Hi there, I'm working with a FANUC series O-M. It's installed on a KASAHARA Falcon K-1. I never had any problems with the machine until today. When starting up the machine , I immidietly get the alarm message: "not ready". The machine cannot be used at any way and there is no alarm code number. What to do? Can anyone help?

[Dan Fritz]

You are probaby in E-stop for some reason. There can be many reasons for this. The same E-stop circuit that goes through the red E-stop button is also sometimes used for the extreme overtravel switches. If one of your axes is near the limit of its travel, you may have to back it off the switch to release E-stop.

Which reminds me of a story:

Years ago I was a service guy for Fanuc (General Numeric), and I was told to perform a service call in a small town in Texas. I drove to the airport in my home town, caught a flight to Dallas, caught another flight to Lubbock, rented a car and drove about 100 miles, got a lecture from the shop owner about how dissapointed he was with his new Japanese made machine and how questioned about "how long will it take you to fix it" ... etc. etc. I then walked out to the machine, twisted to release the red E-stop button, and the machine fired up. The operator said "I didn't know you had to twist it ... " I then filled out my report and went home.

[gisbertz]

Thanks for the fast reply, I checked (cleaned) the end switches and looked at the E-stop button. It was fine. Still the message "not ready" after restarting.
By the way; great story. I wonder what Fanuc would have charched us if you had flown to our company in the netherlands

[gisbertz]

Thanks for the fast reply. I checked (and cleaned) the end-switches and E-stop button. They were fine. After restarting still the message "not ready" .Any suggestions?
By the way, great story. I wonder how much FANUC would have charged us if you would had flown to our company in the netherlands.

[gisbertz]

not sure if my reply got through.

[Boots]

yep sounds like the E-Stop button is still depressed. Some operators feel the need to push this in at the end of the day for shut down. It's not required but it will keep the machine from Operation if it's still depressed. Twist it like Dan said, it should pop out. Then try to start it.

[gisbertz]

Tried it a couple of times already. No use. Maybe an end-switch that isn't working anymore?

[Al_The_Man]

Tried it a couple of times already. No use. Maybe an end-switch that isn't working anymore?

Often there is a e-stop overide P.B. that will over ride the overtravel limits, can you here or see a e-stop relay or contactor pick up when the e-stop is released or the control start button, if you have one?
If there is a external fault like overtravel switch then it will drop out when the button is released.
Did you get schematics with the machine?
Al.

[gisbertz]

The situation is as follows. When starting up the machine, the error message "not ready" appears. I then push in the E-button. No sound. I then release the E-button. Still no sound like a release-clic. I checked the wiring of the E-button but it seems to be fine.
The o.t.-release switch doesn't have any affect. Also no sounds of release.
Yes, we have some schematics. Is it possible to measure the current through the wiring of the E-button? Or are we thinking to difficult and in the wrong direction.

greetings

[Al_The_Man]

If you have the schematics you should be able to identify the Estop relay and trace the coil string to see what else conditions the relay for on state.
There may be air pressure SW or door interlocks etc.
There is most likely a contact on the relay which inputs into the CNC to indicate ready (CNC estop).
Al.

[wdzhere]

i am having the exact same problem with my citizen f16 with a 3t control, the e stop bujtton is how you turn it off. screen says not ready thats it

[ben_heinman]

Does your machine have the 'auto power off' option? I've seen it before where the machine would not come out of the 'not ready' state because of the 'APO' coil was not releasing it's charge. If you do not know if the machine has 'APO' then look for 2 wires coming out of the main dissconnect switch. With the power off, trace and disconnect these 2 wires from the terminal blocks then fire up the machine to see if this helps.


I like Dan's story too. I had a similar experience but I only had a half hour drive and it was a E-stop on the chip conveyor. Still to this day I can't figure out how they ran the machine for nearly 6 hours of the day and then have this problem. It's not like someone could have accidently bumped into the E-stop button because it was located on top of the chip shoot.

[dpuch]

A bad e-stop switch that is not releasing, or a contractor overload tripped and needs to be reset are the two issues I have run into.

Speaking of chip conveyor stories...

Chip conveyor has a manual option so you can stop it to change out the chip bin. BUT there is no check that the operator ever set the conveyor back on or to auto...

Well the machine design is a large central open area over the conveyor, and after about 1 1/2 hours of the conveyor it finally filled up to where the Z axis moves over it and tripped out the overload on it. That was about enough chips to fill a 40-50 gallon bin. Lots of fun digging all those chips out by hand before the conveyor could finally clear the last of it on it's own.

After that happened twice we made the manufacturer add a ladder check/timer for the conveyor that stopped at the next tool change if it was off more than 5 min.

[gridley51]

Every "not ready" problem I have had has been the result of a missing "ready" signal from a spindle or axis drive.I`m working on one at the moment,on a 6T.Fault in the spindle drive brings in e-stop.

[dpuch]

Every "not ready" problem I have had has been the result of a missing "ready" signal from a spindle or axis drive.I`m working on one at the moment,on a 6T.Fault in the spindle drive brings in e-stop.

True, but those usually have specific errors as well, not just "can't take it out of e-stop" Unless older controls were not as informative?

[gridley51]

True, but those usually have specific errors as well, not just "can't take it out of e-stop" Unless older controls were not as informative?

Not on OT`s and 6T`s,"Not ready" is all you get.It doesn`t mention e-stop.

[sjj]

We have a Makino S33 with fanuc Pro 3 control and have just replaced the Z axis motor, we need details of how to set the home position.