A Widescreen Blender-Style Interface

When I started, I just went for a 10-digit mantissa.

Because the area immediately to the right of the displays are populated with some of the most-used buttons, they are large. And because they are large, it would take the loss of perhaps 4-5 digits to return add another row of buttons.

Ideally, you are likely right, though.

As a sanity check:

The coefficient of thermal expansion of aluminium is 23^-6 / K

A 10mm (very small) part will expand 0.0002mm for a 1 degree change in part temperature.

4 decimal places for a metric layout and 6(maybe 5) on imperial covers pretty much any part that it is possible to manufacture. On a real machine the extra digits are just visual noise.

Or to look at it another way: How many digits are on the digital micrometer that you will inspect the parts with?

I have managed to find one micrometer with 6 digits in imperial:
ecatalog.mitutoyo.com/MDH-Micrometer-Hig...icrometer-C1816.aspx
Most have only 5.

andypugh wrote: Most have only 5.

And often that last digit is a "0" or a "5".

Thanks for adding context to my comment. As a programmer, give me as many bits as you can spare. As a machinist, you were spot on when you call the extra numbers "noise".

Getting into the "tenths" range of measurements (0.0001" or approx. 0.003mm) and achieving repeatable results requires an incredibly clean environment, high quality (expensive) tools, and temperature/process controls.

I have 2 axis; they are part of a wafer inspection microscope. The axis was made from ground wireEDM'ed tool steel. Originally the axis had wicks and a tank for lubrication. The leadnut had sliders to decouple its radial motion from its axial motion. In the photo, one of the sliders was broken, so I tried my best to make a new one from oil-hardening tool steel. Still, you can just see the bearings. The axis is stained, but it still seems to work pretty good.






The screw is 1mm.
The original motors were 200 step motors.
The units came with a 4:1 reduction drive.
There was hardware to run this closed-loop with microstepping, with photointeruppters, which were to the best of my recollection 4x.

The unit originally were set up for 0.0003125mm steps, or 0.0000123031(4960629921)".

I dumbed them down a little by installing .36 degree motors to .0001mm without microstepping.
From here, you need piezo manipulators, anti-vibration table, and yes, likely heating.

I also have some harmonic drives which are 50,000 steps per revolution.


From my perspective, there are people on this forum who want me to finish this design. I am time constrained, and I am not sure if truncating the digits will give me a full button width, and I don't know what controls universal to most machines need to go there. Functionally, I don't see a problem with the way it is.

The nail in the coffin is: the digits can't be much taller without hitting the ABS/Rel/DTG indicators, which I feel need to be there for safety.

Or, if you look at pragmatically, if I am designing this interface, would I not also make it inclusive to my needs?
I am looking at time VS benefit, and while you may not see the need for that much accuracy, I don't see the benefit to change it.

I appreciate it being brought to my attention. If I get desperate for space, perhaps I can shave a digit or two off, but it looks like 4 or more digits would have to go for another button row.

Well, yours is definitely an application I wouldn't have thought of. So, yes, I'm sure there are some to whom those extra zeros make a difference. I do, however, believe that you're in the minority. You are also, as you politely point out, the one doing the work. Thus you do get the right to make the decision - not that you need my permission or acknowledgement on that front.

So that means the space can't be freed up, but I do hope that when the UI is tied together with some live variables that there is a configuration setting for the number of displayed digits.

Keep at it. I know what it's like to have a project blow up out of control, but you're handling this well. I think you have the right idea of trying to get input but not please everybody.