Best practice for implementing toolchanger?

Hi

I have been reading around the documentation and forum posts for the recommended software approach to handling toolchangers. I have come across a few methods - using a hal component, either custom or modifying hal_manualtoolchange, using classicladder in some way, or (the method I have read the most about so far) using a remapped gcode and embedded python.

I understand the latter was recently added to linuxcnc, so for this reason is it the recommended path to go down? I assume pins are then mapped via the HAL.

On the hardware side I believe we are looking into using the Mesa 7i94's GPIO pins.

Cheers
Ross

Personally, I think the remap Gcode is the easiest to implement.

I looked at Python, and seemed overly complex for what I was hoping to achieve. A remap allowed me to easily read inputs, turn outputs on and off, delays - everything I needed for toolchange.

I have an example file at #146783 . (I thought I had written a post explaining the whole implementation, but I can' seem to find it, sorry.)

EDIT: I knew I'd written something - it's at post #137246

Remapping M6 to call a G-code subroutine would be my recommendation.

See the sample config sim/axis/vismcach/vmc-toolchange for a virtual machine demo config and a set of sample config files.

Thanks guys, this is coming along nicely now. The remapping is really quite nifty!