Hi Group,
- I've looked through the thread and haven't found anything exactly like what I need.
- I purchased a lathe that was already converted to Mach3 CNC.
- The seller is not very helpful, but he did do the conversion.

- The Tool Turret does not have a home switch.  I only use it in a one-direction of rotation mode.
- There are times when Mach3 forgets what position the turret is in (I know-I need to sort that out, and add a home switch..)

- The M6 macro looks pretty standard compared to other M6 ATC Rotating Tool Turret macro's (from what I can tell, anyhow).

- Is there a way that I can tell it what tool position it is on- or set it?

- For instance it "thinks" it is in tool position #1 -- when in reality it is in tool position #4.   
- Is there a way to reset it to thinking it is in Tool position #4 ?
    - Somewhere other than in writing it into the M6 macro, and taking it out:      SetCurrentTool( 4 )

Thanks for any help.   I am new to Mach3 programming - but have done a good bit of VB a longggg time ago.

Joe

See picture, click enter tool number

Thank You, Dale.
- I forgot to mention that the lathe came with a screenset made by Calypso.. It don't think that its has that DRO feature... at least not that I've found.  I will check!
- I think I'm going to get Mach3 Turn running... on this machine... I think its better than Calypso screens.  Maybe not as artsy..but I'm not sure what that Calypso gives me that I really need.

Thank You for your help!
Joe
Romeo, Michigan, USA

SUCCESS!!!
- I finally wrestled this down and got it sorted out.
- Thank Goodness for the true genius of Art Fennerty when he programmed Mach3!!!!
- I have the DynaMechtronics DynaMyte DM-3000 lathe turret working in a uni-directional mode.
- The machine has a solenoid that pulls the locking pawl out of the way for bi-directional mode... but it was operating in an always active mode-  which kept the turret from locking into place.    I just removed power from the solenoid for now - and let the spring activated pawl lever lock the turret into place on its reverse movement.
- I even figured out how to reset the DRO for the angular position.  As the turret has to back up / turn in the opposite direction (CCW) - when the pawl locks there is a "hard stop".. and you lose a few steps (no encoder on this baby)... this loss results in error that is accumulated with every tool change.
- So - its working in a uni-directional fashion - which is good enough for now.
- Now to get Fusion 360 CAM/Manufacture to ouput code..and get the machine running (after setting up the Mac3 tool table with the correct offsets, of course).

Joe
Romeo, Michigan, USA

Here is the code I did for pawl lock back type tool changers it uses incremental moves to stop the counting errors, it may not be right for a straight swap but the code may be of use.


 ' (C) Graham Waterworth Mach forum.
' rough draft for a lock back to pawl type tool changer
' this has not been tried on any tool changer
' use/modify it as you wish, I take no responsability
' for any damage to you or your equipment.

If IsLoading() Then
  ' do now't, program loading
Else

' dim some vars

  Dim next_tool As Integer
  Dim current_tool As Integer
  Dim steps_per_tool As Integer
  Dim steps_after_pawl As Integer
  Dim max_tools As Integer
  Dim holdingDRO As Integer
  Dim rotateCW As Integer
  Dim moves As Integer
  Dim fast_feed As Integer
  Dim slow_feed As Integer
  Dim axis As String
  Dim zero As Integer
  Dim to_pawl As Integer

' set up some vars

  zero = 0
  axis = "A" ' change to what ever axis you use for tool changer
  rotateCW = 0 ' set to 1 for CCW and 0 for CW rotation
  max_tools = 6 ' number of tools on turret
  steps_per_tool= 100 ' set to what ever it needs to be
  steps_after_pawl = 10 ' set to amount to clear pawl
  steps_to_lock_back_on_pawl =10 ' number of steps to lock onto pawl
  holdingDRO=1050 ' or what ever you have set screen dro to
  next_tool = GetSelectedTool()
  current_tool = GetCurrentTool()
  fast_feed = 2500 ' set to safe rapid rotation speed
  slow_feed = 500 ' set to safe creep speed back onto pawl.

' do some tool changing

  If next_tool > max_tools Then
    Message "Tool number too high, program stopped."
    Code "M30"
    End
  End If
  If next_tool<1 Then
    Message "Tool number too low, program stopped."
    Code "M30"
    End
  End If
  If next_tool=current_tool Then
    ' do nowt, we got it already
  Else
  ' lets do some changing
    If next_tool>current_tool Then moves=next_tool-current_tool 
    If next_tool<current_tool Then moves=max_tools-current_tool+next_tool
    rapid_move = (moves * steps_per_tool) + steps_after_pawl
    to_pawl = zero - steps_to_lock_back_on_pawl
    If rotateCW =1 Then
      rapid_move = zero - rapid_move
      to_pawl =  Abs(to_pawl)
    End If
    Code "G92 " & axis & "0"
    Code "G91 G94 G61"
    Code "G01 " & axis & rapid_move & "F" & fast_feed
    Code "G04 P250"
    While IsMoving()
    Wend
    Code "G01 " & axis & to_pawl &  "F" & slow_feed
    While IsMoving()
    Wend
    SetCurrentTool next_tool
    SetUserDRO holdingDRO, next_tool
    Code "G90" ' back to absolute movement
  End If
End If

' end of tool change