TinkerTech 2: CNC Notify Part 1
I'm slowly becoming a machinist for an incredibly tiny part production company (Inspire Products, Inc.). Not a manual machinist, mind you. A better title might be a machine programmer, though my official title is manufacturing engineer.
Whatever you call it, my position sometimes requires me to run CNC machines overnight or over the weekend, especially when cutting molds. These machines can sometime fail and require maintenance. We have a camera set up so we can check the status of the machine lights, but that doesn't always tell us a lot (especially in the dark when color is indistinguishable) and I don't intend to nervously watch the shop camera on my time off. However, if I were notified of a status change, then it would be a lot easier to enjoy one's time off and simply go in to solve the problem as needed.
In this post (and following posts) I intend to catalogue my approach and research toward creating a notification system that can email or text me when a machine's status changes during long machining runs.
Some obstacles I will need to address:
As I answer some of the questions, I will add links to useful articles or some of my future posts. Or as I accumulate more questions to solve, I will add them above.
If you are interested in this progress, have questions of your own, or have information to contribute, do not hesitate to leave a comment.
Whatever you call it, my position sometimes requires me to run CNC machines overnight or over the weekend, especially when cutting molds. These machines can sometime fail and require maintenance. We have a camera set up so we can check the status of the machine lights, but that doesn't always tell us a lot (especially in the dark when color is indistinguishable) and I don't intend to nervously watch the shop camera on my time off. However, if I were notified of a status change, then it would be a lot easier to enjoy one's time off and simply go in to solve the problem as needed.
In this post (and following posts) I intend to catalogue my approach and research toward creating a notification system that can email or text me when a machine's status changes during long machining runs.
Some obstacles I will need to address:
- Which machines have the Fanuc FOCAS software installed to allow monitoring?
- I'll be using python:
- How can I run a python script on a windows server on schedule (like linux cron)?
- LINK: forum hit 1
- LINK: forum hit 2
- LINK: schtasks command
- How can I email myself from the script that runs?
- LINK: smtplib info/tutorial
- How can I access the CNC status through the work network connection?
As I answer some of the questions, I will add links to useful articles or some of my future posts. Or as I accumulate more questions to solve, I will add them above.
Any python code that I write will be tracked in this repository, in case you care to follow the code as it progresses.
If you are interested in this progress, have questions of your own, or have information to contribute, do not hesitate to leave a comment.
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