Count 2 parallel parts with NxCycleTimeAssistAddon?

[florrens]

Is there a solution how to count 2 parallel produced parts with the NxCycleTimeAssistAddon V1.1 ? I did not find a way with the existing ParCfg/ParCmd/ParImm inputs.

If currently not possible, is that a planned feature for the future? (timeline?)

In my application 2 parts are produced almost at the same time so I would like to use one common trigger to count 2 parts (one pair). Otherwise I have a very long cycle between the last part of a previous pair and the first part part of the next pair. Between the first and second part of a pair I then have a very short cycle.

[nexidator]

Cycle Time Assist does not count any parts. Its purpose is to analyze, optimize and monitor the machine sequences and duration of a machine cycle. If your machine processes 2 parts in parallel, the output is two parts per machine cycle. But this is not relevant for Cycle Time Assist. If there is only one part available and produced at a time, this does not mean that the machine cycle was bad in that case. Of course, the production target will not be reached if that happens often, but this is monitored by MES or PartCounter, not by CTA.

In short: The target machine cycle time for Cycle Time Assist is not the same as the target output cycle time for Part Counter.

[SteffenR-]

Alternatively to nexidator's hint (one cycle is finished after two parts) you can also use two instances of the Cycle Time Assist add-on and measure both lines independently.

For both solutions you have to keep an eye on the invalid cycles to get a plausible result in the diagram.

Solution 1 (one CTA add-on): If only one part is produced due to missing parts, it is an invalid cycle because it is probably faster than processing two parts.

Solution 2 (two CTA add-ons): If only one part is produced, one instance has a regular cycle and the other instance has an invalid cycle due to missing part.

Handling invalid cycles with the CycleTimeAssistInvalidReasons enum is for example done in the example project Digital Machine:
https://developer.bosch.com/products-and-services/sdks/nexeed-automation-downloads/controlplus#sampl...

In this project there is also made a difference between TargetCycleTime of Cycle Time Assist (which is the real target cycle time) and the TargetCycleTime of Part Counter (which is actually just an average target cycle time, that means TargetCycleTime x TargetOEE).