Labview UI project for Linuxcnc

Thank you very much for the flowers.

You don't need to care about most classes of the diagram. To get a working preview of the workpaths I had to setup a new instance of linuxcnc-interpreter - and as interpreter is doing lot of bullshit to keep python folks happy, I got a big bullshit-section in my app. Don't get lost in that part.

For communication with backend, there are 3 classes:
- StatusReader - polls the linuxcnc status and translates polling sequence into real event-based handling
- CommandWriter - runs in its own thread and ipc works with Qt-signals
- ErrorReader

So to understand the translation of polling into event-handling, have a look at ValueModel and ValueManager. That's my sort of global vars, which all over the app is used and no application part needs to know anything about linuxcnc-code.

I have not had much interest to work on this project at all this year and when I think about it I don't have a real need to operate any of my machines anymore and that thus they could be in another persons hands in the future.  Thus my motivation to continue work on this project has diminished. It is of coarse possible to make a great UI with Labview but there has to be a need to spend the time required to work on it and right now I do not have the time or need. So my efforts are parked.

With the free versions of Labview for Linux and Windows along with their Python interface abilities I suspect that there will be a lot more interest in pursuing this in the future.

Recently I have  been working on some upgrade work on my milling machine's UI and looked at some of the options available on the forum, most of which are using some form of QT. But for me Qt is not the best option and I still prefer a Labview solution, and thus I dug up all my Labview code to refresh my memory of were I was in this project.

Most of the code I used to interface with LinuxCNC in this project interfaces directly into NML and has proven to be functional  via its network TCP links. The last problem that I was working on was the status decoding from raw data that NML sends out via its TCP link. Decoding that data was and may still be a bit of challenge via the NML route. It also presented a problem because it date stream does not appear to contain all status info.

It looks like a solution to the problems I recall running into is to use the Labview 'Python node from the Labview recently developed Python module and interface it directly into the LinuxCNC python module either using a local connection or via a network connection.

Labview remains my preferred choice for building a UI. It is fully programmable, has a built methods to generate its own UI front panels, and also has available front panel controls that are designed specifically for control of all types of industrial and scientific equipment.

I'm thinking that it may be possible to have Gremlin embedded into a Labview front panel. Just a thought at this point.

 

This is a great project, and I hope to see the follow-up