Question adding vcp_action (hal_action)

I've been setting up a glade panel for my system and using the "manual-example.ui" from sim.axis.gladevcp as something to begin with. This has worked well for me, and I have been able to edit the mdi commands already in the manual-example.ui to target my existing o word routines. However, when I add a frame to the panel with new vcp_action entries, they are greyed-out/inactive; looking like the existing MDI buttons would if the machine hadn't been enabled/homed.

I've edited the new vcp_actions to look as similar as possible to the existing actions. They've been added at the top level in the glade editor (which I read somewhere is a good idea). I expect I'm missing something simple here but haven't found anything in the docs or forum.

I'm running the stretch live dvd with glade 3.8.6.

Thanks,
Ron

Can you post your GLADE file?

Chris M

Here's the .ui file I'm using. Let me know if anything else would help.

You will see attempts with both hal_button and hal_toggle. I believe that hal_button is the behavior I need here.

Im pretty convinced I did something incorrectly when I added the vcp_action.

Thanks for looking,
ron

so...

• I've convinced myself that there is no discernible difference between the xml generated by Glade for my new vbox frame/buttons and the existing frames/buttons XML in the example
• I discovered the section on containers in the docs and noted that the HBox used in the example is now deprecated.
• I tried using a HAL_sensitive_table instead (as a new row of commands after those in the example) - still no joy. The new table is still grayed out after everything is on, homed and "sensitive"
• I may be missing something wrt the HAL pin used to sensitize the table. I didn't find anything explicit in the docs but presumed(!) that since gladevcp.commands and gladevcp.settings worked for the other fields they would just work here, but no.

Is this a likely culprit, and can you point me to anything which lists the HAL bits and linuxCNC status which control the sensitive containers?

Thanks,
Ron

The HAL Sensitive HBox or HAL sensitive table is used to set the widgets inside it 'sensitive' or not by setting a HAL pin true or false.

State sensitive widget does the same based or the controller state rather then a hal pin.

If you just need a table widget to organize your widgets then use the standard table widget. You don't have to use only HAL widgets in gladevcp.

Chris M

Thanks, I understand. I can go back and try a standard widget, but the sensitive widget is the right thing. Is there documentation saying what Hal pins should be set for a hal_sensitve box? Can I control this? I didn’t see any appropriate fields for defining a Hal bit for a table.

there will be a HAL pin named something like this:

[gladevcp basename].[widget name]

Some maybe this command would set it sensitive:

setp gladevcp.hal_table true

Chris M

Great! I’ll poke around with that for a bit

That solved the rest of my problems (for now - thanks!

FWIW I had one additional issue (I think) where I was inserting the HAL_table directly into a new row in the window object, rather than adding a frame to the new row 1st and then inserting the HAL_table into the frame. The frame-name provided the handle for the HAL_pin to make it sensitive.

BTW, do you happen to know if there is a difference between a HAL_button and a Gtkbutton in Glade? the example seems to use Gtk. I'm using HAL right now and it seems fine.

Thanks again,
Ron

HAL_button has a HAL pin as an output.
Otherwise it is a gtk button (it's the base widget for HAL_button)

Chris M