Tool Parking safety check for Tool Changer spitballing needed
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So, I popped up again a little while ago to reintroduce myself since I have been away from 3D printing for a good while due to health; but I'm back and diving right back into an old tool changer machine design I had been working on to add to the stable. Most the motion system and etc are all plotted out and prepped but I was sitting in my office the other day and had a concerning thought about Tool Parking.
I know the general thought process with Tool Changers is to just follow a pre-start routine and make sure all Tools are parked and none are on the gantry but how much effort would it be to make the Duet check? I tend to run production batches on my machines when I'm open for business and sometimes things can get hectic and someone might forget or neglect to do a pre-start routine.
I am not terribly familiar with macros on Duet (never really had a need for them since most my machines are "set them and leave them")
But as an initial spitball idea:
Machine: CoreXY with 4 Tools that use kinematic coupling and grade AH magnetic holders.Could one perhaps put an endstop, maybe a modified optical or laser, for each Tool where they are parked to trigger and identify Tools as "parked"
And any Tool that isn't shown as parked could have Duet home machine XY and then park the missing Tool before initiating any other Gcode operations?I know, for my machine layout, a hard mechanical endstop may be difficult to make reliable because my "Tool Parkers" use a trapping mechanism to help disengage the Tools from the gantry, but, then the Tools hang loosely on the parkers after gantry disengagement (still trapped from falling though until gantry re-engages)
And as usual; sorry if I ramble and go on tangents or hard to read. I tend to just let my thoughts run rampant while I type.
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@zakfarias sounds like a really cool build! I’m designing a magnetically coupled toolchanger for my coreXY as well, and have been pondering similar questions. One thing I’m considering is using a small Hall effect sensor on the toolpost to sense a little magnet on the tool to verify it is on the post. Another thought has been using the metal tool post as a ground to pull down a sense pin going to the tool and connected to the capture bracket. I havent gotten to the macro writing stage yet but I’ll be excited to see what you come up with!
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I already have tool-parked switches on the two Hemera tools on my TC. See https://miscsolutions.wordpress.com/2020/06/06/improvements-to-the-hemera-tools. We're considering adding mounting holes for this switch to the next run of Duet 3 tool boards.
