pause spindle using USB pendant

Hi all

I am trying to setup a USB (DragonRase) pendant to do various functions on my test cnc.

When using the UI this is what happens
Start the machine to the point where it begins cutting.
Press the "pause" button. The spindle raises up & stops spinning.
Press the "pause spindle" button. Spindle starts up. Press OK in the dialog box.
Spindle lowers & program resumes.
Great
I have connected my USB to the pause button with the following line
net ext_prg_pause    <= qtdragon.external-pause    <= input.0.btn-top

When I press the button the spindle raises & stops.
If I press it again the spindle stays paused & the machine starts doing air cuts.

My question is... is there a hal pin for the "pause spindle" button to start the sequence correctly?

I'm using Debian 12
LINUXCNC - 2.9.2-168-ge7cd5217d9
QTDragon (not HD)

Thanks
Alex

can you share whole content of your hal file? Btw you can check halui.spindle.stop pin in linuxcnc.org/docs/2.6/html/man/man1/halui.1.html

You mean halui.spidle.0.stop This is an input pin & does totally the opposite of what I'm after.
This will stop the spindle all together.
The halui pins think the spindle is still spinning even when the qtdragon.spindle-inhibit is active

From the QTDragon doc page...
If using the Spindle lift option, HALUI can not be used to pause/resume the program.

I think there needs to be a way to restart the sequence using a qtdragon HAL pin.
I'm not sure if there is one though.

Just in case I have attached the appropriate files.
​​​​​​​
Thanks
Alex

You say you are using 2.9.2 but Qtdragon in 2.9 does not have an external-pause HAL pin.
Is your Qtdragon modified or are you actually using master branch (sometimes call 2.10)

I did set this up by loading Debian & then adding linuxcnc as deb files but that is the version as listed....
LINUXCNC - 2.9.2-168-ge7cd5217d9

And attached is a pic of the pause buttons.
qtdragon.external-pause

I am happy to format the computer & setup again from scratch if that is going to give me an answer.

If you can give me a recommendation I'm happy to try.

Thanks
Alex

Well I don't know why it says 2.9.2 and has the external-pause pin but lets put that aside for the moment.

The external-pause pin expects to be set high to pause and low to unpause.
Does your pin drive it like so or is it momentary high to pause and a momentary high to unpause?

Chris

qtdragon.external-pause is momentary.... This causes qtdragon.spindle-inhibit & spindle.0.inhibit to go high.

If I press the button again the spindle does not restart & the spindle does not lower into the work piece. It just makes air cuts with the spindle paused.

However if I press the spindle paused button (next to reload on the ui) the spindle starts up. I get the dialog box & the spindle lowers to the correct height to continue the program.

I need to find a HAL pin for that spindle paused button.

Thanks
Alex

Can you post the qtdragon_handler file?

How do I find the handler file (& what does it do)

Does this mean that qtdragon.external-pause is likely to dissappear the net time I reinstall linuxcnc?

Thanks

Maybe the easiest is change the INI setting:
[DISPLAY]
DISPLAY = qtvcp -i qtdragon

and run linuxcnc from the terminal.