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Thread: Help setting up Manual Tool Changer

  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2017
    Location
    Salt Lake City, UT, USA
    Posts
    18

    Default Help setting up Manual Tool Changer

    Hey everyone, still relatively new shopbot user here. I just barely invested in the shopbot link for ecabinets and now I'm realizing that I need to get my manual tool changing processes correctly. Previously I had edited and customized my Custom9 file for making tool changes and now I'm realizing that may have been a mistake. I have reset the Custom9 file to it's default code, but now I'm trying to set up everything again, but in such a way that it will work with Shopbot Link.

    Is there any good tutorials or instructions out there? I've been searching for more than half an hour and haven't found anything. I've seen people referencing setting the numbers in your tool database but I don't see where or how to do that. I've got several other basic newbie questions too.

    Any help or direction would be appreciated!

  2. #2
    Join Date
    May 2017
    Location
    Salt Lake City, UT, USA
    Posts
    18

    Default

    I should mention some of the issues that I am running into. Specifically, when I try to run C9 it comes up with an error that says "**WRONG TOOL NUMBER**"

    I can't figure out why and the other threads that come up when I search for "wrong tool number" aren't helpful. As best as I can figure out it's saying that because it'strying to use an Automatic Tool Changer (ATC) but I'll be changing bit manually, so I need to use the Manual Tool Changer (hence the post above). But I have absolutely no idea how to change that.

    Also, I think I need to do some tweaking to my C6 and C7 files (start and stop spindle). Right now my C6 file (start spindle) does nothing when I run it. It just flashes some code but I do not ever get the prompt to turn my spindle on. As I was searching through some of the old threads I saw a couple references to a series of articles that senior member Gary Campbell had written that deal with some of these issues, but the links are all dead now. Are those articles still around anywhere? Are they still applicable?

    Another wall I'm bumping into: A few months ago when I was first setting up my shopbot I remember running through a little set up thing where you could do various things like set your preferred Z-axis Zero spot, but I can't remember where that was or what it was called so now I can't find it.

    Thanks in advance.

    My set up:
    Shopbot: 2006 PRT Alpha

    Software:
    ShopBot WorkShop Ver 3xx
    Cabinet Parts Pro: v 8.7.7 (demo version)
    eCabinets 6.1.5 with Shopbot link

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    Marquette, MI
    Posts
    3,388

    Default

    You should be able to do a fresh install of your preferred version of SB3 software. Look in the my_variables file and make sure that the line &ATC=0 says zero, not one. Then your manual toolchange custom files will use the MTC versions of the toolchange files instead of the ATC versions.
    Gary Campbell
    GCnC Control
    GCnC411(at)gmail(dot)com
    Servo Controller Upgrades
    http://www.youtube.com/user/Islaww1


    "We can not solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them"
    Albert Einstein


  4. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    cnc routing, portland or
    Posts
    3,633

    Default

    the tool numbers come from the tool path software. aspire and such in the tool database has a tool number box.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    May 2017
    Location
    Salt Lake City, UT, USA
    Posts
    18

    Default

    Thank you for the replies! I forgot to come back and update this thread the other day.

    A couple hours after I posted this I figured out that by manually setting &tool variable to 1 all of my major problems went away. C9 (manually change tools) and C6 (turn spindle on and off) started working perfectly after that. But it only works if I have first set that &tool variable. If I clear variables then the problem comes back.

    So now I'm trying to figure out how to insert an If/Then statement into the MTC file so that if the &tool variable hasn't been defined then it will set it to "1" or some other default number. Everything I've tried with the If/Then statement hasn't worked. Any suggestions?

    @Gary: Thanks for the response- I figured out the &ATC=0 thing fairly early on just by studying the Custom9 code. While I've got your attention though, are your articles around anywhere? I've seen them referenced in old threads but all the links are now dead.

    @Knight: Thank you, I wasn't aware of that. That answers one of my questions.

    Also, can anyone remind me how to change my preferred Z-axis Zero position?

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    Marquette, MI
    Posts
    3,388

    Default

    In all honesty I do know how to find the articles that I wrote. Granted they are a few years, if not a decade old. They used to be available on the ShopBottools.com main page >> News >> Blog. They are now indexed by different criteria and I couldn't find a single one that I have authored. I obviously have no idea of which new category they fit into.
    Gary Campbell
    GCnC Control
    GCnC411(at)gmail(dot)com
    Servo Controller Upgrades
    http://www.youtube.com/user/Islaww1


    "We can not solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them"
    Albert Einstein


  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jul 2017
    Posts
    9

    Default

    I might be having the same issue, I will try setting the variable to 1.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    May 2017
    Location
    Salt Lake City, UT, USA
    Posts
    18

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by rogerJ45 View Post
    I might be having the same issue, I will try setting the variable to 1.

    Let me know if it works for you. I was able to eventually figure out how to get a line of code inserted into the MTC file that will automatically change the &tool variable if it's blank. If you need to do that, too, I can look up what command I eventually used.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jul 2017
    Posts
    9

    Default

    That would be cool man! I'll let you know.

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