Gscreen - a GTK / Glade / Python based screen

cmorley wrote:

I didn't add Machine off on purpose - I didn't think it was really important info - but can add it if you like. Could add a 'is homed' message to if you like.
Yes I would really like you to be cautious when first using Gscreen. It is not well tested obviously. Though a few people are using it on real machines.
1) I assume you would like the bar (and probably the LED) not greyed out but the control buttons will be until the machine is on. I'll look into it.
2) ok Green they will be.
3) hmm I think that would make the side panel pretty wide. Also it's not feed rate it's feed rate override, Can your operator really not remember FO with a percent sign is feed override? Maybe we can wait and see on that one.
4) do you mean you would like the save and saveas buttons available in edit mode and greyed out otherwise - this does make sense.
4a) You have caught a bug on the Industrial screen the save and saveas are broken - I will fix that soon.
It's an interesting question.
as it is now you would enter edit mode and type your program. get out of edit mode then saveas your program - then you can run your program.

Another time saving way would be to have a dummy program with your usual preamble in it. load this program, enter edit mode, edit, saveas, and run
If your wondering the difference between save and saveas - save will save with the existing program name (there must be one), where save as obviously lets you change the name, but it also then reloads that program into linuxcnc, so the original should be unchanged.
Another related option is the Onboard keyboard has optional button that can be set to type a preconfigured line. You could use this for preamble.
5) sorry I see no practical way to do this at the moment. Let me think on it.

I'm glad your happy with it - I'm happy with everyone helping me get it user freindly -it's been fun!

Chris M

1. Please add machine off
1a. homed would be nice also.
4. Yes, save and save as I woul like to show when in edit mode. Pressing Edit to Exit doesn't make sense. Can Edit change to Exit when in edit mode and provide a popup for save or save as?
If a machinest needs to write a program from scratch it is usually 5-15 lines long and seems to never be the same.

Chris,

Stuart has some ideas and questions. Can these things be done with Gscreen or is LinuxCNC not capable yet? I think you have taken care of some of this already.

1. motion during feed hold to allow tool change and reset and/or manual cutting to facilitate further gcode motion

2. incremental offset adjustment (possibly a .ini file choice)

3. rigid tapping using the handwheel (handwheel driving spindle and axis following?)

4. five axis cutter diameter compensation

5. dead simple - absolute reliable program restart on a line (this should read all code up to the start line and move to the position commanded in the restart line and continue on as if the program had been running uninterrupted from the start.
The Haas machines do this now.

6. the ability to back up through the program and have the machine follow the path in reverse

7. the ability to probe parts to establish work piece coordinates and automatically write to the vars

8. the ability to probe an artifact and calculate the necessary compensation values to correct the machine motion in the control
The Fadal machines with scales do this using a routine to compare ballscrew motion with the scales on the machine axes and writes to the comp tables to correct the ballscrew positioning to the scale. The Fadals with scales do not use the scales during operation but only during the cycle to determine the comp tables.

9. the ability to use absolute position feedback devices"

When in set override mode, changing jog speed using the + and - seems to work. Set at changes to 5.1 IPM Zero seems to work. Am I useing the "Set at" wrong?

I added all 9 possible axis to Gscreen simulator and the text height is different after x,y,z.

Also the readout information is not center on the selection box. Can that be changed?

newbynobi wrote:

Hallo Chris,

you are right, that Max_velocity is not shown in your screen, but it is on mine.
I thing max_Velocity should be on the screen, and I will try to explain why.

I write most of my programs offline, many times using CAD/CAM. So feed rates are set automatically and the rapid moves also.
So, ngc.file to the server and then get it with the real machine.

On the first run, I reduce the max_velocity to a quite slow velocity, so every quick move (G0) will be done with slower velocity than the max_velocity.
My machine runs at 10000 mm/min each axis, running at such speed, you will not be able to react, if you see a fixture collision or other errors.

On one off my machines max_velocity can be modified with an jog wheel, but I believe most users don't have this option.
I think this security feature should be integrated.

Second thing I noticed:
On my computer when using gscreen, I am not able to jog the machine using the keyboard buttons.
sometimes it is realy helpfull to use just the arrows to move arroud.
It would be nice to get the axis keyboard shortcuts also in gscreen.

Regards Norbert

Norbert

Norbert.
Velocity Override is exactly for what you are doing - to limit the maximum speed the machine will go.
The difference is VO is a percentage rather then an absolute value.
VO can be changed with a dial or on-screen buttons. How do you set your max_velocity?

Your right, I have not added keyboard shortcuts to Gscreen. I am not a big fan of keyboards for machine control.
That being said, I am not completely against it just has a low priority.
If I do it I would like it so a user can change them - which of course is more work for me and also require the development to slow down.

Chris M

tjamscad wrote:

cmorley wrote:

tjamscad

re F0 S0 and V0

I was thinking you were talking of the overrides in the status window.
Maybe you were speaking of the Gcodes active window?

You are correct, Feed and Spindle override normal but the "VO" is for velocity override correct? Wich in turn makes it Rapid Feed Override?

Sort of - VO limits the maximum speed of ALL moves. So if you turn down VO below a feedmove speed it limits feed moves too.
I am not sure this is how industrial machines work, but there is little I can do about it - that's how linuxcnc does it.
My only reference was the Okuma lathe I ran - it turned both feeds and rapids down at the same, so at 50% the feed was at 50% and the rapid was at 50%.

Anyways that's why I chose VO rather then RFO or RO - I could change it to RO if you think that's fine.

Chris M

tjamscad wrote:

1. Please add machine off
1a. homed would be nice also.
4. Yes, save and save as I woul like to show when in edit mode. Pressing Edit to Exit doesn't make sense. Can Edit change to Exit when in edit mode and provide a popup for save or save as?
If a machinest needs to write a program from scratch it is usually 5-15 lines long and seems to never be the same.

1) K I did and 'Estop reset' I'll look at 'all homed' anything else? I would think you would like it as sparse as practical - can be quite a list in a day.
Do you guys leave the machines on over night usually?

4) If fact I will have edit mode have it's own set of lower buttons. There are some editing options that can be added fairly easily I think, like undo/redo.
so I need button real estate anyways. I could put the save and saveas there too.
Is the pop up really required? Pop ups can be annoying if you do a lot of editing. hmm maybe it is required,,, right now it is fairly easy to edit something and not save it, so then the screen and liuxcnc are out of sync....
Yes I can have the edit button change text.

Oh and I think I have Gscreen changing joint 0 to Axis X reliably - I already pushed the change. We will see if it catches them all.

Chris M

tjamscad wrote:

When in set override mode, changing jog speed using the + and - seems to work. Set at changes to 5.1 IPM Zero seems to work. Am I useing the "Set at" wrong?

well if the upper right entry widget said 5.1 (or more likely 5.125 I limited the jog rate to 1 decimal) then it worked right.
But it would probably be better to have a pop up number entry. - I may in fact be able to get rid of that entry widget if I did that for all entry points.

Hay Chris,

I have a slider on my gscreen_moccapy custom screen, and I am using also the slider from axis.
On one machine I have an Jog Wheel conected to halui.max-velocity

I pushed my screen to mah, if somebody want to test it, even is is not finished jet.

Norbert

tjamscad wrote:

I added all 9 possible axis to Gscreen simulator and the text height is different after x,y,z.

Also the readout information is not center on the selection box. Can that be changed?

Yes it can but I may have a problem dealing with it.

Right now the INI file decides which and how many axes shows.
A different file, the screen's GLADE file (this defines that basic look and layout of the screen) sets the size of the text.

I'm pretty sure that if all the AXES show they will need to be with smaller text. I can't see a satisfactory way to do this automatically.
I say this because Gscreen works with other quite different screen files so I can't fix one and screw another up.

So what this might mean is you as the integrator may have to edit the GLADE file to adjust the layout for the particular machine.
It's not hard - just another step to learn - But let me see if I can get it to automatically figure it out first.

Chris M