Brother TC-225 / TC-229 adventure!

One way that might work would be to add together the Z and W axes, You could do this in HAL, or in Kinematics.

G53 Z0 W0 moves you to the top of normal Z-travel.
G53 W-3 gives you the extra movement into the protected zone.

You would have a normal home-limit switch at the top of Z, but would mask it in HAL (as described above) as part of the tool-change sequence.

the only hitch to that i think is that the z cants stop at the top of the cutting travel. it needs to go smooth to the tool release position. no pause.

hmm

ihavenofish wrote: the only hitch to that i think is that the z cants stop at the top of the cutting travel. it needs to go smooth to the tool release position. no pause.

G53 G0 Z0 W-3

Would go all the way in one move, but might exceed the joint velocity limit. (Because the system doesn't know that both moves are going to the same joint).

The two moves _might_ get blended.

ah, so g64 type stuff would apply. well, i think were just going to have to find all this stuff out next week.

I would think that since the Z move would almost certainly be in the positive direction, the W-3 move would cancel, causing the blended move to possibly be slower. Returning to W0 might also be a problem, but since any associated Z move would also likely be negative, it may not matter.

However I question the need for this whole process. Why does the Z travel need to be restricted in the first place? What happens in the restricted area that would cause a problem with normal movement?
I have seen several machines that do need restricted areas for tool changers in the X or Y but I'm having trouble picturing a scenario that would require restricting Z. If the spindle is merely raising and lowering to remove/insert the the tool holder taper, why would it matter if the axis to go to the higher position during normal operation.

if the z goes above the working area travel, the tool releases, automatically. there is no air cylinders or hydraulics or arms and whatnot. it moves up, a 10" up, the tool begins to release, at 13" its fully out of the spindle. the carousel rotates, and then the z moves back down, picking up the tool sand moving to the work area.

i think this is going to be a hal thing or hardware switch thing were we just swap what limit switch is being used during a tool change request, and do not use soft limits.

heres the newest version, which is a little faster, but the function is identical.