qtdragon - probing issues

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

Could you please show what that looks like with versa probe ????
and that is the HD version, right?

Yes to HD version.
I haven't done anything with versaprobe. Chris has done a lot of work on it and it will be up to him to decide what new features it will have. The good news is that the majority of the code supports both versions. The only real difference is the UI and code that handles the UI. The subprogram and probe routines are the exact same python files for both.
Jim