Changes made for Pathfinder 5226 controllers.

On Indra Drives there is a bit that can be set in a certain parameter that will clear drive faults. Once the fault has been cleared the bit needs to also be cleared so that the next time there is a drive fault the bit can be set again. If the bit is not cleared the drive will be stuck in a limbo state where there is a drive fault that will not let the drive move the axis.

The bug fix was to make sure the controller clears the bit after the drive fault has been cleared. Once the bit is clear the controller should be able to clear the next fault that occurs on the drive.

Changes made for Pathfinder 5226 controllers.

On hydraulic machines letting the oil get overheated can cause problems like damaging seal compounds and accelerate degration of the oil. To keep the oil from overheating too quickly a machine will sometimes be equipped with some form of cooler. Then to know when to turn on the cooler a temperature sensor can be used to get feedback.

The 5226 controller logic uses a temperature sensor to automatically know when to turn the cooler on and off based on the reading. The controller uses 3 parameters to make this logic happen. A Max Hydraulic Oil Temperature, a Hydraulic Oil Cooler Temperature Threshold and a Hydraulic Oil Temperature Hysteresis. The cooler will turn on when the Threshold is reached and stay on until the temperature is lower than Threshold minus Hysteresis. During this time the machine can still be run in Full Automatic. If the temperature reaches the Max then the machine will drop out of run and only jogging will be allowed.

Changes made for Pathfinder 5226 controllers.

Some folding machines have an automatic radius adjust that controls the air gap between the nose of the clamp and the bending beam. This allows users the ability to adjust the gap depending on the thickness of the material. In most cases to achieve this adjustment the radius adjust usually moves the position of the clamp nose. On some mechanisms though this changes the physical clamp open position which can be dangerous when considering safety stop heights.

The solution to this problem was to create a new calibration table that takes into account the relationship of where the of the radius adjust is and the corresponding clamp position. Having this information the controller is able to internally adjust its actual position and help it set up the correct target positions for moves.

Changes made for Pathfinder 5226 controllers.

Some folding machines have a shear/slitter to cut the material to a certain length. Most of the time there is no dedicated pedal to start shear motion and the bending beam cycle or clamp down pedal is used to move the shear. Some machines do come with distinct shear pedals which are the shear cut and shear return pedals. The 5226 already had the inputs for these kinds of pedals, but not the correct logic to control the shear when either was pressed.

The solution was to add the logic for these pedals. When running a shear operation if the shear cut pedal is pressed the shear will start its defined move. If the pedal is released then the shear will stop. If the cut is pressed again the shear will continue with the move, but if the shear return pedal is pressed the shear will move to its home. If the operator holds down the shear cut pedal all the way to the defined target and keeps holding the pedal the shear will return home without having to press the return pedal. Once the shear reaches its home target the operation is over and will move on to the next.

Changes made for Pathfinder 5226 controllers.

The raise clamp on e-stop parameter is a safety feature that will move the clamp up on an e-stop and out of harm’s way. The parameter also has an option to disable this feature and not raise at all. At some point though the logic to handle this was removed from the 5226 and setting it to disable will not turn off this feature.

The fix to this bug was to get the logic back into the controller and actually disable the feature when the parameter is set to disable.

Changes made for Pathfinder 5226 controllers.

FoldGuard is an external laser safety system that is put onto folding machines to allow an operator to safely lower the clamping beam onto the material. It uses lasers to stop the clamp when moving down if a laser is not broken by the clamp. The 5226 controller looks at the input FoldGuard Active to tell what kind of move it will do based on whether FoldGuard is Active or not. For more information refer to:

SCN 3929 - 5226; Added Foldguard Active Input

The problem is that this logic was only added for double folding machines. The solution to this problem was to add the logic for single folders too.

Changes made for Pathfinder 5226 controllers.

The 5226 controller has the capability to talk to drives through the Ethernet I/P protocol to control an axis. Ethernet I/P uses implicit messages to receive constant information from the drive like feedback and to control messages to tell the drive to do something like move to a position. The protocol then uses explicit messages to directly change or request a parameter in the drive. One of the drives added was the Indra Drive CS. For more information refer to:

SCN 4236 5226; Add New Ethernet I/P Driver IndraDriveCs

Two of the parameters sent over to the drive through the implicit messaging are the acceleration and deceleration. The 5226 controller calculates these parameters for the drive based on Pathfinders acceleration and deceleration parameters. The problem is that the calculation was being done incorrectly and the drive was not moving the motor in the way it was expected to.

The solution to this problem was the calculate the acceleration and deceleration correctly for the Indra Drive CS.

Changes made for Pathfinder 5226 controllers.

Some folding machines have a throttle valve that restricts the flow of fluid to force the axes to move a certain slower speed. On some Jorns machines there is a valve that when turned on will bypass the throttle valve and allow faster controlled movement. To make sure the machine is not always moving in slow because the controller is not bypassing the throttle valve the Throttle Bypass output was created. For more information refer to:

SCN 4172 - 5226; Added Throttle Bypass Output and Logic

Previous logic for this output was to always turn it off when the clamp slow speed limit is on and the clamp is moving in slow. Now FoldGuard Active also has to not be on to clear this output.

Changes made for Pathfinder 5226 controllers.

The 5226 controller has the capability to talk to drives through the Ethernet I/P protocol to control an axis. Ethernet I/P uses implicit messages to receive constant information from the drive like feedback and to control messages to tell the drive to do something like move to a position. The protocol then uses explicit messages to directly change or request a parameter in the drive. One of the drives added was the Indra Drive CS. For more information refer to:

SCN 4236 5226; Add New Ethernet I/P Driver IndraDriveCs

When the user disables limits to move the backgauge the controller takes a large default position to tell the drive to move to. This is essentially a target that the backgauge cannot reach without hitting a physical limit. The problem is that the target is even bigger than the allowed travel range in the drive so an error is always thrown when trying move the backgauge with limits off.

The solution was to make sure the default target in the controller is within the max travel range of the drive. This ended up being 250 inches.