tip angles

[orion]

on my program i have

LOADPROBE/TOOL 6
TIP/T1A60B180, SHANK IJK 0,-0.866,0.5 ANGLE=180

or WHEN I CHOOSE ANOTHER

TIP/T1AOBO, SHANK IJK 0,0,1, ANGLE=0

IF I WAS TO ROTATE THE TOP PROBE TO A60B-180 WILL THE ANGLE=-180

IM A LITTLE CONFUSED ABOUT THIS ANGLE= ????? WHAT DOES IT MEAN, WHAT DOES IT REPRESENT

[dph51]

They are essentially the same angle.

one rotates clockwise and the other counterclockwise to reach the angle.

[DaSalo]

The name of the angle: A60B180 , is just a name. You can actually change it to anything you want. The numbers don't actually control anything. The "shank vector" and "angle =" fields are what actually control how the machine will rotate. If you only have one possible combination to get to a given vector you don't need the extra "angle" field. In your case you have two possible configurations that result in the same final shank vector. The machine needs to know which one you want so the angle field defines this.

[orion]

They are essentially the same angle.

one rotates clockwise and the other counterclockwise to reach the angle.

I'm quite new to all of this jargon

So please explain why my probe A60 B180 has an angle = 180
But A90 B180 has an angle = -180

[DaSalo]

To be honest, I've been doing this for quite a while and have never had a reason to think about this at all. Is the probe not moving to where you expect it? My assumption is that the programmers just developed some convention that made everything work correctly and you are seeing the results. I'm sure there is a logic to it but it isn't something that I have ever had a need to understand on a deep level.

Taking a wild guess at it based on no research or experimentation of any kind:

Perhaps the angle field is not absolute but rather relative to the current angle. It is, as DPH51 has stated, simply telling the machine which way to turn from its current position. So if you are at B10 and you call an angle at B25 you will get an angle value of 180 because is needs to turn in a positive direction to reach 25 from 10. If you instead call an angle of B5 you would get an angle value of -180 because it needs to travel in the negative direction to reach 5 from 10.

Now, if you are already at B180 and you call another angle that also requires B180 you would assume that if the angle value is indeed relative you would get a value of 0. You state that this is not the case (I haven't verified this.) If the angle was absolute you would expect that you get a value of 180. Since that is also not your observation there must be something a bit more tricky happening here. Perhaps it just doesn't matter what the angle is because the head knows it is already at the correct position and isn't going to move no matter what the value. If this is the case it might just pick something at random. Perhaps it just picks the opposite of the last used value? Curious to know the answer if you have the time to test such things.