Don't let the Hal layer intimidate you. It was meant to be thought of as "software building blocks".
There was an attempt at making an graphical editor for the Hal layer at one point so you could drag and drop function blocks and "wire" them up on screen. If you think of it as "wiring up" various function blocks it makes a lot more sense - at least for me. :-) The idea is similar to CFC programming which is one of the IEC 1131 languages. For basic movement code G1s and fine but for interlocking, it is hard to beat Relay Ladder Logic. You can make a move, wait for a prox switch to turn on saying a part is in position, make another move, wait for another condition etc etc. The Allen Bradley Contrologix series of PLCs and to some extent Siemens S7 PLC can do motion commands in line in the RLL but the hardware/software solution is far from cheap. For a multispindle lathe I would use two different PCs and link them together. Dave On 4/1/2011 10:00 AM, Ralph Stirling wrote: > >> An "interpreter" that takes in this file format or similar would be a much >> better match for this kind of machine. The HAL layer would need to have >> all the stepgens and hardware drivers loaded as a single realtime system, >> but the stepgens would be fed by a custom interpreter and simplified state >> machine (for the pickup/place macros). There is no need for a coordinated >> motion controller, since all movements are like G0 - it's irrelevant what >> path is taken to get to the endpoint, what matters is that you get there >> (without hitting anything). >> >> RS274NGC is overkill and inefficient for this kind of machine. >> >> > I will certainly start studying HAL closer to see what I can do. However, > there > are two reasons I would like to retain G-code for programming the motions of > each station in the assembly machine. One is so the engineer setting up the > machine only needs to know plain G-code programming, rather than somewhat > esoteric HAL configuration, and the other is so that somewhat more complex > operations like dispensing adhesive or screwing parts together can be easily > accommodated with the same programming as simple motions. Just add G02's > and G03's to the G01's and G00's already in use. Some special M codes would > provide synchronization between stations. > > What I am wanting is actually the same thing that would be needed for a > multispindle, multiturret lathe. As I understand it, those typically have one > G-code program per turret, with M codes to synchronize. > > Thanks again for all the ideas. > -- Ralph > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Create and publish websites with WebMatrix > Use the most popular FREE web apps or write code yourself; > WebMatrix provides all the features you need to develop and > publish your website. http://p.sf.net/sfu/ms-webmatrix-sf > _______________________________________________ > Emc-users mailing list > Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Create and publish websites with WebMatrix Use the most popular FREE web apps or write code yourself; WebMatrix provides all the features you need to develop and publish your website. http://p.sf.net/sfu/ms-webmatrix-sf _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
