Hello,

I have installed and configured a new kind of automatic tool change from RapidChangeATC.com . It's a very smart and very simple/cheap system and enables hobbyists to have an ATC for a fraction of the price.

Adapting it to the Duet implied to create a number of macros and configurations as we need to be able to control the speed of the spindle, as well as the direction (forward and reverse). I used the regular method of hooking up a PWM to Voltage converter in between the duet and the VFD. To control the FWD/REV direction I used an I/O port to switch a relay that is then plugged in the VFD's digital control pins. I also have configured an XYZ probe to be able to easily setup the work offset, as well as a static Z Probe to update the tool length after each tool change.
I had to adapt an existing fusion 360 post processor to have everything work perfectly and it's now great. I have done a couple of jobs with it and it performed fine!

I put my full config (based on a work bee, adapted to my UltimateBee, spindle and VFD) + post processor and some 3D models on a GitHub repository https://github.com/meeloo/Duet3Config .

I'll try to post some more videos showing the machine doing some tool changes on YouTube, here is one showing a couple of tool changes during development https://youtube.com/shorts/bFGX5Maj3ng?feature=share

@Stout said in Reference to Dozuki.com - does not exist:

Would it be very difficult to make a batch rename of all dozuki links in the database? I mean everytime I'm searching for something and entering a thread about it there are loads of links do dozuki which of course is broken. Most of the old comments in the Duet3D Forum refer to dozuki which is quite annoying.

I agree that this is not a great situation and a mass renaming would be good if at all feasible. I can't count the number of times I searched for some subject in the forum only to find references to dead links. It made my experience truly horrible when setting up my machine...

@moe-adams9093 If your VFD is similar to mine (typical huanyang VFD...) the forward and reverse pin on it need to be shorted, not sent a signal like you are trying to do with the outputs. For that to work you need to use a relay with the duet output on the command side and the VFD DCom + For/Rev on the other. I used this kind of relays: https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B07BVXT1ZK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and it worked fine for me. Also as there is two outputs (one is NC and the other NO) you don't need to use two outputs on the Duet, you can use just one and write the NC to FOR and NO to REV (or the other way around, I don't remember which one I did, but it's an easy fix).

To control the speed I used a PWM to 10V converter that is plugged to the VFD output of the duet.

My Duet spindle configuration then looks like this:

; Define the Spindle VFD
M950 R0 C"vfd+nil+io4.out" Q2000 L0:24000 K0:1 

(the vfd output sets the speed, the output 4 sets the direction).

It took me ages to find the correct setup but now it works beautifully.

PS: I'm on a Duet3 6HC, so there may be differences to what you use.. You can see the rest of my config with a rapid change ATC here: https://github.com/meeloo/Duet3Config

@moe-adams9093 If your VFD is similar to mine (typical huanyang VFD...) the forward and reverse pin on it need to be shorted, not sent a signal like you are trying to do with the outputs. For that to work you need to use a relay with the duet output on the command side and the VFD DCom + For/Rev on the other. I used this kind of relays: https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B07BVXT1ZK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and it worked fine for me. Also as there is two outputs (one is NC and the other NO) you don't need to use two outputs on the Duet, you can use just one and write the NC to FOR and NO to REV (or the other way around, I don't remember which one I did, but it's an easy fix).

To control the speed I used a PWM to 10V converter that is plugged to the VFD output of the duet.

My Duet spindle configuration then looks like this:

; Define the Spindle VFD
M950 R0 C"vfd+nil+io4.out" Q2000 L0:24000 K0:1 

(the vfd output sets the speed, the output 4 sets the direction).

It took me ages to find the correct setup but now it works beautifully.

PS: I'm on a Duet3 6HC, so there may be differences to what you use.. You can see the rest of my config with a rapid change ATC here: https://github.com/meeloo/Duet3Config

@Stout said in Reference to Dozuki.com - does not exist:

Would it be very difficult to make a batch rename of all dozuki links in the database? I mean everytime I'm searching for something and entering a thread about it there are loads of links do dozuki which of course is broken. Most of the old comments in the Duet3D Forum refer to dozuki which is quite annoying.

I agree that this is not a great situation and a mass renaming would be good if at all feasible. I can't count the number of times I searched for some subject in the forum only to find references to dead links. It made my experience truly horrible when setting up my machine...

@SDJ Yes, it has to run in between 1400 and 2000 RPM which is very slow but for a super short duration (a couple of seconds really) which is not doing much to the spindle, it only has the time to get up to speed.

I currently have a 1.5kW air cooled spindle but I'm in the process of moving to a 2.2kW water cooled one. As I'm going from ER11 to ER20 my current ATC will be for sale as soon as the nice guys at RapidChangeATC send me the ER20 version I just ordered...

(Hehe, yes I have a very inquisitive kid that also doesn't like to follow instructions, he lightly cut the tip of a finger on a sharp router bit right after I told him explicitly, multiple times, not to touch it ;-). Also, he has 3 brothers )

@SDJ The way RATC works is it's using the torque from the spindle to screw and unscrew the ER collet nut onto the spindle shaft. If you can't reverse then you can't unscrew the nut. Check out the videos on rapidchangeatc.com, typically the case of a pic is worth more than a thousand words

@dc42 that's very strange, I had to manually edit the code to replace all occurrences of G00 and G01 to G0 and G1. I'll try again asap and post a complete report of the behaviour I'm seeing!

@dc42 I'm running standalone

@chrishamm I'm on 3.5.0-rc.3+

Hello,

In my quest for setting up a CNC with an ATC I started to use this very handy Fusion 360 plugin https://github.com/TimPaterson/Fusion360-Batch-Post that enables me to batch export all the jobs in a CAM setup and bypass one of the limitations of the free Fusion license. However that plugin uses G00 and G01 GCodes instead of G0 and G1 and the Duet3 goest bonkers when it receives it (well, at least it doesn't behave like it would if it had received G0 and G1). I proposed a fix to the author in order to support the Duet3 and other RepRapFirmware boards natively but he replied that this was the standard (https://github.com/TimPaterson/Fusion360-Batch-Post/issues/68).

So I'm asking here: shouldn't RepRapFirmware add logic to the GCode interpreter to remove all leftmost 0s in G commands until the last digit to offer the biggest compatibility with existing GCode generators?

meeloo created this issue in TimPaterson/Fusion360-Batch-Post

open Restore Rapids adds transforms G0 that are already produced by the post processor into G00 #68

Hello,

I have installed and configured a new kind of automatic tool change from RapidChangeATC.com . It's a very smart and very simple/cheap system and enables hobbyists to have an ATC for a fraction of the price.

Adapting it to the Duet implied to create a number of macros and configurations as we need to be able to control the speed of the spindle, as well as the direction (forward and reverse). I used the regular method of hooking up a PWM to Voltage converter in between the duet and the VFD. To control the FWD/REV direction I used an I/O port to switch a relay that is then plugged in the VFD's digital control pins. I also have configured an XYZ probe to be able to easily setup the work offset, as well as a static Z Probe to update the tool length after each tool change.
I had to adapt an existing fusion 360 post processor to have everything work perfectly and it's now great. I have done a couple of jobs with it and it performed fine!

I put my full config (based on a work bee, adapted to my UltimateBee, spindle and VFD) + post processor and some 3D models on a GitHub repository https://github.com/meeloo/Duet3Config .

I'll try to post some more videos showing the machine doing some tool changes on YouTube, here is one showing a couple of tool changes during development https://youtube.com/shorts/bFGX5Maj3ng?feature=share

Hey @hurzhurz thanks for your reply, I don't know why I didn't get a notification .

I looked at your code and it makes sense but it implies to have rather complex setup with the pendant and Arduino. I'd rather have a solution that works directly without additional hardware like the joystick plugins for DWC. This is why I'd like to have an actual solution that works with Gcode.