QTDragon_hd with auto toollength measurement

First - I understand your frustration - linuxcnc is a steap learning curve and caters to software engineers I suppose.

well I'll summarise where i think you are at - so you can point out if I am wrong.

You used to use gmoccapy with auto tool probing.
Since IFIAK pncconf doesn't set up auto tool probing, then you modified your config to get this to work. You alluded that you ( could/did) use several examples of this off the net.

Now you wish to use qtdragon with autotool probing and it doesn't work as Intended.
You think it has to do with the fact that qtdragon uses it's own version of manual tool change dialog.

You haven't posted your config files - that I can see - nor what instructions you used off the net to add auto tool probing.
You did post your pncconf files which helps but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have the modifications to do auto tool probing (which I believe requires remap code), but I haven't looked yet.

But you diagnosed that you thought the problem is qtdragon uses the wrong manual tool change dialog.

Which lead me to explain that you could change qtdragon to use the standard manual tool change dialog by loading it and reconnecting the tool change HAL pins from qtdragons to hal_manualtoolchanges ( I assume that's what you use)
of course you would need to do that manually (outside of pncconf)

But doing a quick look at gmoccapy sim configs it looks like gmoccapy doesn't use a dialog or maybe it;s optional. I don't know.

Since there is no standard/official way to set up tool height probing - you can't expect that every screen will work without modification - just as you can't expect every screen to support an automatic tool changer without some modification.
But once we understand what the actual problem is I'm sure we can fix it pretty easily.

On my side in master I have connected a tool height probe to my test machine and have continued on a remap code that could be a standard way to add tool probing but I haven't figured it out completely ( it is a all python remap so is different from an example on the net)
We could discuss how people wished/need that to work - maybe in a different thread?

Chris

cmorley wrote:

First - I understand your frustration - linuxcnc is a steap learning curve and caters to software engineers I suppose.

Thanks Chris for understanding. I do not mean to be ungrateful, it's just the frustration of trying to upgrade to a new version of software and screen and not succeeding.

>well I'll summarise where i think you are at - so you can point out if I am wrong.

>You used to use gmoccapy with auto tool probing.
Since IFIAK pncconf doesn't set up auto tool probing, then you modified your config to get this to work. You alluded that you ( could/did) use several examples of this off the net.

Kinda true. As I mentioned in my last posting I used just pncconf (no editing) to get a working example using gmoccapy as a screen. Exact same pncconf file , only difference qtDragon in stead of gmoccapy, doesn't work.
Not working as in: the dialog box about changing the tool doesn't appear in the Qt version, it does however in gmoccapy.

>Now you wish to use qtdragon with autotool probing and it doesn't work as Intended.

Exactly

>You think it has to do with the fact that qtdragon uses it's own version of manual tool change dialog.

It is one of the differences, QTDragon even complains if I want to use the 'official' one.

>You haven't posted your config files - that I can see - nor what instructions you used off the net to add auto tool probing.

To see what is happening I posted the pncconf files. You can recreate my *.ini files yourself, they will be not different then mine.


>You did post your pncconf files which helps but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have the modifications to do auto tool probing (which I believe requires remap code), but I haven't looked yet.

The strange thing is that gmoccapy works, just qt not.
Maybe there is a powerfull new setting in pncconf that makes magic config files?


>But you diagnosed that you thought the problem is qtdragon uses the wrong manual tool change dialog.

No, that's not my conclusion. Conclusion is that even with a standard way of manual tool changing the QT versions do not work, whereas the versions based on the 'old' screen methods do work.
I described the workflow, same workflow as many others use and are used too. All I want is to be warned if a tool change is imminent (an M6 T* command in the gcode), then a move to my toolchange position, after an acknowledgement from the operator the spindle goed up and moves to the toolsetter position. There the tool is measured and the offset is inserted into the tool table. Pretty standard way and it has functioned for two years here.

>Which lead me to explain that you could change qtdragon to use the standard manual tool change dialog by loading it and reconnecting the tool change HAL pins from qtdragons to hal_manualtoolchanges ( I assume that's what you use) of course you would need to do that manually (outside of pncconf)

That's what I started with, that was when in the days when I was happy and looking forward to an upgraded machine. I soon gave up on trying to get QTdragon to do what I want, no luck at all. I was willing to do it QTDragon's way, but QTDragon doesn't have a way as I have been trying to say all the time.

>But doing a quick look at gmoccapy sim configs it looks like gmoccapy doesn't use a dialog or maybe it;s optional. I don't know.

It's all in the remapping and the stdglue file. I know how it works, and in gmoccapy it works great. I just want it to work in QTDragon.

>Since there is no standard/official way to set up tool height probing - you can't expect that every screen will work without modification - just as you can't expect every screen to support an automatic tool changer without some modification.
>But once we understand what the actual problem is I'm sure we can fix it pretty easily.

I hope I made things a little clearer for you, I get the impression that we talk about different things sometime. Please read the workflow again (it's the same as JohnnyCNC's), that is what would make QTDragon even nicer if we could get it to work easily.

>On my side in master I have connected a tool height probe to my test machine and have continued on a remap code that could be a standard way to add tool probing but I haven't figured it out completely ( it is a all python remap so is different from an example on the net)

Please do not add some python code. You can adjust stdglue and toplevel, but please make all the routines in gcode. Would be superduper if the variables could be set from within QTDragon (Like G30 and toolchangeposition, toolsetterposition and speeds and feeds). That way people can adjust for their needs much easier.


>We could discuss how people wished/need that to work - maybe in a different thread?
Chris

I would be honored. Thanks for being a gentleman.

I found this example that was my starting point for my previous gmoccapy installation. The workflow is described at the end and is the same as min.

vers.by/en/blog/archive/auto-tool-measurement

Ok thanks for explaining and maybe re-explaining

couple more questions.
What version of linuxcnc are you using?
Can you test the sim config of qtDragon_hd to see if it's toolchange dialog works?

I will do a little more investigating..

the python based remap will honour such settings of tool change position, spindle on or off,G30 based on the usual INI settings.
tool setter position and probing speed would be added INI setting - at least at the moment.

thanks

Ok I think we are getting somewhere...

in your qtdragon main HAL file look for (near the bottom)

change to:
And let me know if the tool change dialog works.

Chris

and I stand corrected - Gmoccapy does have auto tool probing built in
More investigating...

cmorley wrote:

and I stand corrected - Gmoccapy does have auto tool probing built in
More investigating...
 

You are more a detective now then a programmer Keep up the good work. QTDragon will be great if the M6 T commands are remapped and some nice dialog boxes appear.

>What version of linuxcnc are you using?

Using the buildbot version of 2.9 pre, so almost every day a new version

>Can you test the sim config of qtDragon_hd to see if it's toolchange dialog works?

I did, and it does not work in the sim configuration

>the python based remap will honour such settings of tool change position, spindle on or off,G30 based on the usual INI settings.
tool setter position and probing speed would be added INI setting - at least at the moment.

I was not really clear in what I meant with not putting all the functionality in a python script. I should have said that what would be nice is that all the movement commands would be in seperate .ngc files. The .ngc files contain g-code, that is a language that most users of LinuxCNC speak for sure. That way machinists (like myself) can adept the code to suit their particular machine. Most other remap routines work that way and it is very flexible (once the user gets it working).

Really appreciating the time and effort you are putting into this. A lot of users will benefit from the very nice UI that qtDragon is and soon the remapped routines for a tool change.
I will be happy to test things out on my machine.

Hello! Please tell me which Linux distribution you have to use buildbot version 2.9 pre. Thanks.