An MTConnect integration provides a robust amount of data and typically does not entail additional hardware or software adapters - along with the accompanying labor - that are necessary for older, legacy equipment. In fact, MTConnect is so simple, machine integration can often be accomplished without the aid of MachineMetrics on-site technicians.
Article Topics
This article contains the following topics:
- What is MTConnect?
- MTConnect-Supported Machines
- Enabling MTConnect
- MTConnect Integration Types
- Using Other Data Standards
- Where to learn more about MTConnect
What is MTConnect?
MTConnect-supported machines
Many well-known machine tool brands now come equipped with MTConnect as a standard feature on their new equipment, including brands like Mazak, Okuma, Hurco, DMG and many others.
If you aren’t certain whether any of your machines support MTConnect, a MachineMetrics representative can inform you once they are provided with basic information regarding the make, model, and year of manufacture for your machines. If you are an existing MachineMetrics customer, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager for clarification. Otherwise, please reach out to sales@machinemetrics.com
Enabling MTConnect
Machines that support MTConnect may still require that you contact your machine vendor or distributor to ‘enable’ MTConnect. To find out if MTConnect is enabled on your machine, either check with your machine vendor, or you can check the machine yourself by following the steps below.
How to find out if your machine is producing MTConnect data
- Wire ethernet from your network to the machine and set a static IP.
- From a desktop, ping the IP address of the machine to confirm that it's connected.
- In a browser, go to port 7878 on that machine (Example: 192.168.10.11:7878).
- If no data appears, then your machine is not producing MTConnect data. You may require a control software upgrade. If no software upgrades are available for your machine model, MachineMetrics can suggest other methods for data acquisition.
If you are able to successfully enable MTConnect, the next step is to add your machine to your MachineMetrics Account.
MTConnect Integration Types
There are three different MTConnect options present when selecting a machine’s integration type in your Machine Settings.The differences between the three types are described below.
MTConnect Agent
Connects the machine to MachineMetrics by reading its MTConnect Agent XML, typically off of port 5000 from the MTConnect server on the machine.
MTConnect Adapter
Connects the machine to MachineMetrics by ingesting a SHDR stream emitted by the MTConnect Server on the machine. Does not support any MachineMetrics data transform capabilities.
MTConnect Adapter Custom
Connects the machine to MachineMetrics by ingesting a SHDR stream emitted by the MTConnect Server on the machine. This option allows for custom configuration using MachineMetrics data transform capabilities.
Using other data standards
If you are already gathering data using other standards, there is no need to switch to MTConnect. MachineMetrics supports all existing data standards. If you do want to switch, many existing standards have adapters already written for them. You can find them on the MTConnect Github.
Comments
1 comment
hi
I am new to plc world
I would like to know why:
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machine 1
have version 1.2.0.5 mtconnect
folder have agent.cfg
port 5000 return well xml
port 7878 returns well data
==============================
machine 2
version 1.2.1.19
folder have adapter.cfg but not agent.cfg
port 500 NOT return xml
port 7878 return data well
==============================
please any advice about of this. the machines are Mazak same model
sorry my English is nad
thanks in advance
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