Coordinate systems exposed in HAL?

Actually thinking about it, your application might well be a candidate for MPG control for X & Y directions. Scale the MPG output to agree with the external offset count. I'm not sure about the 7i96 but my 7i76e has two MPG inputs. I'm sure Mesa has a daughter card for the 7i96. That would take heaps out of the python gui.

rodw wrote:

Writing components is LinuxCNC's best kept secret I think. There are heaps of code examples for the C programmer to follow
github.com/LinuxCNC/linuxcnc/tree/master/src/hal/components

Yes, the external offsets are now part of the master branch base code so its available to any linuxcnc application. Its hardware independent.

Yeah I have a component that handles the Y axis and does some funny business with allowing the ability to ignore a set number of indexes then counting the encoder on the desired index. Problem is when I added a second camera and Y axis #2 it got much more complicated, I couldn't even properly explain what it was supposed to do to the fella that wrote it for me. I wound up writing it myself as a separate hal file since I'm reasonably competent with HAL.

rodw wrote:

Actually thinking about it, your application might well be a candidate for MPG control for X & Y directions. Scale the MPG output to agree with the external offset count. I'm not sure about the 7i96 but my 7i76e has two MPG inputs. I'm sure Mesa has a daughter card for the 7i96. That would take heaps out of the python gui.

Not really sure what ya mean there. The GUI is designed to be fully controlled by touchscreen hence the big buttons and arrows. I assume you mean drive the axis by a hardware MPG? The external offset thing I can possibly get with but I'm not a fan of MPG's. I run a 7i76e on my mill, actually I ran the first version of this thing with that same 7i76e and decided it was way overkill with IO, but I stuff new junk on my mill all the time so I swapped em. Currently looking at crazy methods of just making the entire control system as small as reasonably possible.

The more I look at it the more a component makes sense. I just gotta kick my friend in the ass to get it going. I kinda just wanna hand somebody some cash and say "here write this, I don't feel like learning C today".

Anyone know if Linuxcnc supports naming an axis "X1", "X2" etc.? For simplicity sake I've had the 2nd X axis named Y since day one but I've been meaning to do something about that.