O/K, I'm STILL having issues with losing the tool file on my Matrix equipped Integrex 200-IVS. What interests me is if any other Integrex operators have the same problem, or if it's truly an isolated incident as Mazak claims it is. I suspect it isn't, since I talked with a couple operators at IMTS that have the same issues.
My Matrix control has issues with losing the tool file from day 1. It's been documented many times, and Mazak has updated the software 2 or 3 times. It's getting better, but it still happens. Of course the hard part is that it's really somewhat of an intermittant problem, which is of course what makes it hard to diagnose and of course repair properly.
I'm getting more than a wee bit tired of having to back up my tool file and parameters on a daily basis, but that's the only real solution. I have a handle on why the tool file (and occasionaly the setups) dissapear. What I really need is someone who understands the correlation between the tool tables, parameters, chuck jaw data, and the tool models. I pretty much know now why and under what circumstances my tool file gets lost. I'm just not sure whether the root cause lies in hardware or software. If anyone has a solution I'd love to know it.
Here's what happens. When you power off the machine, windows closes down all the oeprating programs, which in this case is the HMI interface Mazatrol At740main application. If this application shuts down normally, there's no problem. If this application hangs and you get the windows message that says this program is not responding, I may, or may not be screwed. Originally when I saw this message I had a 50/50 chance of losing my tool file. Now it's thankfully down to once every couple weeks rather than a daily occurance. The software updates basically allow more time for the program to attempt to shut down normally. It's when the control doesn't power down normally AND I have made a change to the tool file that the problems occur.
I think what happens is the tool file and data are stored in SRAM. Some of the data is backed up to FLROM but not all of it. All of the data is rewrtitten from temporary memory to a freshly compiled file on the hard drive when the machine powers down. If the program doesn't have time to shut down, or hangs during shutdown, the file doesn't get written properly. Next time you go to power up the control, the machine attmepts to reload the data and compares it to the previous values. If they are different, it will boot, but you will lose all your tool data.
If I haven't made any changes to the tool file I never seem to have issues, so it's the change of data that triggers the problem. Yes, I'd rather have the control zero out the tool data, which means it doesn't have any tools defined, so it can't crash from say an incorrect tool offset. Oddly this machine has recently started to put tools back in the wrong pockets as well for no apparent reason. It's happened 3 times now and it always has inadvertantly swapped the tools from the tool arm to the wrong pocket. ie. The tool arm grabs tool 25 from the magazine and exchanges it for tool 20 which is in the spindle. When the machine goes back to cutting, it puts tool 20 in pocket 25 and goes and gets the next tool. After the next tool change the machine alarms out when it tries to put tool 25 back in pocket 25, and it's already got a tool there since it incorrectly put tool 20 there previously. At least the machine doesn't load the wrong tool, but I clearly have no clue as to why the control is doing this in the first place.
The lost tool file issue gets really frustrating when your busy and fail to backup everything before you power down. Man does it really get annoying when you have a couple hundred tools defined, and you added maybe a dozen since your last backup. Interestingly, as I start to zero in on the issue, I notice that I always lose the tool file, I occasionally lose the set ups and chuck jaw data, but I never lose the tool model definitions. Clearly they are not stored in the same place, and it may be that the model definitions never make it out of the virtual side of the control in the first place.
I'd sure like to know if others are having the same issues. It would be a whole lot easier to get it fixed properly perhaps...
Thanks,
Stu |