Changes made for Pathfinder 5226 controllers.

On first startup of the Indra Drive Cs the absolute encoder has no frame of reference to where it should say it's absolute position is which causes the drive to throw an error and not allow movement. To set the absolute position and get rid of the error the 5226 controller attempted to use the homing bit in the control word used in the Ethernet/IP communication. This turned out to be not what the drive is looking for. After some research it turned out that there is a parameter called Set Absolute Position Procedure Command. This is what the drive wants to see manipulated to set the absolute position.

The 5226 will now check the InReference bit of the status word at all times and if not set then the command will be sent to set the absolute position. The controller will then automatically clear the error and movement will be allowed at this time.

Changes made for Pathfinder 5226 controllers.

A shear is an additional option on some folding machines that can be used to cut material at certain lengths. This type of axis is usually automatically controlled. Some shears on machines are now setup to be used manually by an operator. This is done by having the shear locked into a position on top of the machine instead of on the left or right parallel to the clamp surface. When the operator wants to use the shear they can bring it down from the top and latch it onto the clamp surface. It can then be moved back and forth by the operator manually to cut the material.

To handle this the 5226 controller needs to be aware of I/O to allow the Pathfinder system to run shear operations. If the machine configuration does not have Shear Forward and Shear Reverse outputs to control the shear then the 5226 will know it's a manually shear. This will put the shear operation into a separate control. Once in a manual shear operation the controller will move all axes(besides the shear) like normal, but there will be no need to press a pedal once everything has stopped moving. Once everything has stopped the user can remove the manual shear off its home limit which tells the 5226 that the operator has started the manual shear process. The user is now allowed to use the shear as needed and once done the user will put the shear back on the home limit and a press of the pedal will complete the operation to allow the user to move on to the next operation. If the pedal is pressed before the shear has returned to its home limit or before the shear ever left its home limit the controller will halt and throw error 378 Illegal Pedal Press During Manual Shear.

If the input Manual Shear Parked Position has been added to the configuration then additional features can be used. Once defined the same basic logic is still used, but if the user puts the shear on the Parked Limit and the next step is a shear operation, the controller will allow the process to continue. This is mainly used in slitter mode or one step when there are going to be multiple shear steps. This allows the user to not have to return the shear to the home position every time, so they can keep moving the shear back and forth for every cut programmed into Pathfinder.

Changes made for Pathfinder 5226 controllers.

Pathfinder and the 522X series of motion controllers have a communication spec. that is used for setting up the machine and keeping the user in touch with what is going on in the controller through the UI. One of these commands in the spec. is a setup command for what an axis will be composed of. Things like feedback type, if there is analog control, what ports are being used, etc.

As a way of having better ability to add some new features to an axis a new field was added to this command. A byte has been added for Additional Options into the Command Axis Configuration 0x40C1. Each bit can be set for a new feature that can be handled by the controller.

Changes made for Pathfinder 5226 controllers.

A change was made to check axis conflicts before moving the clamp down with a pedal. For more information refer to:

SCN 4541 - 5226; Check Axis Conflicts When Moving Clamp Down With Pedal

It turns out there was a bug in the implementation. In the double folder run task where this change happened has the clamp being told to start it's move before checking the conflicts. This ends up setting certain things that are then checked in the conflicts which causes errors that shouldn't happen.

The fix was to make sure the clamp axis conflicts are checked before telling the clamp to start it's move.

Changes made for Pathfinder 5226 controllers.

The 5224 controller/Bending Beam Sensor is used to help calculate a spring back for a given material and angle. The user has a couple of options for when this test will happen to get the spring back for a step. They are All Parts Auto and First Part Only. All Parts Auto will get a new calculation for every bend on every part. First Part Auto will get a calculation for every bend, but then save that value and use it on every part after that depending on which bend it is. There seemed to be a bug with First Part Auto though because after the first part it would still perform a measurement on every part after the first one. Not only was it doing the measurement, the target angle seemed to be getting smaller and smaller processing through the parts.

The bug ended up being that once the first part has successfully gotten a good spring back for each bend of the part, once the new part is started the sensor was not being disabled. On top of that other variables were cleared which explains why it kept getting worse and worse. The fix was to make sure the bending beam sensor is disabled once the first part is done if Pathfinder has it set up for First Part Only.

Changes made for Pathfinder 5226 controllers.

In a closed loop system the motion of an axis is based on calculated set points of where it should be in real life. If the real life feedback is not matching up with the set point positions then the control will be adjusted with a PID system to try and match the actual position with the set points. A problem that can come from this though is if the user is attempting to move the axis on a system that has not been set up and tuned or had some work done to it. In these cases the loop could be trying to keep up with set points that just don't match up with reality and might cause the axis to move out of control which could damage the machine.

The new feature to handle these situations is Open Loop Test Mode. The operator can choose this option in the Pathfinder jog screen. If an axis has its Additional Option for Open Loop Test Mode set to true then once set in Pathfinder the axis will move with open loop control. Since open loop follows a ramp based on parameters and does not adjust based on a calculated move there is less danger of the machine going out of control during a move. Once the axis has been confirmed to be under control the user can uncheck the Open Loop Test Mode in Pathfinder and the axis will move under closed loop control again.

Changes made for Pathfinder 5226 controllers.

On double folder machines the 5226 controller has two main operations for making the machine make the part. Full Automatic is when the operator has gripped onto the material and is out of harm’s way. The activation of this mode will make the part in fast speed until done, a manipulation is needed or something has caused production to stop. Semi-Automatic mode is when the operator is moving the axes by holding a pedal and could be in harm’s way. In this mode the machine will move in safe speed and pause if the operator lets go of the pedal. There used to be a perk of Semi-Automatic in which the operator could move the clamp with the pedal until clamped and then leave the hazard area to put the bend operation into Full Automatic. This was taken out at some point when implementing the FoldGuard system to work with the light fence.

The solution was to allow the user to either press the pedal to keep the machine in Semi-Auto or press the Full Automatic button to put into Full Automatic once clamped. This allows the operator to decide which mode would be best for different situations.