Issue
I have a feeder that I can stop with a signal: feed on, it feeds, feed off, it does not feed.
Can I connect it to the GT controller to do batching?
Solution
You have to have the serial feeder (it started out with a serial RS232 feeder but now works with regular feeders) license in the license file. With that, you can click on the regular machine and go to the feeder setup.
Select 4 signal feeder as type, the 4 signals are feed out, count in, double feed in, and stack level in.
Feed Out is an output. If you go to peripheral test and activate the output, the feeder has to feed, if inactived, the feeder has to stop feeding right away. Pretty easy, ain’t it?
The Count in photocell is a regular photocell that counts the number of products that the feeder feeds and must be mounted close to the feeder. The controller will inactivate the feed out signal in the moment the rising (or falling) edge of the product is detected by the photocell, of course it does not like double trips for products and it will tell you so “PD1 [999] and Feeder Count [999] Different. Check photocells !”, so use and mount a proper photocell. For example, if the feeder is supposed to feed 5 products, the signals will look like if the count in is on positive:
#P Count-PD1 is the maximum possible number of products between the count in photocell and the Product Detect 1 photocell. This will also determine the number of products in the FIFO or the number of products sent to the inkjet FIFO before a reorder comes.
Double feed and stack level in are just photocells you can add to make sure to avoid doubles and run out of products. Any occurrence of either signal will make the controller take away the feed out signal and make the feeder stop.
Set the delay between batches in milliseconds. Below the delay between batches in 2 seconds, the delay between reorders is 5 seconds. The last parameter is a trace if set to 1.
