I have a rockwell PLC and a rockwell HMI that I want to set up with the x carve, to dowload a couple different designs and just at the tap of a button have the x carve carve out different designs. Has anyone done this before, or is it capable of this. All I have seen is people using the arduino?
This is just a project im working on. I have an allen bradly hmi to turn on a fanuc robot. the robot picks up a wood blank (10in x 10in). sets the blank in the x carve. i have 5 different designs on the hmi to choose from. the problem im having is having the x carve to start said project without just clicking the “carve” button on easel for example
Im trying to make this all completely automated by just pressing one button on the hmi
Grbl is a command/response device. You send a command via a serial port and wait for the response, then send the next command, etc. If you know a bit about the grbl internals you can speed up this process a bit by sending commands ahead as long as you don’t overflow the grbl internal serial buffer. Your responsibility if you send commands ahead of a response.
If you can program your PLC to send ascii to a serial port then you can set up your system to do what you want. It would require a fair knowledge of G-code and the ability to program the PLC in order to accomplish your goal.
You could implement a G-code interpreter on the PLC, but that would be a very large task. Best to just use the Arduino as the G-code interpreter and send the G-code to it via your PLC.
The Arduino is used to interpret the GRBL command set and output the signals to drive the stepper motors.
There are many other ways to drive the X-Carve but they are more expensive and complicated.
The only way I see to incorporate the PLC is to have it send a command to a computer that then sends the proper GRBL file to (insert GRBL interpreter/driver here) to the X-Carve.
One scenario, There are 5 inputs on the PLC to select the proper program. Press button one, commands the robot to place the item to be carved on the X-Carve. PLC then sends the command to a Raspberry pi that then sends GRBL file one to the arduino based interpreter/driver and then to the X-Carve.
Repeat for file two, three, four and five.
What is a PLC?
A Programmable Logic Controller, or PLC for short, is simply a special computer device used for industrial control systems. They are used in many industries such as oil refineries, manufacturing lines, conveyor systems and so on. Where ever there is a need to control devices the PLC provides a flexible way to “softwire” the components together.
The basic units have a CPU (a computer processor) that is dedicated to run one program that monitors a series of different inputs and logically manipulates the outputs for the desired control. They are meant to be very flexible in how they can be programmed while also providing the advantages of high reliability (no program crashes or mechanical failures), compact and economical over traditional control systems.
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