PF_QtyAdjHopperTime

The PF_QtyAdjHopperTime function calculates how much time a hopper should be turned on to supply the "optimal number of parts". The time is calculated from the number of parts that are supplied within a specific amount of time, the approximate number of parts that are currently on the feeder platform and the "Optimal Number of Parts" value that was determined during the "Part Area" calibration for the part. The PF_QtyAdjHopperTime function can be executed anywhere in the user’s code. For example, it could be executed before the PF_Start statement in order to supply parts prior to running. In that case, the Part Feeding system has no idea what group of parts will be used on the feeder. Perhaps one part will be running on the feeder or maybe four different parts will be running on the feeder at the same time. If PF_QtyAdjHopperTime is executed prior to PF_Start, the calculation can only guess that the part specified by the PartID parameter will be the only part on the platform. In that case, only the Part Blob vision sequence (for that PartID) is used. If PF_QtyAdjHopperTime is executed after PF_Start has been executed, then the Part Feeding system knows which parts are running on the feeder (since they were specified in the PF_Start statement). In that case, the Part Blob vision sequence (for the supplied PartID) is run as well as each individual Part Sequence. When multiple parts are running at the same time, the system assumes that an equal quantity of each part type is optimal. In some rare cases, however, that may not be true. For example, it may be desirable to have twice as many of Part#1's as Part#2’s. In that case, the user’s code should scale (multiply or divide) the calculated time that is returned from the PF_QtyAdjHopperTime function in order to supply the desired amount of parts from the hopper.