How to build ATC Carousel in linuxcnc ?

thanks, are you suggesting I have a secondary controller for carousel, and only expose a feedback of which tool it is at? I can definitely do that, but I think it would be more flexible to control the movement of the carousel directly from linuxcnc. e.g. if I want to move tool to 1, I'll execute gcode like g0 b1. but I also don't want to expose b as an axis in the UI

When your G-code says "T6" then the value "10" appears on the hal pin iocontrol.0.tool-prep-pocket:

linuxcnc.org/docs/2.7/html/man/man1/iocontrol.1.html

If you link that HAL pin to the caarousel component and connect a motor of some sort to the output pins of the carousel component then the carousel will move to that pocket number.

You typically need a G-code routine to move the axes in such a way as to perform the sequence, but at least the carousel comp can be used to position the tools.

Start LinuxCNC and then go to the virtual config sim/axis/vismach/vmc-toolchange for a demo config using corousel and a G-code subroutine.

This is very helpful, thanks.

I think I'll setup in the following way:
- make the axis B as carousel stepper
- override the M6 command so that it will figure out which tool it try to move to and issue command like G0 B3 to move pocket to position 3
- more spindle movement and drawer bar command to pick up the tool

now, that will make carousel as a standard axis in the UI right? Is there anyway I can hide it as a regular axis from UI?

thanks

Don't configure the toolchanger as an axis. It's not really the right way to do it.

Hi Andy,

I'm following your carousel setup, I have a stepper to go into position for my ATC that is not set up as an axis. I also dont have an encoder set up(just home) for this stepper. Is it still possible to use the component?

If not, how can I drive the stepper fast from my gcode? I'm looping this but the dwell does not seem to go small enough, my stepper is still slow,no matter how low I go:
M64 P0;ON
G4 P0.00002
M65 P0;OFF
G4 P0.00001

Thanks

You can drive the stepper by putting the step-generator in velocity mode.
The newer version of the carousel component::
linuxcnc.org/docs/2.8/html/man/man9/carousel.9.html
has an output pin "motor-vel" which, when connected to the stepgen velocity command pin will control the motor at a speed governed by fwd-dc and rev-dc.
(acceleration can be configured as a stepgen parameter)
But, carousel needs _some_ way to know which tool is in place. You could potentially calculate this from actual stepgen steps in HAL. Do you have any spare IO pins?