MPH Spiral Box — storage device setup

What you can do

Add an MPH Spiral Box vending machine to CRIBWISE: create the coil storage device, enter the coil grid once, and let CRIBWISE create one stock location per coil.

Before you start

• You need Admin Portal access with permission to edit devices and storage devices.
• The device the machine is wired to must already exist. See How to create and manage devices.
• You need the communication port number the machine is connected to.
• You need the cabinet layout: how many coil lines it has, and how many coils sit in each line. Both are 1–8.

Important: A Spiral Box is a location-controlled machine, so it cannot be added to a cloud device. Saving it there fails with Cannot create location controlled storage device for cloud device. Add it to the device that runs the Shop Floor Interface next to the machine.

How the coil grid becomes stock locations

One cabinet is one storage module, and you describe its coils with two dimension ranges. The 1st dimension is the coil line, the 2nd dimension is the coil within that line. Two coil lines share one shelf level, facing each other, so a cabinet with four levels has eight coil lines.

CRIBWISE then creates one stock location per coil and names it after the storage device, the module and the two numbers.

The coil grid and the name each coil gets. Click the image to open it full size.

Both numbers are always written with two digits, so coil line 3, coil 5 on the storage device Spiral 1 with the module Cabinet becomes Spiral 1-Cabinet-03-05.

Quick start

Experienced users — add the machine in six steps:

1. Open the device in Data management > Devices and go to the Storage devices tab.
2. Add a storage device: name it, set Type to Location controlled (Coil) and Manufacturer to MPH Spiral Box.
3. Enter the Communication port, then Save storage device.
4. Add one storage module for the cabinet, with Address 0 and both dimension ranges.
5. Check the generated locations on the Stock locations tab.
6. Release the storage device.

Need more detail? Follow the full steps below.

Steps

Step 1 — Open the device’s Storage devices tab

1. Go to Data management > Devices.
2. Select the device the machine is wired to, then click View detail.
3. Open the Storage devices tab.
4. Click + (Add new storage device).

The Storage devices tab lists everything already attached to this device. + (1) starts a new one.

Step 2 — Fill in the general information

1. Enter a Name for the machine.
2. Set Type to Location controlled (Coil).
3. Set Manufacturer to MPH Spiral Box.
4. Enter the Communication port.

Communication port only appears once you have chosen a manufacturer — the connection fields change with the machine.

A new Spiral Box before the first save: Name (1), Type (2), Manufacturer (3), Communication port (4), then Save storage device (5). The three right-hand tabs and Release stay greyed out until you save.

Note: The Manufacturer list is the same for both location-controlled types, so nothing warns you if the Type is wrong. Check both fields before you save.

Step 3 — Save the storage device

1. Click Save storage device.

The Storage modules and Stock locations tabs open, and Release becomes available. Location mapping stays greyed out — a Spiral Box does not use it. Type and Manufacturer are now read-only; Name and Communication port can still be edited.

After saving: Storage modules (1) and Stock locations (2) open up, and Release (3) becomes available. Status stays New until you release it.

Warning: To change Type or Manufacturer after this save, you have to delete the storage device and create it again.

Step 4 — Add the cabinet as a storage module

1. Open the Storage modules tab.
2. Click Add.
3. Enter a Name for the cabinet.
4. Enter 0 in Address.
5. Enter the 1st dimension range — the number of coil lines, from 1 to 8.
6. Enter the 2nd dimension range — the number of coils in a line, from 1 to 8.
7. Click Save storage module.

One module per cabinet: Name (1), Address 0 (2), the two dimension ranges (3), then Save storage module (4).

Add one module per cabinet. A second Spiral Box cabinet is a second storage device, not a second module.

Important: The dimension ranges are fixed once the module is saved — the four fields are greyed out when you reopen it. Only Name, Description and Address stay editable. To change the grid, remove the module and add it again.

The same module reopened after saving. The dimension ranges are greyed out.

Step 5 — Check the generated stock locations

1. Open the Stock locations tab.

One location per coil is already there, sorted by coil line and then by coil. Widen the Location name column if the names are cut off.

Ranges 1–8 and 1–8 produced 64 locations, from Spiral 1-Cabinet-01-01 to Spiral 1-Cabinet-08-08. Items Assigned is 0 on every row until you assign items.

Step 6 — Release the storage device

1. Go back to the General information tab.
2. Click Release.
3. Confirm Do you really want to release storage device (name)? with Yes.

Release asks for confirmation. There is no way back after Yes, so check the coil grid first.

Success: The status changes from New to Released, Release greys out, and the machine and its coil locations are available at the Shop Floor Interface.

Settings summary

Next steps

1. Assign items to the coil locations — see How to manage stock locations (Shop Floor Interface).
2. Add the next cabinet — repeat the steps above, or use Storage device copy and change the name and port.

Troubleshooting

Related articles

• How to configure storage devices — the full storage device workflow, for every supported machine.
• Supported storage devices – configuration reference — type, dimension ranges and module type for every supported model.
• How to create and manage devices — create the device the Spiral Box is wired to.
• Sielaff WA2020, SU2020 – storage device setup — the other coil machines, set up the same way with different ranges.
• MPH AVC-100 – storage device setup — the other MPH machine, which builds its locations differently.
• Understanding stock structure: stocks, devices, and locations — how stocks, devices, storage devices and locations fit together.
• How to find Device ID and Storage Device ID — the IDs support asks for.