FRO and SSO with encoders

I have FRO and SSO working with encoders now BUT I need to be able to hook to teh sliders. I am using this code and it does adjust teh FRO/SSO just fine BUT you cannot see how much adjustment you have applied other than teh Feedrate goes up and down.

HOW could I connect teh encoder output to teh sliders ??

# ---feed override signals to mesa encoder - mpg---
net fo-count <= hm2_7i80.0.encoder.03.count
setp hm2_7i80.0.encoder.03.filter true
setp hm2_7i80.0.encoder.03.counter-mode false
# connect feed overide increments - MPG
setp halui.feed-override.direct-value false
setp halui.feed-override.scale .001
net fo-enable => halui.feed-override.count-enable
net fo-count => halui.feed-override.counts

( TP

for this since PP doesn't support external control of FRO and SSO you'll have to modify the python code to add this ability.

Looking at the tormach_mill.glade file the sliders are named
feedrate_override_scale & feedrate_override_label
spindle_override_scale & spindle_override_scale
the label to the right of the slider also should be updated which shows the percent value

These sliders are updated in ui_common.py
and it looks like it's done in apply_newest_override_slider_values but that's for when you move the sliders,
what you're going to likely have to do is add new code into the 50ms routine to check the encoder and if it's changed and update the slider.


same for the spindle

Interesting that Tormach does use an outside pendant and does do FRO and SSO. I wonder how they did it.

I did see where peopl had done this in LinuxCNC and it did update teh slider when applied.

( TP

if your referring to their puck USB controller yes they do but that is not a encoder or mpg type input.

what you've done so far is tell LINUXCNC not PathPilot to use a encoder for FRO/SSO. LinuxCNC is happy to do this and works as you see. you need to think of the GUI and LinuxCNC as separate components. LinuxCNC can run without a GUI, but the GUI can not run without LinuxCNC

in the GUI's like AXIS they have this coded in the GUI to allow for these to be handled by the encoders, PP only has for their puck as thats what they provide customers

I also found people who have made encoders use teh sliders in PathPilot but there were no code examples. It must be top secret (

Yes Tormach does use a game controller as a pendant.


Maybe I can find a code example on how to make it all work.

Thanks ( TP

Someone solved the problem with moving the sliders in the PathPilot? It seems that there is a solution. For example,

But how to do that?

The problem is the author is not interested in sharing his process code. So at best it is just a pretty picture.
(;-( TP

Doesn’t that violate the T&C of PP License?
Only the images are protected. The pp code is open source but I forget which license though.

It’s strange that such a good product didn’t provide feedback with real sliders. People wrote that they only needed to add a couple of lines of code on the python. They wrote that only the image was licensed.

I would say here Tormach would add this feature if enough Tormach customers asked for it. for their specifications for their Mills/Lathes it not an included feature of pathpilot.

now to adding the feature

90% of it is getting the encoders added to your HAL files and insuring encoders are enabled in the bit files for the mesa card

once in the HAL files the encoder info is available to the PP gui
then it should be as simple as adding python code that calculates the slider position based on the encoder value

I will say this again. Learn LinuxCNC if your desire is to modify the PathPilot GUI. trying to modify PP without knowing LinuxCNC will lead to frustration.

once I have some fund available to get my Dev system up to purchase a new mesa card I might get back into hacking and working with PP gui for things like this.