Micro Machine Setup

If you are using a micro machine to add micro ingredients to your loads, Fusion can communicate with the micro machine and automate the batch making. In the Physical Computer Management window check the Micro Machine checkbox and then the Setup button to set it up.

Use Separate Settings For Each Location. If this truck feeds at multiple locations, each with their own micro machine, then turn this setting on. Otherwise, leave it turned off. When on, Fusion will communicate with a different micro machine based on the location it is currently synced with. You'll need to use this window to set up the micro machine at each location you are feeding at. You'll also need to turn on the Micro Machine checkbox in the Physical Computer Management window at each location you are feeding at.
Machine Type. Choose the type of micro machine you will be connecting to here. When you choose one of the supported machines, the rest of the settings will change to reflect what needs to be set up for that particular machine type.

Supported Micro Machines

The micro machines we support are listed below along with their associated settings.

Animal Health International Machine Settings

Machine IP Address. This is the address that Fusion needs to find the micro machine server on your network. It might be something like http://ahi or a direct IP address like http://192.168.1.23. In either case, enter the address (without the HTTP:// portion) and make sure the address doesn't end with a forward slash (/).
Machine Port. This is the port that the micro machine server is listening on. 505 is the default port.
Drain Wait Time. This is how many seconds you want Fusion to wait after the micro machine says it is finished dumping. Depending on how your system is set up, it may take more or less time for the water to finish draining into the truck. So Fusion will wait this many seconds before it takes a weight and adds the water ingredient.
Manually Start Communication Each Load. Normally when you start a load, Fusion will automatically communicate with the micro machine to detect micro ingredients and request the machine to start mixing them. In some cases you may want to wait until a particular time before this starts. If so, make sure this setting is checked. When it is checked, Fusion will show the micro machine status bar at the top of the Mix Load window, but it won't do anything until the user clicks it to begin the process.
Log Communications. This option can be turned on when needed to log all communication between Fusion and the AHI server. The communication for each load is logged in a file named after the load ID and put in a folder on the Desktop labeled Micro Logging. Only use this when asked to by tech support.

Note that if you are unsure what any of the above settings should be, please contact AHI for more information. When you have entered the information in, you can use the Test Communication button to see if Fusion can communicate with the micro machine server. This will also show you a list of matching ingredients so you can see if that setup is correct. See below for more information.

There are two additional things to note when using an AHI micro machine:

When you mix a new load, the Load Identifier takes on a slightly different format than normal to accommodate a 10 character limitation with AHI. If you manually change load identifiers, you must make sure they are no more than 10 characters long and that they are unique among all loads the AHI machine knows about.
Some AHI machines have the ability to dispense the micros in multiple directions so as to go to different boxes. If this is the case for you, additional setup must be made in the Scale Indicator Setup window. You will have multiple scale heads and the first character of each scale head must begin with a "1" or a "2", depending on which direction you want the AHI machine to dispense when this is the active scale head.

APEC Machine Settings

Machine IP Address. This is the address that Fusion needs to find the micro machine server on your network. It might be something like http://apec or a direct IP address like http://192.168.1.23. In either case, enter the address (without the HTTP:// portion) and make sure the address doesn't end with a forward slash (/).
Machine Port. This is the port that the micro machine server is listening on. 8001 is the default port.
Drain Wait Time. This is how many seconds you want Fusion to wait after the micro machine says it is finished dumping. Depending on how your system is set up, it may take more or less time for the water to finish draining into the truck. So Fusion will wait this many seconds before it takes a weight and adds the water ingredient.
Manually Start Communication Each Load. Normally when you start a load, Fusion will automatically communicate with the micro machine to detect micro ingredients and request the machine to start mixing them. In some cases you may want to wait until a particular time before this starts. If so, make sure this setting is checked. When it is checked, Fusion will show the micro machine status bar at the top of the Mix Load window, but it won't do anything until the user clicks it to begin the process.
Log Communications. This option can be turned on when needed to log all communication between Fusion and the APEC server. The communication for each load is logged in a file named after the load ID and put in a folder on the Desktop labeled Micro Logging. Only use this when asked to by tech support.

Note that if you are unsure what any of the above settings should be, please contact APEC for more information. When you have entered the information in, you can use the Test Communication button to see if Fusion can communicate with the micro machine server. This will also show you a list of matching ingredients so you can see if that setup is correct. See below for more information.

Comco Machine Settings

Helm IP Address. This is the address that Fusion needs to find the micro machine server on your network. It might be something like http://comco or a direct IP address like http://192.168.1.23. In either case, enter the address (without the HTTP:// portion) and make sure the address doesn't end with a forward slash (/).
Helm Port. This is the port that the micro machine server is listening on. 3399 is the default port if you are using HELM v3. 3400 is the default port if you are using HELM v5.
Username. The user name needed to access the micro machine server.
Password. The password needed to access the micro machine server.
Destination. Refers to the batching machine itself so the micro machine server knows where to route the batch to.
Product Code. The general name that will be used for each batch made from Fusion. It should always be FusionImport unless you are told otherwise.
Drain Wait Time. This is how many seconds you want Fusion to wait after the micro machine says it is finished dumping. Depending on how your system is set up, it may take more or less time for the water to finish draining into the truck. So Fusion will wait this many seconds before it takes a weight and adds the water ingredient.
Manually Start Communication Each Load. Normally when you start a load, Fusion will automatically communicate with the micro machine to detect micro ingredients and request the machine to start mixing them. In some cases you may want to wait until a particular time before this starts. If so, make sure this setting is checked. When it is checked, Fusion will show the micro machine status bar at the top of the Mix Load window, but it won't do anything until the user clicks it to begin the process.
Log Communications. This option can be turned on when needed to log all communication between Fusion and the Helm server. The communication for each load is logged in a file named after the load ID and put in a folder on the Desktop labeled Micro Logging. Only use this when asked to by tech support.

Note that if you are unsure what any of the above settings should be, please contact Comco for more information. When you have entered the information in, you can use the Test Communication button to see if Fusion can communicate with the micro machine server. This will also show you a list of matching ingredients so you can see if that setup is correct. See below for more information.

Easy Automation Settings

Machine IP Address. This is the address that Fusion needs to find the micro machine server on your network. It might be something like http://eai or a direct IP address like http://192.168.1.23. In either case, enter the address (without the HTTP:// portion) and make sure the address doesn't end with a forward slash (/).
Machine Port. This is the port that the micro machine server is listening on. 8090 is the default port.
Username. The user name needed to access the micro machine server.
Password. The password needed to access the micro machine server.
Drain Wait Time. This is how many seconds you want Fusion to wait after the micro machine says it is finished dumping. Depending on how your system is set up, it may take more or less time for the water to finish draining into the truck. So Fusion will wait this many seconds before it takes a weight and adds the water ingredient.
Manually Start Communication Each Load. Normally when you start a load, Fusion will automatically communicate with the micro machine to detect micro ingredients and request the machine to start mixing them. In some cases you may want to wait until a particular time before this starts. If so, make sure this setting is checked. When it is checked, Fusion will show the micro machine status bar at the top of the Mix Load window, but it won't do anything until the user clicks it to begin the process.
Log Communications. This option can be turned on when needed to log all communication between Fusion and the Easy Automation server. The communication for each load is logged in a file named after the load ID and put in a folder on the Desktop labeled Micro Logging. Only use this when asked to by tech support.

Note that if you are unsure what any of the above settings should be, please contact Easy Automation Inc. for more information. When you have entered the information in, you can use the Test Communication button to see if Fusion can communicate with the micro machine server. This will also show you a list of matching ingredients so you can see if that setup is correct. See below for more information.

Micro Technologies Machine Settings

Machine IP Address. This is the address that Fusion needs to find the micro machine server on your network. It might be something like http://micro or a direct IP address like http://192.168.1.23. In either case, enter the address (without the HTTP:// portion) and make sure the address doesn't end with a forward slash (/).
Machine Port. This is the port that the micro machine server is listening on. 40808 is the default port.
Drain Wait Time. This is how many seconds you want Fusion to wait after the micro machine says it is finished dumping. Depending on how your system is set up, it may take more or less time for the water to finish draining into the truck. So Fusion will wait this many seconds before it takes a weight and adds the water ingredient.
Log Communications. This option can be turned on when needed to log all communication between Fusion and the micro machine server. The communication for each load is logged in a file named after the load ID and put in a folder on the Desktop labeled Micro Logging. Only use this when asked to by tech support.

Note that if you are unsure what any of the above settings should be, please contact Micro Technologies for more information. When you have entered the information in, you can use the Test Communication button to see if Fusion can communicate with the micro machine server. This will also show you a list of matching ingredients so you can see if that setup is correct. See below for more information.

Further Setup

There are some other things that need to be set up in Fusion to best work with the micro machine.

Water Ingredient. It is important to let Fusion know which of your ingredients is water. You can do this by going to Fusion Admin → Setup → Commodities and Ingredients. Find (or create) the water ingredient and, while editing it, turn on the This ingredient is water checkbox. With this done, Fusion will calculate the weight dropped onto the truck from the micro machine and subtract the known micro's weight. From that it will know how much water was dropped on and automatically add this ingredient to the load so all weight is accounted for.
Ration Formulation/Micro Naming. For rations that have micros in them, you will need to add them to the ration formulation. You will also want to make sure that you name the micro ingredients exactly the same in both Fusion and in the micro machine software. When you go to mix a new load, Fusion will first get a list of ingredients in bins from the micro machine server. If it sees any matches between that list and the list of ingredient in your ration, it will ask the micro machine to make a batch with those ingredients. If the names do not match or a micro is not added to a ration formulation, it will not be included in the batch. If you are connecting with a Micro Technologies machine, you will also need to make sure the ration names are exactly the same on both systems and that when a ration formulation is changed on one system, that it is changed on the other system.
Turn the Track with extra precision option on. You will want to turn the Track with extra precision option on for each micro ingredient (see Commodity/Ingredient Edit Window). This ensures that Fusion tracks this ingredient to the gram instead of the pound or kilogram for inventory purposes. If this is not done, inventory will be incorrect due to rounding issues.

Test Communication Button

As mentioned above, the Test Communication button can be used to test the communication of each machine. If the communication was successful, Fusion will display a list of ingredients from both sides, showing what matches and what does not. You should inspect this to make sure all the micro ingredients that will be in your rations match up. If they don't, you will need to change the name of the ingredient in Fusion or on the micro machine side.

This list is sorted in a helpful way. It will first show any micros that are on the micro machine side, but not in Fusion. It will then show any micros that match up in both systems. These will be in green. Next it will show all the ingredients in Fusion that are marked for using extra precision, but that were not in the micro machine. Finally, it will list the rest of the ingredients defined in Fusion in gray.

Getting Here

You can open this window by clicking the appropriate Setup… button in the Physical Computer Management window.