| ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Main Pages | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Home
| Main Tutorial
| General Tutorial
| Downloads
| Installation Tutorial
|
| The Project | About The Project
| What is a Mechanical Tester?
| What is a CNC Machine?
| What is G-Code?
|
| The Project Members | About Us
| Contact Us
|
| External Links | The Cooper Union
| The Cooper Mechanical Testing Project
| Our Wiki
|
| Email us
|
| 
|
Using Our Software
This section of the tutorial will focus on guiding you through the steps associated
with orienting a CNC Machine so that it acts as a mechanical tester. We have already written a program that writes a path for your
CNC machine in G-Code, which is the programming language used by all CNC machines. The compression tests
to be mimicked by s CNC Machine using our program are to be the Creep Test, the SRL Test, and the Dynamic Test. You should be
familiar with these industry standard compression tests. If you aren't, visit this link to learn more.
You should have already established a connection between your CNC Machine and your load cell. If not, refer to the first section of this
tutorial, entitled Physical Connection .
Set Up
First, visit our Downloads page and download our program, listed as "CNC Mechanical Tester Software."
There is a seperate tutorial for installing this program, which may be found at our Installation page.
After installation, run the program. Connect your DAQ board to the computer that has our program installed. Your DAQ board
should be connected to your signal conditioner. Your load cell should be attached to your load cell, which should be attached to your CNC Machine. The
CNC Machine should be attached to a computer on which the proprietary software of the machine should be installed. This may or may not be the same
computer on which our program is installed- this is irrelevant. Our set up is below as a reference:
A View of Our Set Up
The Mechanical Test
Please make sure that all instructions for the set up were followed.
Welcome to the homepage for the CNC Mechanical tester! Before we get started, there are a few things we must do:
Attach the load cell to the mechanical arm BEFORE turning on the CNC machine. After it is secure, you may turn on your CNC machine and proprietary software. Make sure that all functions are running properly. You may then set the mechanical arm to your desired starting point (directly above, but not touching your sample.) Make sure that your Data Acquisition Board is attached to your computer, and is recognized by NIDAQ tools.
Make sure that your Data Acquisition Board is attached to your computer, and is recognized by NIDAQ tools.
Now we can begin:
Two screens should open up when you open the homepage file. DO NOT close either of them.
Start by pressing ‘Find DAQ’. A list of connections will appear on the black screen, which you may choose from. Insert the ‘DAQ ID’, ‘Daq Channel’, and ‘Desired Sample Rate’ to identify your DAQ board. The DAQ ID can be found on the black screen. The Daq Channel is the port you plugged your voltage conditioner into. The Desired Sample Rate means how quickly you want information to be recorded by the DAQ board. If you are unsure of this number, press ‘Show me the DAQ info’ to see the range you may use. The frequency is in samples per second. A normal test has a Desired Sample Rate of 1500.
Once this is done, you may press ‘Connect me to this DAQ!’ If this is not successful, go back over the DAQ ID and Daq Channel to make sure no mistakes were made.
The ‘Acceptable Error’ is how much time is allowed to be used saving the data every second. The less time allowed, the lower the Sample Rate will be. If you do not mind this, type in ‘0’ and then press ‘Calibrate your DAQ!(Required).
Creating a Test
Fill out the needed information in order to make a single or combined test. Use specific and identifiable file names for test creations. Under SRL Test, the ‘peak time’ is time desired to hold the sample after each step. (See information on SRL Tests.) Under+ Dynamic Test, the ‘Increments Per Cycle’ is the amount of linear approximations the CNC will take to make a sine wave. Our suggested value is ‘50’.
Once the information is complete, generate the test. This file will be saved into the same folder where you opened the home page up. Transfer this file, and upload it on the CNC machine’s proprietary software. DO NOT RUN A TEST YET!
Running a Test
Make sure the CNC test files are uploaded onto the CNC. When you press ‘Collect Data’ on the home page, the timer begins. You may then run the test on the CNC machine. If you are running a combined test, follow the instructions below to run a Creep test.
Once time is up, your data will be stored in the same folder that the homepage was found on. These are .csv files. If you would like to make your data into a chart, save this file as an excel file.
Below is a video tutorial demonstrating how to use our program as well a video demonstrating the final product.
A Demonstration of How to Use Our Program:
A Demonstration of the Result:
The test is now complete. Thank you for using the CNC Mechanical Testing Tutorial. If you have any questions, please refer to our main webpages or Contact Us .
Some Tips and Notes
1. While Data Collection is taking place, it is better if no other programs are running on that system. 2. If you do not possess an MDX-540 Milling Machine, the only change you must make with respect to our tutorial is the method in which you upload your generated G-Code to your CNC Machine. This is a matter of the user interface given by the proprietary software of your machine. Simply, you must zero your CNC machine and then upload and run the desired G-Code generated from our program.