Gocator Line Profile Sensors: User Manual
How Gocator Works • 57
Gocator provides several measurement tools, each of which provides a set of individual measurements,
giving you dozens of measurements ideal for a wide variety of applications to chose from. The
configured measurements start returning pass/fail decisions, as well as the actual measured values,
which are then sent over the enabled output channels to control devices such as PLCs, which can in turn
control ejection or sorting mechanisms. (For more information on measurements and configuring
measurements, see Measurement on page 155.)
You can create custom measurement tools that run your own algorithms. For more information,
see GDK on page 439.
A part's position can vary on a transport system. To compensate for this variation, Gocator can anchor a
measurement to the positional measurement (X, Y, or Z) of an easily detectable feature, such as the edge
of a part. The calculated offset between the two ensures that the anchored measurement will always be
properly positioned on different parts.
If combined with the matching and rotation capabilities of part matching, anchoring accounts for most
sources of variation in part position and orientation and, consequently, avoids many measurement
errors. For more information on anchoring, see Measurement Anchoring on page 162.
Output and Digital Tracking
After Gocator has scanned and measured parts, the last step in the operation flow is to output the
results and/or measurements.
One of the main functions of Gocator sensors is to produce pass/fail decisions, and then control
something based on that decision. Typically, this involves rejecting a part through an eject gate, but it can
also involve making decisions on good, but different, parts. This is described as “output” in Gocator.
Gocator supports the following output types:
l
Ethernet (which provides industry-standard protocols such as Modbus, EtherNet/IP, and ASCII, in
addition to the Gocator protocol)
l
Digital
l
Analog
l
Serial interfaces
An important concept is digital output tracking. Different production lines can place an ejection or
sorting mechanism at different distances from where the sensor scans the target. For this reason,
Gocator lets you schedule a delayed decision over the digital interfaces. Because the conveyor system
on a typical production line will use an encoder or have a known, constant speed, targets can effectively
be “tracked” or "tagged."Gocator will know when a defective part has traveled far enough and trigger a
PLC to activate an ejection/sorting mechanism at the correct moment. For more information on digital
output tracking, see Digital Output on page 248.
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