Southwestern Industries, Inc.
TRAK
EMX Knee Mill, Bed Mill & ProtoTRAK
EMX CNC Retrofit Safety, Programming, Operating & Care Manual
70
14.2 Basic Operation
Now that we have that paper-and-pencil stuff finished, lets go to the machine.
Turn the ProtoTRAK EMX On
On the back of the control is an on/off toggle switch. Flip it up to turn the ProtoTRAK on.
Each time you turn the ProtoTRAK on, it mu
st “boot up” or read its operating software off the
internal memory. This takes about one minute, so we recommend turning on in the morning and
off once at the end of the day.
If you don’t use the ProtoTRAK for 20 minutes, its screen will go blank. This
is the screen saver.
Press any key or turn the X or Y handwheels and it will come on im
mediately.
Screen Organization
When the system has booted and a green box appears that says “select a mode”.
Press DRO. This will get you into the Digital Readout Mode
–
the part of the control where you
can work manually.
Before we get into that, there are a couple of things to notice about the screen.
The
STATUS
line is on the top. It tells you what mode of operation you are in, whether you’re
in inch or metric, if the servo motors are on, etc.
The
INFORMATION
area is below and is the largest part of the screen. It shows information or
data depending on what you’re doing. In DRO operation it shows the axis readout; in
Programming it shows the program; when you press LOOK in programming it shows a picture of
your part, etc.
The
CONVERSATION
line is below the information area. This is where you input all the data
and this is where the ProtoTRAK will prompt you for the information or activity
that it wants.
Keyboard Organization
The keyboard is made up of three sections: the soft keys, the data input keys, and the motion
control keys.
The
SOFT KEYS
are the 5 unlabeled keys directly to the right of the screen. Their function is
defined by the words the key is pointing to. If there is nothing written, then the key will not
work.
The
DATA INPUT
keys are the number keys and the other keys close to them. The operation of
these keys is pretty obvious or will be explained in the next section. One thing to note at this
point is the difference between the INC SET and the ABS SET keys directly above the number
keys. If you are inputting an
X or Y dimension
it is important to set or load this into the system with the correct key. If it is
an absolute-referenced number, press ABS SET; if it is an incremental number, press INC SET. If
you are inputting any value other than an X or Y, you may press either ABS SET or INC SET. In
this case the manual will simply say S
ET.
The
MOTION
CONTROL
keys are the GO and STOP on the upper part of the keyboard. In
certain operations the
and
keys will change the feed rate of automatic motion.
