Changes made for Pathfinder 5226 controllers.

At the start of opening Pathfinder it sends down to the controller information to define its characteristics like feedback type, hardware port locations and control type. Control type is essentially telling the control how this axis will be controlled and what types of things will be needed. As in open loop vs closed loop, analog vs discrete IO, servo vs inverter and etc. The Closed Loop Inverter Motor type was previously just a pseudo closed loop algorithm that knew to turn on certain outputs on old controllers. With the 5226 it seemed time to make it full closed loop.

The Closed Loop Inverter Motor control type now uses the same algorithm used by the other closed loop types in the 5226. The loop was modified so that inverter outputs are turned on and off at the correct times.

Changes made for Pathfinder 5226 controllers.

Some SSI encoders have a dedicated error bit that can be used to detect a failure with the controller. The 5226 monitors this bit and will halt the machine. An error will also be thrown that should say which axis encoder is failing. On double folder machines there are 2 5226 controllers being used. One is the master and the other acts as a slave. The slave controller reports back to the master statuses of things on its board like I/O and encoder information. One of these things was supposed to be the error bit of the SSI encoder. This was not being reported back correctly and was also not being accepted by the master correctly.

The fix was to correct both sets of board code to make sure the error bit is handled correctly for each encoder on the slave controller.

Changes made for Pathfinder 5226 controllers.

Most machine axes are controlled by separate direction outputs directly associated with that axis that go to inputs at the machine. As in an axis like the bending beam will have a reverse output and a forward output to dictate the direction the axis will move. Some machines though are setup to have some axes share, but they are setup as binary logic. This means the same inputs will be used, but based on which are on and off will manipulate direction and axis.

To handle this generic parameters were created to specify these drive settings. The user will setup these parameters to let the controller know how to turn on/off the bits which will control the axis, direction and idle status. New Drive Bit Setting outputs were created that will be set to give the correct bit pattern to the drive.

Changes made for Pathfinder 5226 controllers.

Most fingers on a machine are controlled by separate direction outputs directly associated with that finger that go to inputs at the machine. As in a finger will have a retract output and an extend output to dictate the direction the finger will move. Usually the machine will have only one finger so their only two backstops the operator can use. Some machines though will have multiple zones of fingers that give the operator different backstops to use based on where the material needs to be. To handle this the fingers are controlled through binary logic which based on what input bits are set will dictate which finger will be popped up to use.

To handle this new Finger Setting Bit logic and outputs were added to the 5226 controller. This will handle how the bit pattern is setup and handled on the machine.

Changes made for Pathfinder 5226 controllers.

One of the biggest safety hazards when operating a folding machine is moving the clamp down. Having the clamp come down onto a body part will cause injury and one of the more likely times this will happen is when using the jog screen. One of the ways to make jogging the clamp down safer was to make the operator also hit the clamp down pedal to initiate the move. If the operator hits the jog clamp down button the controller will throw an error and not let the clamp move if the clamp down pedal is not pressed.

As of right now this is only thrown if the machine is electrically wired to not allow the clamp to move down without a pedal press. This will most likely be implemented for every situation when using the jog clamp down button in the future.

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. Factors like friction, gravity or physical limitations can all cause the closed loop system to adjust the analog accordingly. One problem that can arise from this is if the feedback fails in some way that will make the loop try to adjust to this new bogus error in the set point. One assumption for when an encoder fails is that the reported counts will probably be way different then what they were on the previous iteration.

The implementation then to catch a failing encoder is to halt when there is a change in 100 counts per millisecond. This should catch whatever failure has occurred outside of the loop.

Changes made for Pathfinder 5226 controllers.

All axes that have some kind of feedback will have error checking for if the target is further out from the maximum position parameter or if it is less than the minimum position parameter. So once the axis is setup with its feedback matching up to the physical world the axis should be safe and not crash into anything. One problem though is if there is a failure to the feedback device. In this case the axis might act in a non-normal way.

The fix for this was to have each axis have a set in stone travel range that gives some leeway for the axis saying its outside the minimum and maximum positions, but will error out if beyond this range. This check happens before an axis is about to make a move.

Changes made for Pathfinder 5226 controllers.

A hemmer is an add-on to a machine that is similar to a shear in the way that it moves across the machine except instead of cutting the material it creates a hem. The 5226 does not have a dedicated hemmer operation though so the idea was to use the shear operation to move the hemmer across the machine. For more information on old logic refer to:

SCN 4310 - 5226; Added Hemmer Active Generic Parameter and Logic

The old logic need to be updated to give the operator a way to switch back and forth from a hemmer to a shear. Also to be able to perform two hems back to back. The new parameter is 469 Hemmer Active. When set to YES the shear step operation will work for the hemmer. When set to NO it will work for the shear.

Hemmer Active:

1. When the shear step is enabled the clamp will open to its open height and the backgauge will move to the (blank size – shear offset distance).
2. Clamp down pedal will move the clamp down until clamped like usual. Pressing pedal again starts the hemmer moving.
3. Hemmer will move until (shear forward maximum time * shear timer in step). Pressing pedal will make clamp open to clamp open height once reached. Operator can remove material here if they want.
4. Pressing the pedal again will move the hemmer back until the home switch is reached.
5. Clamp will open to open height and backgauge will move to (blank size – (shear offset distance * 2). Operator can then put the material back in for second hem.
6. Pressing the pedal will then start the process of steps 2 – 4 again.
7. Bend steps can then be performed.

Shear Active:

1. When the shear step is enabled the clamp will open to its open height and the backgauge will move to the (blank size – shear offset distance).
2. Clamp down pedal will move the clamp down until clamped like usual. Pressing pedal again starts the shear moving.
3. Shear will move until (shear forward maximum time * shear timer in step).
4. Pressing the pedal will return the shear until home switch is reached. Clamp will open to open height.
5. Bend steps can then be performed.

Changes made for Pathfinder 5226 controllers.

A setup parameter was added to specify a Backgauge Overshoot Distance which was implemented in the older controller models and has now been implemented into the 5226. This distance is used during the automatic mode whenever the backgauge must move toward the rear of the machine to achieve its next target. The backgauge will overshoot its target by this amount, then approach the target while moving toward the front of the machine. This functionality removes all back-lash from the backgauge mechanism by always approaching a target from a consistent direction.

Changes made for Pathfinder 5226 controllers.

The Jorns Twinmatic double folding machine type has 2 types of grippers used to hold onto the material during production. One is a standard sheet gripper that is used for most of the production. The other looks like a "hippo head" or a "cusped hand" which is mainly used to grip over a flange. Usually this gripper is tucked behind the sheet gripper in terms of what the material will be backstopped against. When needed this alternate gripper has separate outputs to extend the gripper past the sheet gripper. Once extended the alternate gripper can be opened and closed for production. The main safety concern is that it shouldn't extend out when the backgauge is a certain distance from the clamp which could cause a collision.

The solution was to implement a Backgauge Minimum Position with Alternate Gripper Extended. This parameter will throw an error if the backgauge is already within this zone and the user is trying to extend the alternate gripper. In automatic the gripper will be retracted before moving the backgauge into and out of this zone.

Changes made for Pathfinder 5226 controllers.

On some double folding machines there are the standard sheet grippers used for most of the parts and an alternate gripper that is mainly used for parts that have a flange already bent into the material. The way this gripper is designed is that it will extend past the sheet gripper, open up and grip over the flange. It can also just extend and be used as the gauging surface for the flange. To use the gripper in this way the user needs to choose the backgauge mode to be Alternate Nose in the part step. Once chosen the controller will position everything needed to use this gripper for nose gauging. This type of gauging can only be used in Semi-Automatic mode with a pedal.

Modified existing projects, mainly Common and BlackBox to support configurations meant to build the 5226 Black Box software for the K60 and K66 processors.

DebugK66 and ReleaseK66 configurations were added to reference different Linked Resource folders, libraries, Paths and file names to allow the same source code to be built for the different processors. Some conditional assembly had to be added to some of the source code to account for differences in MQX for the different processors.

Changes made for Pathfinder 5226 controllers.

Double folder machines have a lot of different axes that can potentially move at the same time. Some of these axes though can move to an area that could cause damage to the machine if another axis moves at all. To remedy this we have soft limits and conflict parameters that the controller uses to keep an axis in a safe area to allow another axis to move. In addition to those soft safeguards there are also home limits for each axis on the machine which are used as a backup in case the machine is not setup correctly. The problem was that in jog mode these parameters and limits are not going to stop the axis from moving if limits are disabled.

It was decided that the home limits will still be in use even if the limits are disabled since they are a physical safe guard and should still be considered a viable safe guard. So home limits are double folders are now considered hard limits and the axis conflict checks for them will still be active at all times.

Changes made for Pathfinder 5226 controllers.

This is no longer the change. We are removing the CPLD file.

Changes made for Pathfinder 5226 controllers.

The firmware build for a 5226 is a .s19 file. For protection it was decided to encrypt this file for the B, E and F rev boards. This works by having a separate program encrypt the file and as it is being programmed the 5226 will decrypt it line by line. With the rev G K66 processor this didn't work from what seemed to be the bigger memory size. So the K66 build was not going to encrypted and the controller would not decrypt. After failures with Pathfinder trying to program the controller, encryption was looked at again.

The rev G board now accepts an encrypted build and will decrypt the file during programming.