TimothyMoulder
Member
Hi all!
We have a vendor-built holesaw welder system that we purchased 7 years ago, using PC-based controls, a vision system (camera, not Unitronics) and 4 axes of servo per weld head (2 heads). The system is manual load and triggered by pushbuttons.
We have had problems with the PC since purchasing this albatross. The entire line was reconstructed once, with the original vendor doing the rebuild, and the PC was rebuilt with an updated OS a couple of years ago. Camera errors were the order of the day - sometimes it would take 3-4 attempts to actually locate the seam and begin welding.
Lately, if the PC were shut down due to power outage, or rebooted, it would "hang" as it started up again. It was such a low-level freeze that the diagnostic software on the PC never even logged the fault. We tried replacing motherboards, memory, and power supplies. Sometimes it came back after a few reboots. Sometimes after a few days.
Well, we just changed engineers on this line, so this time, when the PC died, I'd had enough. We replaced the PC with a Trio 206x motion controller, configured for 4 axes of motion, and a Unitronics Vision 280 serving as the front-end HMI for the operators.
Three weeks of intense effort to get one side running again, but the advantages are huge:
1. No more camera rejects
2. Instant-on, not boot time
3. Unitronics retentive memory means that if the lights blink, you don't have to repeat your setup from scratch - just home and weld.
4. Instead of keying in motion targets (we suffered alot of crashes from transposed digits and incorrect +/- signs), you jog to the position you want and record it with a touch of a button.
5. Simplified jogging scheme.
It's no secret I'm a huge fan of Unitronics products, and I think Trio motion controls are a great complement to them (at least, until Unitronics makes one of their own
) but the moral of this story is: don't send a computer to do an industrial controller's job. Use a Unitronics to run your machine, leave your computer to run "Halo".
TM
We have a vendor-built holesaw welder system that we purchased 7 years ago, using PC-based controls, a vision system (camera, not Unitronics) and 4 axes of servo per weld head (2 heads). The system is manual load and triggered by pushbuttons.
We have had problems with the PC since purchasing this albatross. The entire line was reconstructed once, with the original vendor doing the rebuild, and the PC was rebuilt with an updated OS a couple of years ago. Camera errors were the order of the day - sometimes it would take 3-4 attempts to actually locate the seam and begin welding.
Lately, if the PC were shut down due to power outage, or rebooted, it would "hang" as it started up again. It was such a low-level freeze that the diagnostic software on the PC never even logged the fault. We tried replacing motherboards, memory, and power supplies. Sometimes it came back after a few reboots. Sometimes after a few days.
Well, we just changed engineers on this line, so this time, when the PC died, I'd had enough. We replaced the PC with a Trio 206x motion controller, configured for 4 axes of motion, and a Unitronics Vision 280 serving as the front-end HMI for the operators.
Three weeks of intense effort to get one side running again, but the advantages are huge:
1. No more camera rejects
2. Instant-on, not boot time
3. Unitronics retentive memory means that if the lights blink, you don't have to repeat your setup from scratch - just home and weld.
4. Instead of keying in motion targets (we suffered alot of crashes from transposed digits and incorrect +/- signs), you jog to the position you want and record it with a touch of a button.
5. Simplified jogging scheme.
It's no secret I'm a huge fan of Unitronics products, and I think Trio motion controls are a great complement to them (at least, until Unitronics makes one of their own
TM
