qtdragon - probing issues

I have been playing with basic_probe in qtdragon_hd in 2.9. So far everything seems to be working pretty good. I did notice that that there is a much longer pause between each segment of the moves to probe than there is under qtdragon in 2.4.8. Is that by design or just the way it is in the new environment. I'm just doing hobby stuff so it is not really an issue. Just curios.

Is there a way to get a version number for qtdragon_hd that I am using so I can tell it from what ever the latest version is?

Thank You
John

Just noticed something really odd. I just probed the left front corner of a piece of stock while in G54. Everything looked fine while probing but when finished the X & Y were not zero in G54. They were X=-0.9260 Y=1.4609. I am working in inches.. I was using the outside corners screen. Any ideas?

Thanks
John

JohnnyCNC wrote:

Just noticed something really odd. I just probed the left front corner of a piece of stock while in G54. Everything looked fine while probing but when finished the X & Y were not zero in G54. They were X=-0.9260 Y=1.4609. I am working in inches.. I was using the outside corners screen. Any ideas?

Thanks
John

 

Cockpit error.  That is what the Auto Zero button is for.  Back to testing. Or should I say learning  I do like HD better than the non-HD qtdragon.
 

longer pause is probably because of the way we are feeding one line of MDI to linuxcnc at a time rather then calling a complete OWord subroutine. May be able to tweak it a bit better.

There currently is no version number.

What about hd do you like better?

The biggest improvment for me is that the touch screen is more accurate. In my old setup I changed the screen resolution so that qtdragon filled the screen and made the buttons and text a little bigger. The problem was that this caused the touch points to be a little off. Now that I am using the native screen resolution the touch screen is real accurate. I also like "Move to G30" button. I used to use G28 to take the machine to what I call the park position where it sits when not in use. Now I use G30 and can just press the button.

Right now I am trying to get my Z probe to save the Z value adjusted by probe length in parameter #4003. I use this value later in my M6 remap.

I also like the UTILS functions. Facing in particular. Why is there no depth of cut on that screen? I think it would be really trick if you could just enter the tool number you want to use and have it get the parameters from the tool table.

Yes my touch screen is not calibrated quite right - so fussy to get the button you want.
either version can add macro buttons - I think up to ten - so you could add a g28 button too.

Which probe Z (basic probe? screen probe button?) do you want to set #4003 ?

I believe the idea was to use a preloaded tool and set the depth before starting the program to keep it simple.
but yes options could be added such as tool selection so then diameter could be pulled from the tool file. also a 'start/finish here' button for X and Y width would be interesting.

I think a helical endmill hole enlarging utility would be very useful, I've wished for it a couple times.

But at the moment, just getting what's there confirmed working is time consuming.

I was thinking a keyway cutting function on the UTILS screen would be cool. I have code and built the tool and spindle lock per a youtube video from Clough42. I've uses it a few times and it works great.

I do write code for my day job. Mostly C# under windows and a obscure language that most people have never heard of. I just don't know as much as I would like to about the inner workings of Linuxcnc. That way I could give back some to the Linuxcnc project.

The center button on the outside corners screen is the one that I normally use to probe the Z. In the old qtdragon that called the probe_z_minus_wco.ngc and I had modified that to read my probe length which was stored in the .ini file under [PROBE] LENGTH. It then did the math and stores the value. The probe length can come from anywhere that is convenient. If I could have figured out how to update a parameter I would have had a go at changing the probe_routines.py file.

These are the relevant lines of code when I save the value in #400x where x is the coordinate system 1,2,3,etc

#<z_minus_probed> = #5063
#<workspace_z> = #[5203 + [20 * #5220]]

#[4000 + [#5220]] = [#<z_minus_probed> + #<workspace_z> - #<_ini[PROBE]LENGTH>] (Added by JHK)

Thanks Chris
John

JohnnyCNC wrote:

and a obscure language that most people have never heard of. 

 

You just can't leave it there. Some obscure languages are way cool. Clarion in particular kicks butt!

This is the history of the lanuguage.

DB/C was developed by Subject, Wills & Company in the early 1980s. It was an implementation of the DATABUS programming language that was invented by Datapoint Corporation to run on Datapoint computers. The purpose of DB/C was to allow programs developed in DATABUS to run on the DOS operating system of the brand new IBM PC, and soon thereafter on Compaq computers with MS-DOS. Then came support for running DB/C programs on UNIX, AIX, VMS, OS/2, Macintosh and other operating systems.

John

So getting back to the thread topic, I've attached an image of how I have the basic probe screen now. A couple requests for opinions:
- would it be useful to have a popup dialog reminding the user to jog to the correct start point before probing? It might get old after the 400th time so there's a button to turn it off. BTW, the start point is indicated by the purple dots and the green targets are where the probe tip will be after probing.
- is there a big advantage in using G38.4 as opposed to setting the retract distance small, like 1 mm? Should it be optional?
- other suggestions?
The greyed out button is CLEAR CAL OFFSET and is only enabled when in the calibration routines tab. All parameters are stored in the qtdragon.pref file.
Note that this qtdragon is not the one in the current linuxcnc repo. 
Jim