System Variable for Pallet in thr machine

[ggborgen]

Gentlemen,
I have HP 6300 with a Fanuc 18i control and I was wondering if there is a system variable that monitors which pallet is in the machine. I know M61 for pallet 1 and M62 for pallet 2. But the operator wants to know by looking on the screen to see which pallet is in the machine. If no system variable, I think I just come up with another idea while I was asking this question.
But I'm still wondering if there is? Thank You

[stevo1]

It will depend if the MTB set one up. If not you could have a macro variable change to a specific number like 1 or 2 depending on which M-code you use. This is providing that you have the macroB option on your control.

This will also make the operator go into the variable screen to view which pallet is in the machine instead of on the main screen.

Stevo

[gwarble]

or your MTB may have set up a macro variable directly written by the APC cycle... my Mori Seiki has a Keep Relay that activates the ladder's ability to write the pallet number to macro var #147 and the tool in spindle to #148... this is done directly by the PMC/ladder, but you could simulate the same effect by putting something like the below inside your M61 and M62 pallets:

M61 macro:
#147=1

M62 macro:
#147=2

for convenience... i added an M63 macro to my Mori which just swaps the pallets, so if at 1, go to 2, and vice versa, because we usually set the two up the same and you start to not care about which pallet number entirely, and just want to manually swap them


one last idea that i use for tool numbers you could apply here if you really want it at a quick glance... and depending on your use of sequence numbers...

once you have the above or something equivalent...
N#147 will put the pallet number into the N value at the top right corner of the screen, up until the next N number is read at least

- gwarble