Install Fabman Exhaust Connector

Description

With the help of the Fabman Exhaust Connector you can process signals from the exhaust system of your laser cutter directly in Fabman. This enables you to determine the machine's status (busy or idle) and to react on failure alarms of the filter unit. Fabman can automatically shut down the laser cutter and prevent it from being switched on in case of a filter malfunction. If you use the safety feature "Prevent unattended operation" you can furthermore set seperate safety interavals for busy and idle status (see section "Configuration" below).

System Requirements

The exhaust system must be equipped with an SUB-D9 interface for external control and the laser cutter must support it. The pin assignment of the interface of the exhaust system must be in correspondence with the pinout listing below. 

It has been tested with laser cutters from Trotec and GCC in combination with exhaust systems from Trotec and TEKA, but it can be used with any system which follows the above mentioned interface specification.

Installation

Simply put the Fabman Exhaust Connector between the exhaust system and the external exhaust control cable. Then connect it to the RJ45 port of the Fabman Bridge by using a standard Ethernet cable (not included). 

Connect one end of a standard Ethernet cable (not included) to the RJ45 socket on the Fabman Exhaust Connector. To connect the other end of the cable to the Fabman Bridge perform the following steps:

1. Unplug the Fabman-Bridge from the electrical outlet and disconnect all other cables (e.g. connections to the controlled machine) before you start with the hardware installation.
2. Open the enclosure of the Fabman Bridge carefully (T8 screwdriver needed).
3. Connect the Ethernet cable to the RJ45 socket on the BCP as shown in the picture below.
   

   

4. Guide the RJ45 cable through the opening provided. You must carefully break off part of the cover on the bottom of the housing. Then fix the cable with the existing strain relief straps (T10 screwdriver needed) and close the housing again (T8 screwdriver needed).
   

   

Configuration

Follow these steps to configure the Fabman Exhaust Connector:

1. Sign in to your Fabman account as Admin or Account owner: https://fabman.io/login
2. Click on the "Configure/Equipment".
3. Select the Equipment where the Fabman Exhaust Connector is connected to by clicking on the equipment name in the list. Then click on "edit" in the "Bridge"-box.
4. In the “Hardware” section set Input 1 to “machine status (idle / busy)” and Input 2 to “exhaust filter status”.
5. Set the parameters in the section “Usage & Safety” to get the desired behavior of the equipment according to its status (busy or idle) and save the new bridge settings.

This is an example configuration for a laser cutter with Fabman Exhaust Connector.