Gmoccapy - A new screen for linuxcnc

Hello Norbert

Firstly, many thanks for a great screen - I've been using it a lot since getting my touch screen working a few months ago and exclusively since you've moved to version 1.

I have a small request that would make my life slightly easier when checking the Gmoccapy version:

Would it be possible to also display the Version number on the settings page, in addition to in the title bar when in windowed mode?

My reason for this is that on my machine, it is quite difficult to switch between windowed and full screen mode, as the window jumps when you try to switch and it usually immediately switches straight back when using the touch screen, so I sometimes have to use the cursor keys on the keyboard to select successfully. If the version was displayed in the settings page then I wouldn't have to make the change so often. This only seems to be a problem on my actual physical machine, which has a 1024x768 IBM touch screen - the display doesn't switch back when I test in a virtual machine, but I'm not using a touch screen there.

Also (and this is probably a more difficult thing!) I tend to generate my Gcode on my workstation in my office, then copy the finished files to a Synology NAS box, then finally go to the workshop and copy the files from the NAS to the machine controller computer's file system from within Linux before starting Gmoccapy. If I make some new files I have to again switch to windowed mode to get to the remote files (difficult), but if there was a more advanced file manager within Gmoccapy with the ability to mount remote shares or at least copy and paste multiple files using just the touch screen then I would very rarely have to plug in the keyboard and mouse - currently I have to use the mouse every time I need a new file.

Many thanks again for all your hard work!

Ben

Hallo Ben,

give me 5 Minutes for the version display in the settings page.

Jumping windows on touch screens happen very often, because there are two mouse controls for one touch screen, and the touch is not connected exclusvly to one only. In my case (Faitech 17 " 1280 x 1024) I do execute a file on start up of the window manager like

xtouch set-prop "eGalax Inc. USB TouchControler" 121 0

Please check your documentation for that case.

Why do you copy the files from the NAS to the machine PC? I would recomment mounting the NAS to the machine PC before starting gmoccapy and then just set the nc_files path to thatt dir. Than you can just select and run them without copy and past them.

At this step, I will not include a copy function to the file selection widget.

If you start nautilus before gmoccapy and you leave the window open, you can switch to that window by pushing <ALT><TAB>, have you tried that?

Norbert

Halo Ben,

version number now also on the settings page, see in the bottom button bar.

Norbert

Hello Norbert

Thank you very much - the version display works perfectly. Thanks also for the tip about the touch display driver - I'll look into it and see if there is a similar command for my one.

Unfortunately Alt-Tab involves using a keyboard, which is something I'm trying to get away from, but if I can persuade my computer to mount the NAS share reliably then it will be fine to set that as the nc-files path. That's something I can work on!

Many thanks again!

Ben

Hi,

This is my first post on the LinuxCNC forum, I'm a long time user of different cnc packages, all the way back to CNC Pro ( DOS ) and Master5 ( the original Mach3 ), lately I have been using Dynomotion controls. I stumbled across Gmoccapy, and I am very impressed, it is the first screen that I have found that looks like it was designed to be used at the machine, instead of at a desktop with a mouse.

I reloaded the Mach3 computer on one of my lathes with LinuxCNC and configured it using stepconf, it went very smooth, and now the lathe is running great, but it is using Axis. I have LinuxCNC Master 2.6.0 loaded, and I can run sim.gmoccapy.

Here is where I'm stuck, I'm new to Linux ( 3 or 4 days ), I need to know how to get my lathe configuration into Gmoccapy. I have read the wiki and it covers the details very well, but I am lost on where to start.

Will stepconf and pncconf include the Gmoccapy screen as an option in the future?

Thanks

Todd

todmorg wrote: I have LinuxCNC Master 2.6.0 loaded, and I can run sim.gmoccapy.

I have read the wiki and it covers the details very well, but I am lost on where to start.

It is possibly too easy. I just tried it with the sim/axis config from master and all I had to do was find the [DISPLAY] part of the INI file in the config folder and change DISPLAY = axis to DISPLAY=gmoccapy.
In the case of the sim/axis config I also had to comment-out (ie put a # in front of) the line in the [HAL] section that defined the POSTGUI_HALFILE as that config relies on a PyVCP panel.

So, as a first step copy your entire lathe config folder to a new folder as a backup and then change the display setting in the INI file.

If LinuxCNC fails to start then have a look at the error output, you will maybe see something like"
"lathe_postgui.hal:1: Pin 'pyvcp.spindle-speed' does not exist
54135
PID TTY STAT TIME COMMAND
54174
PID TTY STAT TIME COMMAND
Stopping realtime threads
Unloading hal components"

The relevant info is the last thing printed before everything exits. In this case, the HAL file called "lathe_postgui.hal" is referencing a pin created by a PyVCP panel that hasn't actually been loaded.