I am looking for a way to program my linear axis to do a relative move when my rotary axis crosses a set actual position, is this one of the gear commands?
Thanks,
Do you want the linear relative move to take place over a certain range of positions on the rotary axis? If so, then gearing is what you want. Which gearing commad depends on exactly what you want to do.
If the linear move needs to be done at a certain speed, or in a certain time, regardless of the speed of the rotary axis, then use a normal relative move.
As I understand it, the gear move makes sense but I wonder how to handle the end limits when I gear a short stroke cylinder to rotary motor. Imagine a record player, needle in groove setup, many many turns, short linear travel.
Also I’m trying to do this with a single command from the PLC, if possible.
Doing this on the RMC requires two commands. The first to start the gearing, and the second to stop the gearing at some position. You can make a user progoram for this. Use the Gear (Clutch by Position) command.
We have done this before, but I don’t have a simpe example for it. I will try to make an example user program for this. It may be tricky dealign with a lage number of rotations, but I think I can do it. Do you have some specific numbers, such as gear ratio, positions, etc.? How quickly should the slave get up to it’s gear ratio? Will the master be moving when the gearing starts?
How do you want to specify the geared move? A gear ratio and a final slave position? Or a Master Distance and a Slave Distance? How about the clutching? Do you want to specify this as a rate at which to ramp the gear ratio?
I read a little about user functions, is possible to set the rotary axis in motion, set a soft switch for X degree, when true, command linear axis to do a relative move?
But I’m not sure how to get the PLC to issue a command for this other then as a user program.
There is no individual command that will do this, you will need to make a user function. Do you have any answers to my previous post? Are the exact positions important?
The exact rotary position is not important, just the short linear position. Gearing, If I use the linear as master, I will need some kind of limit on my rotary velocity, but is very handy because I have absolute control on the most important linear axis.
If rotary is master, I will not over speed, but linear position will a product of the number of turns of rotary axis, a little harder to work with.
In another application, There is a third virtual axis, running a curve, that needs to control the velocity of the rotary axis during this time but not the linear axis, to give me migraines.