Problems I am having with My Masso

[deese]

1st and largest problem is, when you call a tool change and you load a tool if you want to double check the length of the tool,and you jog it down to the material surface, verify your offset,then jog back up to the tool change height in Z it will blow Masso's mind. You hit cycle start and it will go near where it was before the tool change was called,run the tool into the work and cut a slot to its next destination. This ruined a 200 dollar piece of material today. Did a dry run after this massive failure,without any jogging,and it runs perfect. What this means is if you set your tools manually then you have to run a seperate program for each tool,because how else would you measure a shank tool without jogging during the tool change sequence. This is how I have been operating thus far,but I need to combine all the toolpaths into one program now for a run of parts. So either I have to find a way to fix my tool lengths,or set up auto tool measure.

2nd Single block resets my program to the beginning,you can't turn on single block in the middle of a program, so thats only good for the first few lines of code.

3rd the active line of code is on the bottom of the screen window, so you can't see what is coming up,only what has already been executed,this is backwards. If an M1 optional start is in the program you can't see it,the machine will just stop, and if you didn't insert the m1 manually you might not know its there, and you will just think your machine is malfunctioning.

4th A G53 call to Y 106. to park the gantry on the far end of the bed skews the part graphic on the screen,it draws the 106" rapid move from the absolute origin,not the machine origin,so my part is much smaller and I cant see detail in the graphic while I'm working.

5th How does masso count lines? not just sequence numbers,does it count blank rows,and comments also? because my jump to line number never matches anything in my code.

 

[masso-support]

Hi Deese,

Sorry to hear about your problems. I will answer what I can and investigate the others

With regards the 1st issue of the tool change I will need to get some additional information from you so I can understand your setup and exactly how you are using it. After that I will do some testing. Can you post your settings and tools file. Can you also let us know your Masso serial number.

The issue of how Masso displays the toolpath on the screen is a tricky one. Masso uses the full extent of travel defined in the GCode to determine the machine area and then scales the toolpath to fit on the screen as large as possible. While you know that the G53 Y106 is for parking and I might guess that this is the case a machine is unable to understand this. The only Gcode instruction that Masso does not backplot is the G28.

Masso counts the actual lines in the file. This includes the comments, blank lines etc. The best way I have found to find the line you want is to open the file in windows notepad. When you highlight any line you can read at the bottom the actual line number that you are on. There may be other programs that tell you the line number as well but notepad is the one that I use.

If you can post those pieces of information I will investigate the tool change issue.
To get a copy of your MASSO_Settings.htg and MASSO_Tools.htg files for your machine.

Just go to the F1 screen then under Save & Load Calibration settings click [Save to File]

This will save your machines settings to the USB stick which you can post here along with your serial number.


Cheers Peter

 

[breezy]

Peter,

Masso counts the actual lines in the file. This includes the comments, blank lines etc. The best way I have found to find the line you want is to open the file in windows notepad. When you highlight any line you can read at the bottom the actual line number that you are on. There may be other programs that tell you the line number as well but notepad is the one that I use.

Try Notepad++ this is a code aware editor that has many useful features.

One of which is a plugin called compare which allows you to compare files and see what differences there are between them.

Also it displays the line number alongside each line of code.

If you link an file extension to a code type it shows the code in different colours according to its function in the code. ie Fusion PP is javascript so linking cps to JS causes it highlight code words and checks variable names.

Regards,

Arie.

 

[deese]

Quote from MASSO Support on March 18, 2020, 8:49 pm

Hi Deese,

Sorry to hear about your problems. I will answer what I can and investigate the others

With regards the 1st issue of the tool change I will need to get some additional information from you so I can understand your setup and exactly how you are using it. After that I will do some testing. Can you post your settings and tools file. Can you also let us know your Masso serial number.

The issue of how Masso displays the toolpath on the screen is a tricky one. Masso uses the full extent of travel defined in the GCode to determine the machine area and then scales the toolpath to fit on the screen as large as possible. While you know that the G53 Y106 is for parking and I might guess that this is the case a machine is unable to understand this. The only Gcode instruction that Masso does not backplot is the G28.

Masso counts the actual lines in the file. This includes the comments, blank lines etc. The best way I have found to find the line you want is to open the file in windows notepad. When you highlight any line you can read at the bottom the actual line number that you are on. There may be other programs that tell you the line number as well but notepad is the one that I use.

If you can post those pieces of information I will investigate the tool change issue.
To get a copy of your MASSO_Settings.htg and MASSO_Tools.htg files for your machine.

Just go to the F1 screen then under Save & Load Calibration settings click [Save to File]

This will save your machines settings to the USB stick which you can post here along with your serial number.


Cheers Peter

Ok, I am attaching the files you requested,and a snippet of the actual code.

Serial 5A-679

Core v1.26

Software v3.44

G54 Z offset = 0.

Auto tool zero not enabled.


I'm going to describe the event again to be sure we are on the same page.

I preload tool 2 the 12mm drill,and measure it before the start of the program.

The drill cycle runs,and it comes to the tool change position,and request's T30 for the next op.

T30 has a length stop screw in the shank so it does not require measurement,it goes back in the spindle the same height every time.

If you load T30 and hit cycle start you have no problems,life is good it goes on to zone 2 to start roughing,it will complete the op without fail.

But if you suspect tool wear,or you just feel like you should check the length of T30,you load T30 when requested and you jog the Z axis down towards 0.

Now you are doing this in the middle of the tool change request mind you,the message please load T30 and hit cycle start is displayed on the screen.

Get your torch,or my flashlight and the shim stock and check your length. Ok its good the tool length is what it's supposed to be.

Now you jog the Z axis back up to the tool change position which is all the way up for me .

Hit cycle start and the spindle goes out over the work to a seemingly random position plunges into the stock and starts cutting a slot.

It was nowhere near where it was supposed to start the next op,and nowhere near where it finished the previous op.

 

[masso-support]

@deese

Thanks for the files and the excellent explanation. I now understand what you are doing and will be able to test.

Cheers Peter

 

[deese]

Very curious to see your test results, I plan to use auto tool measure very soon, and that will certainly cure this problem. Nonetheless you should be aware if it is a problem,or if my serial is a special unit.

 

[masso-support]

Hi @deese

I have done some testing and confirmed that if you jog the axis in the middle of a tool change then it creates an offset which is remembered when the tool change is completed.

For example if you jog the Z axis up 5mm in the middle of your tool change, when you press the cycle start is it will create a new offset and everything will machine 5mm higher. The same applies if you jog the X or Y axis. The difference between where it started and where it was when you press the cycle start becomes a new work offset. If I jog away but bring my axis back to exactly to where it was before I jogged then there will be no effect. Hope that makes sense.

The auto tool zero is a great feature along with the probing which makes tool setting and changes a breeze. If it helps this video will show you how to install and set it up https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSimbi7qwXg

I will investigate this issue further but wanted to let you know that I have recreated your issue at this time.

Regards Peter

PS the reason I wanted to know your serial number is I can tell if it is G2 or G3. Nothing sinister.

 

[deese]

Quote from MASSO Support on March 19, 2020, 8:10 pm

Hi @deese

I have done some testing and confirmed that if you jog the axis in the middle of a tool change then it creates an offset which is remembered when the tool change is completed.

For example if you jog the Z axis up 5mm in the middle of your tool change, when you press the cycle start is it will create a new offset and everything will machine 5mm higher. The same applies if you jog the X or Y axis. The difference between where it started and where it was when you press the cycle start becomes a new work offset. If I jog away but bring my axis back to exactly to where it was before I jogged then there will be no effect. Hope that makes sense.

The auto tool zero is a great feature along with the probing which makes tool setting and changes a breeze. If it helps this video will show you how to install and set it up https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSimbi7qwXg

I will investigate this issue further but wanted to let you know that I have recreated your issue at this time.

Regards Peter

PS the reason I wanted to know your serial number is I can tell if it is G2 or G3. Nothing sinister.

I knew you could do it, I'm still on the fence about the solid touch plate. I have two machines with that type of tool setter and they seem to work a treat, and I have never seen a failure. But both of the touch plates are riddled with gouges and bits of carbide impregnated into the plate. That tells me that at some point it's going to fail. I'm probably going to build a spring loaded plate with a NC switch under it wired to the estop so if the touch fails it will not kill the tool,or a z screw.

 

[masso-support]

Hi @deese

Just wanted to let you know I have been doing some testing with the the next software update and wanted to let you know that the pressing of the escape key in the middle of the tool change issue you found has now been fixed. It is still not advisable to do this and you are better off waiting for the tool change to complete and then press the escape key to check your tool length. After that pressing the cycle start will walk the tool back to where you interrupted it and continue from there.

2nd Single block resets my program to the beginning,you can't turn on single block in the middle of a program, so thats only good for the first few lines of code.

I forgot to answer this question. To use Single Block when it is in the middle of the Gcode program you need to set Single Block mode and them use Jump to line to go to where you want to use the single block and step through the lines of Gcode from there.

Cheers Peter