heidenhain help

[Goran P.]

anyone familiar with q parameter programming on tnc series that can explain the basics to me? any help very much appreciated.

[Stu_M3]

Which TNC

[Goran P.]

tnc 410

[Stu_M3]

not a lot to them really, if say you were machining an oblong profile and you needed several different lengths you could programme the length into Q1= (length)
then in your programme instead of a numerical value for your "X" move you substitute Q1
eg LX Q1 R0 F0 M. You can also do calculations within a move, LX (Q1+10.0) Y0.0 Also available are all the usual maths functions. the uses these can be put to are limited only by your own ability at maths. I have produced general purpose programmes which can generate corner rads on blocks, angle faces, block up etc. I have programmed a sphere with a 6 line programme using advanced methods. if you look on page 273 of the manual you will find a programme for a sphere but it takes 51 lines. so it is well worth learning. some basic algebra and trig. If you have any specific questions Ill be happy to help you.
Stu.

[macroman]

If you still need help with Heidenhain Q parameters, I sell Heidenhain Basic and Advanced programming courses on ebay. The Basic course has a few programs that use Q parameters. The advanced course has a lot more. There are 84 programming examples altogether, all written by Heidenhain. Just search for 'Heidenhain' or 'CNC Programming' on ebay.

[karlis_m]

What do you think of the TNC 360 controller - I might have an opportunity to buy a Tos CNC F2V. The owner was using GibbsCam.

Any thoughts appreciated

Karlis

Melbourne Australia

[Goran P.]

first of all thanks for the help stu, i will contact you if i run into difficulties.

now to answer your question karlis, im not familiar with the 360 but if somebody compares it to the 410 (which i use) i would consider it a good thing. i have lots of cycles and options which make this control very user friendly and i find myself using cad programming only for complex stuff, everything else i program at the machine,

[Navigator]

Did you buy it already? It's kind of all right,allowed rigid tapping, for simple milling job it's very good,how do you intend to programm it G codes or heidenhain conversational?,my advice would be,always use Heiden in conversational mode,much easier...

[skyline]

Well basically the q parameters are used as variables, for instance instead of a L X0 to L X5 you would simply define q values such as Q1=0 and Q2=5 and substitute the X moves to L XQ1 to L XQ2. Another thing useful use for Q variables is by programming some logic into the program.

Such as:

When doing contouring with Depths of Cut one can, instead of programming absolute Z movements you could.

Q1=.005 ;Depth
Q2=.001 ;Depth of Cut
Q3=Q1 ;Counter

LBL 1 ;Sets Label
IZ-Q2 ;Steps down in Depth of Cut Incremental
Call pgm Contour ;Contouring program
Q3-Q2 ;Subtracts Depth of Cut from Depth
If Q3 greater than Q2 go to LBL 1 ;queries
IZ-Q3 ;finishes remaing leftover material if any
Call pgm Contour
LBL 0

So with just a few lines of code one can have the program think for itself.

Hope this helps