Rack Tool Changer

still work in progress, but taking shape!


 

Top! If you need any vector or image I can draw it for you

This is Summer from Facebook.
I am still reading and researching everything I need to know to get my ATC and rack toolchanger setup.
I installed PB but the instructions suggest having your machine as set up as possible before converting over to PB. I have basically everything I want set up on the machine aside from ATC and that is all set up on the hardware and electrical side so the only things left to do are to get automatic toolchanges set up and my tool setter doing what I want to set tool offsets for the racked tools.

I am stoked to see this all being developed right now and I like that there are some things like being able to set up tool positions in the UI and things like that.
So I'm thinking maybe I should just do the switchover.

In a previous post you said the parameters are saved in the .var file. I am still learning all this but I assume this means they are stored per typical standards in a way where any typical or other UI documentation, examples, etc, will apply, and or is UI independent correct? This just kind of gives a parameter box in the UI to enter information that I would otherwise be entering in the .var file directly yeah?

This is a post that clarified a lot of stuff about this topic

www.forum.linuxcnc.org/12-milling/42241-...yder-cnc-mill-router

BTW I had success sending a tool number on the main window of PB, it runs the subroutine m6_tool_call_main_panel.ngc that you should edit whith your atc position.
Don't know if this is the way to do it, something tells me it's not

the new implementation of the rack atc will handle all toolchange motion. i just finished working out the user parameter setup page, this will give users 8 unique machine mechanical rack row configurations to successfully implement directly from the rack setup page in the ui.  i wrote a subroutine that will calculate which rack ID type based on 3 user XY machine coordinate position inputs for the center point of (pocket 1), (pocket 2) and (pocket 1 clearance).  that rack id will be used in the remapped atc macros to dictate all of the motion and directional requirements for knowing which direction the rack is positioned on the machine, (along X or Y axis), which direction the pocket numbers are ascending from pocket 1 position, and which direction to remove the tool from the fork.  this along with an ini setting for the pocket count, the traverse feedrate for the atc motion, the z clearance height and z load height will give the atc macros the required motion parameters it needs.

users will still need to properly setup their hal for IO such as drawbar, spindle orient, any safety sensors etc, but this will get the user an easy to use atc with minimal setup difficulty!

 

 



 

I can't thank you enough for your effort. This is a real time saver, I've spent hours just to understand what's behind a possible implementation of an atc.

Guess PB is going to be one of the most used GUI because it is cutting all the hardest parts to setup.

yeah this implementation has been a long time coming, it wasn't a small undertaking and is still a work in progress, but it should really help users get going! pretty jazzed about it!

Yes this is awesome. I hope to get around to setting it up in the next few days.
Is this on the stable repo now or should I switch to dev?

Realizing now I might have misinterpreted the above posts as meaning a useable version was available.
If that's not the case I'm curious how long it will be till it might be ready?
Not trying to rush things if it's not done, just trying to get a gauge on ETA after realizing maybe it's not already in the repo or ready for release.

Steady work is happening on it at the moment, but it will be a week or two probably before we shake out everything and merge to the development repo