WSC_6 retrofit Tool Changer turret

Can you explain the index pins?

A 3000 pulse encoder might suggest that the turret would be easiest to control as an Axis.

Many toolchangers can be controlled by the "carousel" component, but that rather expects a per-tool position feedback, not 3000 counts.

dextaca wrote:

hi Andy nice to hear from you.. yes the Index Pin out lifts the whole turret from the lock pins and is ready to be rotated ccw or cw.. That's where the index frw or rev are..Here is a youtube of the changes

Is the encoder the only feedback, or are there extra outputs to indicate absolute position?

i have another question for you if you don;t mind.. trying to set up spindle feedback with 3000p/r encoder and motenc card... not too much luck in there.. any ideas?
Thank you

I have never used a Motenc card. But what pins do you see in HAL when the driver is loaded?

It looks like there should be specific encoder outputs, do you see these count?

linuxcnc.org/docs/2.7/html/drivers/motenc.html

Can you list the pins (including direction) that are associated with the tool changer?

dextaca wrote:

Wondering if you could point me to some sources / docs

There is an example config here:
github.com/LinuxCNC/linuxcnc/tree/master...smach/VMC_toolchange
It is for a mill, but the logic is very similar.
toolchange_index.hal contains the code that loads and connects the carousel HAL component to some G-code IO pins (motion.digital-in / out)
For some reason that I have forgotten this config sends the required tool position out of a G-code analogue output rather than using the iocontrol.0.tool-prep-pocket pins.

The github.com/LinuxCNC/linuxcnc/blob/master...toolchange.ngcactual tool change sequence is handled in G-code. It checks inputs and sets outputs to ensure that things happen in the right sequence.

github.com/LinuxCNC/linuxcnc/blob/master...mc_index.ini#L21This line in the INI file remaps the M6 tool-change command to call the G-code sequence.

To make the remap work you need the toplevel.py and remap.py files. You can use those exactly as-is.

You will have this config on your LinuxCNC installation. It has a Vismach model of the machine, so you can play around with it.
sim->axis->Vismach->VMC_Toolchange in the config picker. It won't attempt to control hardware, you can use it safely on your real machine, or on any other machine.