Josh, did you end up implementing a manual tool change button? If so, details, please.
I did it this morning.
The way I did it was to run a shielded wire from a momentary switch to the output side of the solenoid relay. The button is mounted in a block of wood bolted onto roll-in T nuts in the slot on the back side of the Z axis, and the wire goes into the X & Y cable tracks back to the spindle box. One thing I would change is to put some strain relief on the wire.
@corbin has some details in his ATC blog post. I can take a photo of my spindle box later if you want it.
Am I the only one who put all the air solenoids on the Z carriage instead of in the control box?
My thinking was that running one air line and one signal cable was better than running many air lines, and as a side effect I can manually operate the solenoids right at the spindle - no need for conveniently located buttons.
You’re probably not the only one. The spindle package from CNC Depot has the solenoids in the box, and I expect that’s part of why it’s more common. In my case, I cut mostly hardwood, so I wasn’t planning on running case pressure. That means one air line and one cable for me as well.
Hiteco actually recommends this! I didn’t do it though…just because I wanted it all in the box.
As long as there is room in the control box I see no reason adding unnecessary complexity to the head end. Just know the orange backplate isn’t easy to drill and tape. If I were going to do it again I would have striped everything out to do a better layout. This picture was taken during install and just before I realized 3 of the solid state relays we AC and needed to be DC. I may still start over.
My problem is how much room is in the cable chains. The side one is pretty full; adding a few more air lines might be difficult.