CustomMcodesToHal

This is how I manipulate extra features on my lathe from gcode. For instance I use M106 to set "high gear". The HighGearRequest? signal is an input to Ladder. M106 sets HighGearRequest? to TRUE. Ladder waits until it's safe to switch gears (the spindle has stopped, etc.), then does it. The end result of the gear change is the HighClutch? HAL signal is set to TRUE. M106 uses the waitfor script to wait for this HighClutch? signal. EMC2, in turn, waits for M106 to complete before continuing.

The contents of ~/emc2/nc_files/M106:

#!/bin/sh
halcmd sets HighGearRequest 1
~/emc2/nc_files/waitfor HighClutch TRUE
halcmd sets HighGearRequest 0

The contents of ~/emc2/nc_files/waitfor:

#!/bin/bash

if [ $# != 2 ]; then
    echo usage: $0 SignalName DesiredValue
    exit 1
fi

signal=$1
value=$2

while :; do
    set -- $(halcmd -s show sig $signal)
    if [ x"$2" == x"$value" ]; then
        exit 0
    fi
    sleep 1
done