Gmoccapy - A new screen for linuxcnc

Hallo straga,

I am not able to see what you are trying to do.

The ubuntu pepository is not handled by me, i do not know the update cycle.

Do you want more or less messages for tool change? If you want a manual tool change with tool measurement, see the corresponding exampel in the sim/gmoccapy dir. And read the wiki fof details.

You may need to adapt the change.ngc to your needs.

Norbert

I did my first test with Gmoccapy yesterday. I'm no programmer so downloading and installing these developer versions I'm on thin ice. But I was able to make it work. Including getting my Acer touch screen! That is a cheap two point touch only IR thing. Possibly the best way for this use anyway. And cheap, so I can replace it if it breaks without going bankrupt.

So far I have discovered 2 bugs:

1. The size of the work envelope in the simulated machine is changed so none of the included ngc files works. I fixed this by changing the ini file to have z-min to -400 instead of -.01 I think it was, something like that.

2. With touch screen moving around on the preview screen isn't working as expected. It works somewhat when I move, (but zooming isn't behaving as expected (and as it does in Gscreen) but that's not the problem). As soon as I press any button (like for instance MDI or auto mode) the view changes to a useless side view. And the only way to have perspective view back is to first press on one of the other views, then perspective. Only pressing on the perspective view doesn't work. I have to go through a different view first, then back to perspective view.

I also had problems running the spiral test used to verify the new trajectory planner. I don't remember the error message, but I hope others are able to reproduce this. The error was that it wasn't able to understand the programming (I think it was an o-word thing). I also think the test program you have made for Gmoccapy (the one you use on your videos) is failing in the same way.

I have to say this GUI is absolutely fantastic! I look forward to use it! Great work Norbert!

What do I need to do to make this GUI available to run my Mesa 5i25/7i77 config? Simulation isn’t quite much point for me, but I'm too newbie in this still to know how to implement it. Maybe I have to wait until 2.6 is released? The question is when that will be.....

I hope it will be one of the standard available GUI's for 2.6? So many nice new features that are coming out with that release I look forward to it! This GUI is one of the great things in it I hope.

Anders

Hallo Anders,

1. The size of the work envelope in the simulated machine is changed so none of the included ngc files works. I fixed this by changing the ini file to have z-min to -400 instead of -.01 I think it was, something like that.

The size of the sim machine is X = -400 to +400 ; Y = -400 to +400 and Z = +0.001 to -400 , so it is near to a lot of real machines. I do not know what has changed there. If you try any of the example files, you may need to do a touch off on a appropriate position first. What file does not work for you?

2. With touch screen moving around on the preview screen isn't working as expected. It works somewhat when I move, (but zooming isn't behaving as expected (and as it does in Gscreen) but that's not the problem). As soon as I press any button (like for instance MDI or auto mode) the view changes to a useless side view. And the only way to have perspective view back is to first press on one of the other views, then perspective. Only pressing on the perspective view doesn't work. I have to go through a different view first, then back to perspective view.

I am not able to reproduce that behavior. I use a faytech touch screen and I am able to move the preview around with the finger, after switching to right mouse button i can change the rotation and using the button under the preview I do zooming. If you do like an other behavior, just change it on the settings page. Pushing a MDI or AUTO Button should never change the stetted preview, and here it doesn't. Can you please send more details?

I also had problems running the spiral test used to verify the new trajectory planner. I don't remember the error message, but I hope others are able to reproduce this. The error was that it wasn't able to understand the programming (I think it was an o-word thing). I also think the test program you have made for Gmoccapy (the one you use on your videos) is failing in the same way.

I have never tested gmoccapy with the new trajectory planer, but I do not expect any errors, because I do not touch the under-need linuxcnc code.

And 2.6 is out as pre2 and do include gmoccapy, but not the new trajectory planer.

Hope I could help. To change from a existing config to gmoccapy, please see the WIKI.

Norbert

Hello again Norbert,

1. You might be correct that I need to touch off to make it work. Right now I was just playing around to get a feel of the new GUI and didn't go through the touch off before I attempted to run the files. It was on all files, so this is probably the reason. Setting the z-min to a negative value was easier though:-)

2. Sorry, the description was confusing. What I wanted to report was the fact that after using two fingers to move in the view it switched to a default side view. I don't think this is the way you intended it to work. It's anoying for the preview to switch to a view that doesn't show a usefull view as soon as you press anything after spending time to get the view you want. I can't verify now, but I think this only happens when I use two fingers. I'm not familiar with how touch screens work in Linux (and I don't use touch screens on Linux on other computers) so I will need to get familiarized with it. I can try to make a short video showing this if that is more helpfull. It might also be related to the touch driver I'm using? I just googled for a touch driver for Ubuntu 10.04 and installed the first I found. It worked right away so I didn't pay more attention to it. I will try to find out more.

The ngc files that doesn't work I think this might be the interpreter, not the GUI. I will try to load the same files in 2.5.4 and see if the same thing happens then.

I was able to install Ubunto 12.04 on a different partition and tried to install 2.6 pre2 on that. But no success with that. It fails with an error related to version requirements for a mesa check file (I don't remember exactly), but this had nothing to do with gmoccapy. It failed in sim with axis as well.
And the Rtai kernel get internal errors as soon as I try to run anything with LinuxCNC. I think I need to learn how to post a bug report and what files to include (and how to get them). At one point everything was gone from the screen. The only way out was the reset button. Not very encouraging for a newbie like me.....

Anders

Anders,
you may be mixing versions first i presume a pc and not a beaglebone etc

12.04 ubuntu works fine with the development version from git
however installing and a few other fixes need to be done rather than a straight install
follow the instructions in the wiki from seb , along with his kernels and you should be fine ,

post back any specific errors and we should get you working , their are a few files to create in udev and other directorys
and you may get a better result using machinekit , rather than linuxcnc , and of course dependant on your preference of realtime
rtai or zenomai

Hi all
i dont know if is a gmoccapy matter anyway i get these bugs:

1. sometimes after a toolchange i cant see the main code in the window but remains the macro (but highlight bar seems to scroll down)
2. after a program stop, i cant restart from "Run the program from a certain line", because toolchange seems to be ignored. (macro goes directly to tool sensor position)

just a question. Is it possible to lock the preview window zoom and position? it's very annoying.

thank you

Hello Norbert,

We are taking Gmoccapy for a test drive on one of our turning centers and I have some questions,

1. When you edit a program and press the save button, does it reload it as well? I see the save/reload/run button but not a reload, and the operators while not be using the save/reload/run button.

2. How do you go about using the pop-up messages similar to what gscreen uses that are configured in the INI, example,

MESSAGE_BOLDTEXT = NONE
MESSAGE_TEXT = This is a statusbar test
MESSAGE_TYPE = status
MESSAGE_PINNAME = statustest

MESSAGE_BOLDTEXT = NONE
MESSAGE_TEXT = This is an ok dialog test
MESSAGE_TYPE = okdialog
MESSAGE_PINNAME = okdialogtest

MESSAGE_BOLDTEXT = NONE
MESSAGE_TEXT = This is an yes/no dialog test
MESSAGE_TYPE = yesnodialog
MESSAGE_PINNAME = yesnodialogtest

I have about twenty different messages configured for gscreen that will popup in the event of faults, low fluids, low pressures, etc,,,


Thanks

Rick

Cncbasher,

I hope I'm not confused about the different versions, but to be honest it's not that easy to follow this. I have given a description of the system I'm using here.

So no beaglebone or anything. Only as straight current PC with Mesa hardware.

I wanted to use the "new" (old, but in LinuxCNC terms "new") 12.04 Linux. That is what has caused all these problems.

And I did follow the instructions given. BTW the only way I was able to find that instruction site was through google, there are NO links from anywhere in the documentation (that I could find).....

Anyway, first I followed the instructions on this subpage , but soon noticed this was older than the main page.
So I made a second attempt with the newest instructions, but I think they install the same packages. Only small differences in the way the process is described. BTW, the instructions in there need to be updated. I wasn't able to make the links to the added repository sites with the method given there. Only by using different methods was I able to get the entries I needed to. Basically the way described there only gives you the ability to see that it's installed, not work on the software update software (to add additional download sites).

I don't want to be too much off topic, although installing the latest version is a requirement to run Gmoccapy.

I think my point 2 is the same as balestrino is describing. The view keeps jumping to a set (not sure what sets this) view as soon as you press a button outside the preview window.

The way the preview window behaves as far as navigating is subject to personal taste. But from a consistency point of view it should preferably behave the same way as in the other GUI's. Or at least it should be possible to set it to do so. That being said I experienced some jumping around in gscreen as well. So this might be caused by the touch screen driver os something outside of the controll of the GUI programmer.
Anyway, I'd prefer to have the same behaviour regardless of what GUI I have chosen (or even better have the option of choosing it myself!). It’s annoying going from one way of doing things to in regards to how navigation works. And changing the way you navigate the window is a thing that can be annoying when it keeps changing going from one GUI to the other. It could be a deciding point of whether you want to use the GUI or not. So in order to make it more desirable it could be a good idea to make it possible to configure the way navigation works in the preview window.

Another suggestion for ease of use; most decent new (consumer, which is what most people here can afford I would think) monitors on the market today have 1920x1024 (9/16) or 1920x1200 (10/16) resolution. I guess most of us using LinuxCNC would want to maximize the window when machining (and there is a very nice feature in gmoccapy to set it to full screen). But doing so makes the buttons verysmall, with lots and lots of open space between them. For a touch screen setup that isn't desirable as it makes it more difficult to hit the buttons. And it feels like a waste to have all that space around the buttons.

So I suggest a way to make the buttons grow as you increase the size of the window to utilize screen area.

I for one would think it's a waste to have to set the resolution lower to be able to increase the button sizes.
Font size should possibly also be set to follow to help with readability.
One quick and dirty way of doing that would be to make a file with all sizes and positions in it. Then the user could go in there and modify the layout easy and conveniently. And there could even be a GUI layout designer plugin that do it all graphically so one could preview it as they work on it. This would make this whole thing quite a bit more convenient for non-programmers like me:-)

Another thing is the fact that the screen height to width ratio have changed. And 3/4 screens are becoming more and more scarce. As much as I hate that there seems to be no way around this. At the same time the size seem to increase with it, so it's really only a matter of adding screen area on the sides.

My thought on this is that it makes more sense to have the code in a separate window on the side with full height. I know it's possible to add a side panel myself, and I will try to learn enough to be able to do that. But I think this fact should be considered when making the basic setup as well. Due to the changed screen layout it now makes more sense with a full top to bottom code window as default. Default for a wide screen setup anyway…..
One concern with this is that this window should preferably be put inside of the side buttons. After all it does make sense to have most of the buttons along the sides and bottom to have soft keys along the edges of the monitor.

These are only suggestions though. In general I really like this new GUI, and it's really coming along nice! You are at the point of sorting out the finer details now, most of the major design set. So I was hoping details like this would be a good thing to consider at this point.

Now if only I was able to make 2.6 work in 12.04….. although I actually have to say I kind of like 10.04 better, so I might stay with that if that works better for me. Less fuss with installation anyway.

Anders

I have config. and ngc g-code test file.

If your load that config you can't move withot Ferror.

Join 0-2 fallowing

But if you open file in Axes with same hall and ini just adapted some parametrs. It work perfectly.

Velocity speed 2700-3500.

I am check that on 10.04 , 12.04. - 2.6pre3 -
Different PC.
All same.

27.05 - I am also check gscreen (with my hall and Holle1-4,,, ) - it work right without Ferror, like in Axis.

Config -

G-code -

Hi Norbert
I am busy with some testing on my lathe setup and found some strange behaviour and some requests please.

1: After homing the touch-off button is greyed out and you have to switch the machine off to get it back.

2: The Zero G92 button does not clear the offsets but jumps the screen directly to MDI mode.

Requests:

1: Is it possible for set the DRO startup mode. I would like to use ABS

2:After homing cycle is complete, do not jump to G54 on the DRO but stay in the selected mode.

As always thanks for your kind support .