Tool Change

[Alan B]

Hi Dave
let me first congratulate you on your very good work with MSM , the only small problem that I have encountered is with my auto tool changer it works with MSM but for some reason operates very slowly , to give you an idea with Mach3 version 3.42.40 it takes around 10 seconds to do a tool change with MSM it takes around 30/40 seconds , have you any ideas as to what might cause this ?? everything else seems to be working fine even the probing
Thanks
Alan

[DaveCVI]

Hi Alan,
thanks - it's nice to hear that things are generally working well for you.

I'll need some more information to be able help.
How did you interface the tool changer?
is it controlled by hardware or software or a combination thereof?

Did you use the M6ATC hook to get tool changer code called during the M6 sequence?

Dave

[Alan B]

Hi Dave
 I use a DR-06 PLC to communicate to the tool changer , yes I Did you use the M6ATC hook to get tool changer code called during the M6 sequence? as I say it works but very slowly so my Macro script is being found but not sure where to look next
Alan
 

[DaveCVI]

Can you send me your M6ATC script to look at?

Here is one idea:
Does your script do G01 or G00 moves?
If you don't specify the movement type, a movement will use whatever the movement mode is when M6 is called.....
perhaps you are getting Feed rate moves when you expected rapid rate moves?

Dave

[DaveCVI]

well, scrap that idea - I should have checked the code before quessing...   
the code that calls M6ATC sets G00 mode before calling M6ATC

Dave

Can you send me your M6ATC script to look at?

Here is one idea:
Does your script do G01 or G00 moves?
If you don't specify the movement type, a movement will use whatever the movement mode is when M6 is called.....
perhaps you are getting Feed rate moves when you expected rapid rate moves?

Dave

[Alan B]

Hi Dave
not sure why but have just rebooted computer and my machine and the tool changer seems to be working fine now so I am sorry to have bothered you will keep an eye on things to see it goes
Many thanks for your time
Alan

[DaveCVI]

Here is what happens for a tool change in ATC mode:

1) mach calls M6start when it executes an M6

2) M6start determines the tool change mode

3) for ATC mode, m6start calls two internal subroutines:
        M6ATCWrapper - this is what is calling the M6ATC script you supplied
        M6EndBodyWrapper - this uses RunScript to effectively make a subroutine call of M6EndBody
        (M6EndBody.m1s is also found in the profile macro dir)
Unless you have MasterTooMode and AutoTLO both turned on, M6End just sets some screen leds to show that
the Tool change is all done and exits.

4) M6Start exits and mach resu,es running the loaded gcode

The M6 sequence script files can be found in your profile's macros directory.

Dave

[DaveCVI]

OK -
let me know if it happens again and we'll look some more.
Dave

Hi Dave
not sure why but have just rebooted computer and my machine and the tool changer seems to be working fine now so I am sorry to have bothered you will keep an eye on things to see it goes
Many thanks for your time
Alan

[DaveCVI]

Alan,
BTW - I believe you are the first confirmed person to use the M6ATC hook to control a tool changer!

The hook was designed and added after the CNC workshop to make interfacing ATCs easy with MSM.
Brian was going to use it to interface the changer on the router he had at the workshop - but I believe he never got around to doing that after he got back. I tested the software hook, but don't have an ATC -

So you are the first to put all the pieces together and have it work - thanks for letting me know about it.

Dave

[handsmfg]

Hey Alan

Could you post your ATC code. I had experimental code that worked with the 1024.set screen but is useless with MSM. Like Dave I been waiting for someone that had an ATC, to get it working with MSM. The ATC I want to build is similar to hossmachine's but uses air cylinders instead of steppers for a lot of the movements to cut cost. Still will use a servo or stepper for rotation for the different tool positions. I've been trying to write something that will do something similar in MSM but haven't had any luck yet. Thanks.

Eric