QTDragon_hd with auto toollength measurement

Hi,

This is driving me nuts. I used to use gmoccapy but since there is no support on it anymore I changed to QTDragon and QTDragon_hd.

Looks great, even the probing routines are useful with my topcom.cz/dig3dlpm/ probe. Material heightsetter topcom.cz/digzm/ works too. For a toolsetter I use a cheap Chinese one nl.aliexpress.com/item/32931537443.html

Problem is this, in gmoccapy I had some M6 remap routines to automatic measure and adjust the tool table for a given end-mill. It worked great and automated a large boring part of the milling on my machine.
I wanted to use the same or something similar in the QTDragon screens.I can not get it to work. There is no documentation that is of any use, the examples I find are outdated and / or do not work. The gmoccapy way just doesn't work in the Dragon screens since there seems to be an internal hal_manualtoolchange module.

I see that the author of QTDragon is aware of the problems, I just do not see any solution or a working example where the M6 T* command will do the following if the current tool is not the same as the  new tool:

1. display a dialog box stating a tool change is necessary, showing the new toolnumber
2. cause the spindle to move up
3. move the spindle to a toolchange postion
4. let's the user click a button in a dialog box to proceed to nest step
5. move the spindle to the toolsetter position
6. do a rapid move to a safe distance from the setter
7. move slowly towards the setter till contact
8. retract and measure again but now even slower
9. adjust the tool offset table with the value obtained
10. move spindle up
11. and continue with the gcode program

This is how it worked in gmoccapy and I was very happy with it. Would like to use the same workroutine with the modern qui.

Is there anybody who got it working and is willing to share the ini files and ngc scripts?

I'm using QTDragon under LinuxCNC 2.8.2 and my setup works pretty much as you describe.
See my posts in this thread  It may help.
John

 

JohnnyCNC wrote:

I'm using QTDragon under LinuxCNC 2.8.2 and my setup works pretty much as you describe.
See my posts in this thread It may help.
John

 
 

Ok, thanks. Looks promising. I will try tomorrow and let you know. Thanks for your response.

Can you point out what docs are out of date?

Chris

cmorley wrote:

Can you point out what docs are out of date?

Chris
 

Well for starters the text under 'probing' is not helpful at all.
linuxcnc.org/docs/html/gui/qtdragon.html#_probing It only mentions the possibility of tool length measurement (ATLM). I hoped/expected to see more guidance there for beginners like myself.

And further there are numerous examples scattered over the forums that do not work with QTDragon. I tried them all and no luck at a working solution for remapping M6 for automatic toolsetter offsets


Maybe this has to do with the definition of ATLM. Some examples only do a touchoff and do not adjust offsets, others go a little further.
Would be real nice if all the old not working examples would get a warning so people do not waste their time on those solutions. The level of frustration gets very high when there is no place to find help with something that should be very common by now, even for hobby machinists like myself.

I had a working installation of gmoccapy. Now most things do not work anymore and I had to start almost from scratch. If things changes so much that the 'older' way does not work anymore there is something wrong in my opinion.

Very grateful for the superb LinuxCNC software that is available here, I am not blaming anyone and no complaints about what is free to use. But some working examples for new stuff (is QTVCP new stuff?) would be very nice. It just doesn't work to tell a machinist to read through the intricacies of the hal layer just to get something working again that used to work perfectly. But that is just my opinion.

Was the on screen probe help dialog not helpful?

I can't really fix examples all over the forum - but I can document a working example in the qtvcp docs if one is shown to me.

toolchange routines are hard to document as it seems every integrator does things a little differently.

Chris

cmorley wrote:

Was the on screen probe help dialog not helpful?

Thanks Chris for taking the time to answer me.

The on screen probe help is great, but it doesn't help with the remapping at all. As I described before it is possible to do a sensible remapping of the M6 command and get auto tool length measurement. This may not be necessary if you work on gcode programs with just one tool. It is really handy if you have some toolchanges and make a long program that handles the complete workpiece.

cmorley wrote:

I can't really fix examples all over the forum - but I can document a working example in the qtvcp docs if one is shown to me.

As soon I have it working again in QTDragon I will let you know. I already posted my config files for a working gmoccapy solution, just to make it available to others who also struggle with this.

cmorley wrote:

toolchange routines are hard to document as it seems every integrator does things a little differently.

Chris

I have the impression that it is not the routines that are making trouble here. It is more the implementation in QTDragon where there is a 'special' hal_manualtoolchage module I suspect.
The routines are easily found all over the forum. It is the [RS472NGC] remapping command and the built in manualtool change routines that are not cooperating.


For the moment I gave up on the whole debacle, costs me more then I want in terms of time and mindset.
Even when I make a completly new qtdragon install with pncconf it still doesn't work. I attached the pncconf setting :

I found the text from a post I made somewhere about my remap. This was done using LinuxCNC 2.8 using QTDragon and not QTDragon_HD. I haven't looked at that or LinuxCNC 2.9 yet. Anyway here is the text of my post and it has more detail than I previously provided:Objective

My objective was to be able to use a mix of fixed length tool and variable length tools. I only want to measure the variable length tools like drill bits or other rarely user tools that I don’t keep in a dedicated tool holder. My setup is a Sieg X3 mill LinuxCNC 2.8 using the QTDragon screen with an ASUS 1920x1080 touch screen and 3D probe. I based my remap on the work done by Peter Dam that I found through this post  forum.linuxcnc.org/qtvcp/39423-qtdragon-...ange?start=20#190243  .

Workflow

Start machine and home all.
Touch off work piece X,Y,Z, using 3D probe. See note below.
Load G-Code file.
Cycle start
At each tool change the user is prompted to load the tool and indicate when this is complete.
If the tool is a fixed length tool indicated by the presence of a Z value other than zero in the tool table measuring will be skipped and machining will proceed.
If the tool is variable length the tool will move to the tool setter location and will probe the sensor to determine the tool’s length and then machining will proceed

Note: When the work piece is probed in the Z direction with the 3D probe, the value of the touch-off minus the length of the probe is stored in parameters #4001-4006 for G54-G59. This measurement would be as if the spindle nose is sitting on the work piece. The length of the probe is stored in the .ini file.

Setup

Place the m6remap.ngc file in the ~linuxcnc/nc_files/probe/basic_probe/macros directory
Place the measure_tool_inch.ngc and measure_tool_mm.ngc files in the ~linuxcnc/nc_files directory
Place the measure_toolsetter_inch.ngc and measure_toolsetter_mm.ngc files in the ~linuxcnc/nc_files directory

Add the following to the .ini file under [RS274NGC]
REMAP=M6 modalgroup=6 ngc=m6remap.ngc
SUBROUTINE_PATH = macros

Add the following to the .ini file.
[PROBE]
LENGTH=<probe length>

I made a slight change to the probe_z_minus_wco.ngc file. I added the bold line to save the Z touch-off value minus the probe length for G54 - G59 in parameters #4001 - #4006 respectively.

G10 L2 P#5220 Z[#<z_minus_probed> + #<workspace_z>]
#[4000 + [#5220]] = [#<z_minus_probed> + #<workspace_z> - #<_ini[PROBE]LENGTH>]
o<probe_z_minus_wco> return

Add the following lines to linuxcnc.var file. This will make parameters #4001-#4006 persistent.
4001 0.000000
4002 0.000000
4003 0.000000
4004 0.000000
4005 0.000000
4006 0.000000

Edit: I made some changes and corrections. I made imperial and metric versions of the measure_toolsetter and measure_tool macros. I also made changes to m6remap.ngc to work with both imperial and metric and corrected and issue with restoring the G59.1 & G59.2 work offsets should they be is use at the time of the tool change.
 

In Qtvcp screens, it's preferred to use the builtin manual tool change dialog if you don't have a tool changer., but if you require to use an external one you can - just connect the appropriate HAL pins.

What is special about the external tool change dialog? - maybe it's something I could add to qtvcp.

>In Qtvcp screens, it's preferred to use the builtin manual tool change dialog if you don't have a tool changer., but if you require to use an external one you can - just connect the appropriate HAL pins.

Huh? This is all about the builtin stuff not working. I can not make sense of your remark.

>What is special about the external tool change dialog? - maybe it's something I could add to qtvcp.

I reinstalled the machine (apt purge linuxcnc), a fresh buildbot install of 2.9. Using my saved pncconf file I made a new machine and still no luck on the tool change.
Then I changed the display in pncconf to gmoccapy and it works. It just doesn't work in the dragon screens (qtDragon and qtDragon_hd.

I am still puzzeld by your remark, There is nothing showing up after a MDI command M6 T3 for example. When I change screens to gmoccapy it works straight out of the box.
I described what I expect to happen after a tool change, this is certainly not what is happening right now.

What can be wrong? I include my pncconf file for my 7i96 xyyz machine. Maybe you can try and make some configurations that work with the qt screens?