How to link toolchange to parport

Hi, I am trying to setup a 8 position toolchanger (lathe, turret type), which will be controlled by a PIC microcontroller.
I have been searching around and cannot find detailed information on this.

Firstly I want to ignore tool-prepare so:
this line is active in the standard_pinout.hal
net tool-prepare-loopback iocontrol.0.tool-prepare => iocontrol.0.tool-prepared

Next I want to link the:
tool-change to a parport pin, and the
input parport pin to the tool-changed pin.

I know I am probably missing a whole lot of stuff here but this is what I have so far.
net tool-change iocontrol.0.tool-change => parport.0.pin-10-out
net tool-changed iocontrol.0.tool-changed <= parport.0.pin-11-in
I get a error of: paraport.0.pin-10-out does not exist , how do I correctly define it?

also what type of signal is used to communicate the tool number to the parallel port, and what confirmation signal is used in return?
I found this but to me it is not clear enough on the exact signal to read and send to the micro-controller at the tool-turret.

Please can you help me with the setup, or point me in the right direction.

Hi

Have a look at these components

wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Contri...oolchanger_component

wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Contri...oolchanger_component

I wrote these for 8 tool ATCs, the difference was that the first has a locking pawl and you just move the relevant number of positions then reverse to lock,
the second has a grey scale truth table to identify the tool number, which needs to be decoded, then the motor is reversed until against the pawl.

You can see the signal sequences from the operation of the components.
It would be easiest for you to take a similar component path, even if you feed the output signal to a separate controller rather than dealing with it directly.

Expect you will have queries, would be helpful to know what lathe and what sort of ATC (pneumatic, mechanical)
I think JT has a classic ladder routine for a lathe with a lot of solenoids, air feeds, sensors etc on the ATC. (possibly a Mori)

regards

Thanks for the info, I will work through it later.

The lathe I am using is a EMCO Turn120,
The toolchanger works with a DC motor that turns the turret CW into position and locks it CCW, there are 4 position sensors for the current position feedback.



I was planning on doing this:
on the T(X)M6 command send a high voltage for (X)ms on a parallel port pin,then an external pic reads that using an interrupt and a timer, using this info it can then select the right tool and send a short high signal back through another parallel port pin to confirm it has completed the toolchange.

if using linuxcnc 2.5.1 the orac toolchanger comp as arceye has mentioned is essentialy the same toolchanger as the emco .
and the bonus is if you have enough pins available then you can drive directly from linuxcnc and not need the pic micro ..

I used 2 relays for forward / reverse and run
and used the built in opto decoder for positioning

WOW, Thanks for your help guys
going to use the orac toolchanger component,
looks like I only have to add Opto4 and redo the truth table, to adopt ArcEye's work to my EMCO.

Will post the final product, or when I get stuck.
Thanks
Stephan

All done, tested and working.
mods to work on the emco turn 120:
added 4th opto,
update truth table,
reverse lock stays on and pwm's the output for current control in the DC motor, as the tool turret has significant backlash.
e-stop also stops the tool change

great news , glad you have it working , hope it was not to painful .
look forward to see your changes .

Glad it worked for you.

Dont forget to add it with a short write up to the Contributed Components section of the Wiki
(or post it here and I will add it if you want)

regards

ArcEye, after looking over it, please add it to the correct section.

Thanks