MTConnect (CNC Machine Tools)

MTConnect — An open standard for CNC machine tools (HTTP + XML, default port 5000). An MTConnect agent placed in front of the equipment provides the current status as XML via /current, and the gateway periodically fetches and stores it.

Scenario	Which card to use
Machine tools with an MTConnect agent (Mazak · Okuma · Haas · DMG MORI, etc.)	MTConnect (this page)
Connecting directly to a FANUC CNC	FOCAS
Connecting via the machine's built-in PLC	MELSEC · S7

FOCAS or Which One to Use

If an agent already exists, MTConnect is easier — values come in with standard names, and even if machine types are mixed, the tag names are the same. Conversely, if there is no agent or if you need FANUC-specific values (tool compensation, alarm details), use FOCAS.

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Registration Form Inputs

Input Field	What to Enter	Example
IP Address	Agent address (not the machine)	10.20.30.50
Port	Default 5000	5000
Collection Interval	Interval for reading from the cache (ms)	1000

Options

Option	Default	What it is
path	/current	Agent endpoint
device	(None)	When one agent handles multiple machines — separated by /<device>/current
poll-interval	1000	Interval for actually calling the agent (ms)
tls	Off	Connected via https

There are two intervals

poll-interval is the interval for calling the agent, and the collection interval is for reading the cache. To reduce the load on the agent, increase the poll-interval side — merely increasing the collection interval still results in the agent being called every second.

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Tag PLC Address Notation — dataItemId or name

The tag's PLC address = the DataItem's dataItemId or name. Both are accepted.

Address	What it is
Xact	X-axis actual position
path_feedrate	Feed rate
execution	Execution status (ACTIVE · READY · STOPPED …)
avail	Whether the agent is communicating with the machine (Availability)

For the Condition element, the element names (Normal · Warning · Fault) come in as values.

When you don't know what names are available

Open http://<에이전트>:5000/current in a browser and the XML is shown as-is. The dataItemId and name attributes there are directly usable addresses. /probe is the complete list of DataItems that machine provides.

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It's not polling — it's «hold and retrieve»

백그라운드 ─▶ GET /current ─▶ XML 파싱 ─▶ dataItemId · name 별 캐시
   (poll-interval)                              │
                            수집 주기마다 태그가 캐시를 읽는다

Even if you create 100 tags, the agent call is still just one — because all values come from that single fetched XML.

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When it doesn't work

Symptom	What to check first
All values are empty	Whether /current opens in a browser, and whether path is correct
avail is UNAVAILABLE	The agent is alive but disconnected from the machine — check the machine side
Only one machine's values come through	The agent is handling multiple machines — set the device option
Values don't change	Whether poll-interval is too long, and whether that DataItem is actually a changing value.