Installing a New Tool

Note: the default Jubilee in the repository is pre-configured to hold two tools. If your setup matches that one, skip to the Hardware section.

Software

Tool Change Macros

From a software perspective, executing a tool change is as simple as invoking the T Command of the tool you want to pick up next. In code, it would look like this:

...
T1 ; After this command finishes, the machine will be holding "tool 1." 
...

To handle this line, we need to write the behavior of the machine such that the tool is holding "tool 1" when that line of GCode finishes executing. Duet handles this by having us write a macro, a short snippet of GCode that executes when the machine encounters a tool change command. There are 3 files that need to be added per tool. They are tfreeX.g, tpreX.g, and tpostX.g, where X is a placeholder for the tool number (starting from 0).

Note: Manhattan Distances

If the carriage is near the rack of tools at the front of the machine, and it moves in a straight line to pick up the next tool, it may crash into other tools along the way. For this reason, we suggest splitting the move into separate horizontal and vertical moves.