Custom Mach 4 ATC User Interface

Hi all! My Mach 4 ATC Screen Set (and code) is ready to use! I’ve been testing and working on it for a few months, and it seems quite stable. Jason Parker also has been testing it, and gave me a lot of great feedback that I incorporated.

Here’s a video with details on how to download it, install it, setup input/output pins, setup tool pockets/forks/stations, and do some tests before going full speed. It’s “open source” and free.

My goals:

  • Easy setup UI, no coding or macro editing required
  • Non-fixed positions; any tool number can be in any pocket. Tool 1 doesn’t have to be at tool station 1.
  • Support manual tool changes for things not in the rack; this works, but it could be better.
  • Estop support: Most M6 scripts would fail badly if you e-stop in the middle; mine will usually exit gracefully due to error checking.
  • Easy fetching and “put back” for tools via buttons
  • Fix Avid’s touch plate to allow any ATC tool to be used to touch off your material with the touch plate
  • Fix the screen layout to be more intuitive and better. Stuff you always want to see is always visible, and commonly used buttons are closer together (Enable and Home)
  • Optional Case Pressurization and/or fan relay control
  • Optional Pressure check input, to avoid doing a tool change if there is no air pressure

Things to do:

  • Have “Put back” put an un-assigned tool into an empty pocket, if available
  • Make the manual tool change process better
  • “Touch Off” to auto-measure any tool when freshly put in a holder
  • Optional “Touch off” on each tool change, to check for breakage

In the next video…which I’ll release as soon as I can…I’ll talk about setting up a ‘master tool’ and tool heights, along with post processor setup.

A few screen shots:

UI for setting up tool pocket positions; you will use this once when you setup the ATC tool rack:

ATC Tools setup tab: this is the mapping from a particular tool pocket/station to a particular tool number. It also allows an easy way to set tool heights (copied from Mach 4’s screen):

The Main Program Run UI, with the modifications I mentioned above.

Corbin

6 Likes

Thank you for taking your time to put all of this together for the rest of us! This set of videos has been quiet informative and I’m sure I’ll be watching them again when I finally upgrade the spindle.

1 Like

I love this interface! Where can I download it?

Yeah! click through on the video to get more info, but here is the download: Releases · corbinstreehouse/Mach-4-Avid-CNC-Customizations · GitHub

And also read the directions here:
https://www.corbinstreehouse.com/blog/avid-cnc-atc-automatic-tool-changer-with-mach-4/

Corbin

Thanks Corbin! I just saw your reply in my other thread. I think i’m going to start playing with this UI and see if it can simply things for us. It looks fantastic so far after watching your video!

1 Like