Hi All,

Having got to grips with comp and finally learning enough about HAL to make it work, I have written a toolchanger component for Boxford ATCs.

This should work on 240, 160 and 125 and maybe others that have 8 station turrets and 
use a 'move past pawl and reverse back to stall to lock' methodology.

This will work without an index signal at each tool station.  
The 160 and 125 don't have one ( at least mine didn't) and the ATC proximity switch on my 240 has never worked so I did away with it.

You will need to read the toolchange.comp file, because it contains info on setting up in comments at the header.
You may need to fine tune the parameters using setp on a running system and then hard code them in the .comp file once finalised.

For ease of testing I have made a .tar.gz of my test directory from my ~/emc2/configs directory.
You can simply copy the directory into your ~/emc2/configs and from inside the new directory run sudo comp --install toolchanger.comp
Then run emc, select the Boxford240Test entry from the list and it should run.

There is also a man file, toolchanger.9.gz which can be put in /usr/share/man/9/ if required

I have hacked several settings from my actual machine setup, to make it run in 'simulation-ish'
One of these forces it into an enabled state with 'setp iocontrol.0.emc-enable-in true'

DO NOT use this with a real machine attached, my house computer does not even have a parport.

Once started, home the axes, when you home 'A', a message will tell you that no tool is currently selected.
Switch to the MDI and enter M6T1 and the tool number will update without any actual rotation.
From menu Machine > Show Hal Configuration start Hal Configuration.
Select pins > toolchanger , open the Watch window and click on each pin in turn until they all display

See screen capture

Then you can make a succession of M6Tx commands in the MDI text box and watch the signals change and the values increment 
and then roll over at 360 degrees.

As for using for real, just copy the .comp file across and use the info in the header to change your .hal and .ini files
Do not attempt to use the ones in the .tar.gz with a real machine, they would be dangerous.
I would suggest that you copy your existing machine config directory to another name and use that to implement the changes to .hal and .ini files required.

You cannot jog the ATC with this component loaded because it hijacks the ATC stepgen, so I have written in a basic jog facility into it which is accessed 
via the pyvcp panel.
This is mainly of use when setting up parameters to sort out any over or under shoot in tool position.

Hope someone finds it of use

regards