Haas G54 - G60 Work Coordinate Offsets

[truline]

Again with this TM-1, I've got the other issues going just fine. Now I'm trying to write and run a simple part program that requires machining on all four sides of the material.

The part is rectanglular mild steel tube and I have set the G54 and G55 work coordinates according to the manual.

I programmed the machine using the Intuitive Program System (IPS) and everything went fine. I then tried to run the program in the playback and the damn thing crashed the drill tool and ruined the part.

Is there something I am missing, or does Haas have trouble switching between work coordinates?

Really getting frustrated with Haas,

-Jim

[Geof]

Haas has no trouble switching work coordinates. My experience is that if the machine crashes 99%, or more, of the time it is because you told it to do that. You didn't mean to of course but somewhere in the program there is an error.

Post a picture of your part and the program.

[GaryCorlew]

it sounds like you did not offset your tools to the top of the work

[truline]

Thanks for the input, I walkewd away from it yesterday and came back and reset my tool offsets and then began from scratch again and then I noticed that I was trying to do to many things, I.E. computer windows open at the same time.
This machine has only the 1mb of active memory so it was not able to do what I wanted to do because of that. I have to take myself back to windows3.1 days and remember to do only one thing at a time.

The TM-1 is a good machine, however Haas can improve on it by doing some simple things all of which are options for this machine which should be standard :
1.) 16mb of RAM
2.) coolant pump 110v outlet
3.) either USB or floppy drive

Its either good business sense or greed that Haas has chosen to keep these as options for this machine. IMHO, they could do far better in making these options standard.

[gar]

070903-1502 EST USA

truline:

Unless you are doing surfacing (contouring) it is very hard for me to understand why 1 meg is not enough memory. This is not the place where you should store your programs. Programs used often yes, otherwise no.

HAAS is trying to provide a very capable machine at a minimum cost. Thus, the items you referred to are options. Can you come anywhere close to the price of HAAS and build your own machine? No.

Probably the majority of users have no need for more than 1 meg of memory. Do not assume that the memory used in your HAAS machine is as low in cost as is PC memory.

RS232 is a very effective method of transferring data to and from HAAS.

There have been some recent reliability problems reported relative to HAAS, but all of our HAAS machines have performed with reliability probably better than many of our PCs.

I would suggest that as a new user you should dry run (no stock in the machine, rapid set at maybe 25%, and your finger on the stop button) your programs to prove there are no errors. Even an experienced user should use some means of program verification.

.

[Geof]

Originally Posted by gar .....There have been some recent reliability problems reported relative to HAAS, but all of our HAAS machines have performed with reliability probably better than many of our PCs. I would suggest that as a new user you should dry run (no stock in the machine, rapid set at maybe 25%, and your finger on the stop button) your programs to prove there are no errors. Even an experienced user should use some means of program verification. .

I think Haas has largely got over the reliability problems from a couple of years ago. I have had three new machines in the last eighteen months and all have performed fine to date.

Regarding verification the Haas Graphics simulation if you take the time to learn its limitations is very good. You can single block through and have the window for the machine coordinate display open and then use handle jog to move the machine to the actual location for checking close approaches.

DRY RUN at reduced feed rate with the DISTANCE TO GO showing in CURRENT COMMANDS is an excellent way to run through a program. Especially if you put a G52 Z2.0 at the top of the program to lift everything clear of the work. It is very easy then to use FEED HOLD to stop the machine and actually measure the position of the tool relative to the work.

And in my, not at all humble, opinion I think you should junk their Quick Code or Intuitive Programming and learn how to tell the machine to do what you want it to do in G code. When you start using CAM you need to know G code in order to judge whether your CAM output is any good and if you read the threads and posts about CAM the great majority of users edit output for greater efficiency

[SeymourDumore]

Hmm.
'bout the options.
I don't have any 3D programs, so as such absolutely no need for 16M of RAM.
Have made 120 parts/program before, but still only a few K of program.
Floppy I have found to be about as trustworthy as any respectable politician.
USB needs plug-in, load, yank, plug in, unload.
In the meanwhile RS232 is Select-Send-dance.

To secong Geof's earlier comment, in my experience the HAAS control is as reliable and predictable as a daily sunrise or sunset. If it does it once, it'll do it all the time. IOW if you've crashed the machine, it most likely did that because you told it to do that.
Check your program, check your offsets. If there is nothing wrong, then check it again because there is.

[DEAN]

truline,
There may have been improvements to the IPS system since 2004.
On my TL-1 using IPS the actual program coordinates are programmed(generated)from machine zero, no workshift, no tool offset. Just every thing programmed using large coordinate values all the way from machine zero.
Now, if this is your case as well and you go and enter some values in the work offsets, G54, etc.. You are shifting your IPS generated program by this value, potentially leading to a crash.
To verify this can you post a snipet of code from a IPS generated program, just like the first 10 lines. On my machine the IPS generated program gets posted to MDI, it can be viewed and edited there.

[timan]

Originally Posted by truline Again with this TM-1, I've got the other issues going just fine. Now I'm trying to write and run a simple part program that requires machining on all four sides of the material. The part is rectanglular mild steel tube and I have set the G54 and G55 work coordinates according to the manual. I programmed the machine using the Intuitive Program System (IPS) and everything went fine. I then tried to run the program in the playback and the damn thing crashed the drill tool and ruined the part. Is there something I am missing, or does Haas have trouble switching between work coordinates? Really getting frustrated with Haas, -Jim

Sounds like operator error to me. Why don't you go to your local Haas Dealer for some training, my local dealer has a 2 day mill and a 2 day lathe class once a month.