WSC_6 retrofit Tool Changer turret

Gents last part of the puzzle.
have a turret to fix. Have Index frw, Index Rew index Pin Out and 3000 pulse encoder on the main shaft of the turret .
Any pointers on how or where should I start to get this thing going.. Forgot it's 10 position.

regards
Peter

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.

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




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

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

Hi Andy
the system is up and running , finally got the spinkdle sync as well.. The index change, not really sure even where to start.. any pointers.. Motenc drivers are loading fine.. not bad for a card.. (

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

tell you the truth didn;t get that far.. will try to get something over the weekend and will post is ASAP.

Andy , over the weekend went over the different setups and realised that I'm going into the deep end of the pool without flippers. think the carrousel basic is way to go. Wondering if you could point me to some sources / docs . One thing is certain is that the index turret will need to be homed everytime Linuxcnc starts.. The original equipment had battery backup and dedicated card jsut for the toolchanger.

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.