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TangentAudio wrote:

 Building something similar from scratch is really not that hard from a software/firmware standpoint.  I think it would be a fair amount of work to replicate similar hardware so it looks as nice and functions as reliably, but not impossible.
 

The problem with it is that it's a plastic box, besides the fact that nobody's gonna buy one of those at the price for them brand new for this space. They're $250 for the XL. Being that it's that expensive I don't think anyone would really want to chop it up or glue it to something to make it practical, a box sitting on a desk isn't really the form factor that works out for machine tools.

Realistically I don't think it would be that difficult, simple PCBs are dirt cheap and button caps like that could be made a number of ways. Some conductive rubber interface would be a bit more difficult but you can buy conductive rubber orings so there might even be some clever way to get that part done too. Buttons can be interfaced any number of ways.

I'd been looking to rework the button setup in my control panel. If something like this worked with a normal HDMI LCD like something from Amazon I'd try it myself

Inherited some medium-sized NEMA23 steppers and KL-4030 drivers.  Got things to work on the bench at their rated 2.9A current, but the steppers will happily walk themselves right off - very noisy and vibrate terribly at low speeds.  Hence why I'm attempting the Gecko G251x.  www.geckodrive.com/product/g251x-digital-step-drive/  Waiting for them to arrive.  Little info, only a few posts scattered about.  

The manual for this drive says: under no circumstances ever switch the power to the drive while the motor is energized, or destruction will result.  

Under normal circumstances the machine power would be applied, cuts made, then machine power removed (disabling all stepper drives) so that would be safe.  Question is, what happens if the power goes out or circuit breaker trips during operation?  

Is the damage something that wouldn't ever happen with a 36V PSU connected (added capacitance)?  The G251x is likely a H-bridge design, so then does the damage stem from motor currents collapsing and manifesting as a voltage spike on the main rails?  Would it be a good idea to place a 40V TVS or Zener at the G251x so that >50V isn't ever possible?

this is how the ferror looks

Any LCD with a Resistive touchscreen (new Capacitve won't work), most new PC's have more than one Video output, so that would connect to the free output, the a bit of software to make sure each section of the screen remains the same size no matter what is shown and change the video accordingly, that is all there is to it.
Hardware part is easy enough, software takes a bit more doing to get it right, although i would go for hardware solution to keep the sizes and limits in check, makes it less flexible but easier to use.
Software solution would allow for full screen video and gif's and blinking signs and such, although those could also be done in hardware but would require flashing to change.
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On the topic of HMI, what would fall into that category?

rodw wrote:

I would rather buy an industrial wireless pendant/MPG for similar money.
 

This is another topic, but those wireless MPG's have never seemed like a great idea to me.  They look convenient, especially for large routers or plasma tables, but potentially fraught with peril.  How robust is the wireless protocol, and how exactly does it behave with potential interruptions/interference?  I definitely sleep better using hard-wired controls for potentially dangerous and expensive CNC machines. 

I saw one with an mushroom E-Stop on it, which seemed optimistic at best.  I don't think that would pass any sort of safety system design review.  It could be designed to fail safe if the wireless link drops out, but then if you had a brief interruption of the wireless link, your whole system would go into E-Stop and potentially ruin work or tools.  If it's more tolerant of wireless dropouts, then it no longer is truly safe as an E-Stop.
 

That is perfectly OK.
Try in a terminal:
sudo lspci -v | grep Intel
or
sudo lspci -v | grep Ethernet
what do those return?

after a runtime of about half an hour with glxgears in different variants, the histogram according to the appendix was shown

Sounds like the case has fallen on deaf ears lol. Haven't seen any "engagement" on this one.

If you search for any of those devices mentioned above, they're all over the place but the one place they are not is the Computers section. I don't think changing the name from Computers and OS's to Computers and Hardware is going to change that.

 That said the StreamDeck is a bit too expensive for what it actually is, those buttons aren't individual LCDs it's actually 1 common size LCD panel with clear windows as buttons. The buttons themselves are conductive rings pressing against a PCB or membrane. Kind of like if a Nintendo controller but with punched out rings as buttons. I don't know that there's anything special about that device itself other than some software. Like the button images are just icons on an LCD screen.

Correct, it is just a small LCD behind the button grid, which is really a cost-effective and pretty clever way to do it.  There are companies that make keys with displays in them, but the costs are pretty absurd.  On the upside, you could locate the butons individually on a control panel rather than being limited to a single grid of buttons. 

Besides being made of consumer grade plastic, the construction probably it would probably work out OK in a shop, the way the button layer is constructed it's probably fairly well sealed.

It's actually pretty solidly built, for a piece of consumer/semi-professional gear.  The clear buttons feel more like polycarbonate than acrylic, which is good since acrylic tends to craze and crack when exposed to coolant. 

The implementation here is pretty cool, seems like a good idea. I don't know anything about StreamDeck software but I wonder how hard it would be just to implement something like this on a just a basic LCD with a custom button overlay panel....software wise

Building something similar from scratch is really not that hard from a software/firmware standpoint.  I think it would be a fair amount of work to replicate similar hardware so it looks as nice and functions as reliably, but not impossible. 

tommylight wrote:

Arch Linux to be exact, and there once was a how to on installing LinuxCNC on Arch.
Add a USB-C to ETH adapter and oh joy ... leme try to convince my little brother that i need a SteamDeck for work !
 

My friend was maintaining the AUR package for LinuxCNC for a while because I was using LinuxCNC+Arch for something but that was 2.8 IIRC. Somebody else is maintaining it now @ 2.9 and it looks like it was updated about a month ago so assuming it works there shouldn't really be anything to it, Just install it via pacman or pamac. Arch always has RT kernels ready so It should be fairly easy. I generally just use Debian for machine stuff so I can't say I've used the 2.9 AUR package

Case in point, I've been working on a project that adds support for StreamDeck macro keypads that have built-in displays.  The computer hardware forum is not the right place to discuss it, in my opinion.  I started this thread about a new subforum around the same time I started that project, knowing I'd eventually want a sensible place to discuss it, and other related topics.

I started a thread for the project in "Show your stuff" for now.  forum.linuxcnc.org/show-your-stuff/52628...-for-linuxcnc#300521
 

rodw wrote:

Seems quite expensive for what it is on my side of the world. I would rather buy an industrial wireless pendant/MPG for similar money.
 

That's kind of like saying "I'd rather buy a dump truck than a Ferrari", They're not really serving the same purpose.

That said the StreamDeck is a bit too expensive for what it actually is, those buttons aren't individual LCDs it's actually 1 common size LCD panel with clear windows as buttons. The buttons themselves are conductive rings pressing against a PCB or membrane. Kind of like if a Nintendo controller but with punched out rings as buttons. I don't know that there's anything special about that device itself other than some software. Like the button images are just icons on an LCD screen.

Besides being made of consumer grade plastic, the construction probably it would probably work out OK in a shop, the way the button layer is constructed it's probably fairly well sealed.

The implementation here is pretty cool, seems like a good idea. I don't know anything about StreamDeck software but I wonder how hard it would be just to implement something like this on a just a basic LCD with a custom button overlay panel....software wise

Hi together,
is there a way to display incoming error messages from RS485/ Ethercat in a meaningful and easy way?
Aka take the error IDs each device sends into one pin each and convert them into a user-readable message.

E.g. Spindle Error Output sends error 21 (or 70 other errors)
It gets taken and looked up into a table what the ID stands for and displays the corresponding Message:
"Drive over-load (oL)"

Classic approach to my understanding would be to split up the int into bits, combine it together with ands and then create 70 pins that trigger the message display in the Interface. (Gmoccapy in my case)

Is there an easier way to do that?
In programming I would just create a file that gets fed into an array and then a loop that goes through that and spits out the message.

Just want to check before writing something that is already existing?

All the best
Fritz

Thankyou.  I will give that a try tonight 

Arch Linux to be exact, and there once was a how to on installing LinuxCNC on Arch.
Add a USB-C to ETH adapter and oh joy ... leme try to convince my little brother that i need a SteamDeck for work !