VTube-LASER Communications with AddisonMcKee Bender Controls

AddisonMcKee is a bending machine brand.  Their headquarters were in Brantford, Ontario, Canada, and was then moved to Lebanon, Ohio. As of March 17, 2009, AddisonMckee and Eagle have merged.
In 2018, AddisonMckee and Eaton Leonard rebranded to form Addition Manufacturing Technologies.
In 2020, NUMALLIANCE purchased ADDITION. https://www.numalliance.com/en/tube-bending/
The information on this page refers to the AddisonMckee Mark V ("Mark Five") control. Mark IV and Mark V controls are Windows-based.

How to Enable Supravision Network Communications on an AddisonMckee Bender

VTube-LASER can communicate with AddisonMckee controls using the Supravision Network protocol.

To enable Supravision network communications, it is necessary to map a drive S: to a network path in the AddisonMckee control. The network path is where VTube-LASER will be putting Supravision files for commands. The control software must run in Technician mode to map drive S with a special hardware key (dongle). We've discovered that many AddisonMckee benders always run in Technician mode. The way to find if you are running in this mode is to try to map drive S like this:

Map drive S:

• Press F12 on the control keyboard.
• A dialog should pop up. Choose "Network Options".
• Choose "Add Addata Network Drive".
• Set this bender up as bender number 1 through 99. (Be sure it is set to a unique number compared to the other benders). In this dialog, YOU MUST PRESS THE KEYBOARD ENTER RATHER THAN "YES" on the screen. If you press YES on the screen, the bender number will not change. This is a known bug (or security feature?) in AddisonMckee controls that you must be careful of.
• You must select all the bender/Supravision numbers for the AddisonMckee control to take a new number using the KEYBOARD and not the SCREEN control.
• After setup, you can discover the bender's number by opening the dialog under one of the measuring center buttons. That dialog will show a bender number in the upper left corner of the window.

Communications rules for SENDING NEW PARTS to the bender

It is important to create a new part in an AddisonMckee file in the operator station first before attempting to communicate with a given part number from the measuring center.

1. The part name must be the same.
2. The number of bends must be the same.
3. The tools must be already set up before communication occurs - or the tools will reset to default values.
4. The LRA values do not matter (they can be zeros) if you send new MASTER data from VTube (if you are NOT sending a correction).

Communications Rules for Correcting EXISTING PARTS

1. Load the part to the AM control.
2. Recall the data to VTube (button 1 in the Bender Setup screen)
3. Send data as a correction (button 2 in the Bender Setup screen)
4. On some AM controls, it is necessary to change away from the YBC screen if it is the current screen during communications and then back to the LRA screen for the values to refresh on the screen.
5. Another way to refresh the values is to reopen the file. The AM handles corrections by taking in the data and then saving the file, so reopening the file should always refresh the data.

It is critical to RECALL from the AM bender control before sending corrections. VTube-LASER will take in all the TEACH MODE data from the AddisonMckee. This teach mode data must be returned when sending the corrections back to the AddisonMckee control, or the teach mode setup at the AddisonMckee will be lost.