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  1. #21
    Absolutely,
    This is one of the features on my list that I want to add.

    I am aware that many 'PCBers' use different offsets for top and bottom, but personally I have never tried anything other than G54. If the original file is G55 for example then the additions made by Autoleveller should not affect this and G55 should be used in the output file as well but I haven't tested yet so I cannot confirm. It might be best to stick with G54 for everything currently. As you say though there should be an option to explicitly set the offset.

    thanks,

  2. #22
    Another reason I bring fixtures up is that I do not use Mach or Linuxcnc as my controller. I use Turbocnc and it defaults to G53 on power up so when I used the test case last night, if I ran it on the machine, it would be in G53 until it hit the modified code portion after the probing sequence. I can easily put G5x in manually until you get it sorted out.
    And if anybody else is reading this and wants to use Turbocnc, I have a customized version that captures the probing position for use in this software.
    Art

    AKA Country Bubba
    (Older than Dirt)

  3. #23
    TurboCNC support is another feature on my list.

    Quite a big list, but its good to know that people want and will use the additions.

  4. #24
    It was fairly easy to do (and I am NOT a programer!) I just added enough code to the G31 section to map the position data to the variables 2000-200x. Then I just use the a modified Mach post to generate the gcode.

    Matter of fact in the original leveling software, linuxcnc and mach shared the same post.
    Art

    AKA Country Bubba
    (Older than Dirt)

  5. #25
    Ive not looked into it yet but if the variables are the only things which need changing then it should be easy to support TurboCNC directly from the software. Good going.

  6. #26
    Box stock Turbocnc does NOT map the position to variables. I had to add that to the code and re compile.
    As far as I know, there are only a three or four copies in existence that will map to the variables. I think I sent one to an acquaintance and I have three on various systems here at the house.
    Art

    AKA Country Bubba
    (Older than Dirt)

  7. #27
    OK, so there might not be much thats possible from the Autoleveller side in this respect then. I'll have a look at TurboCNC at some point anyway and see if theres anything else I can do to support it apart from fixture selection as per your original suggestion.

    Good work on the custom TurboCNC version. BTW

  8. #28
    thanks for the thumbs up, but it wasn't much. Actually added only about 2 lines of code and a public variable. Would be happy to share the version if anybody is interested. If you want the code, will also supply that with the usual password on the zip file.
    Art

    AKA Country Bubba
    (Older than Dirt)

  9. #29
    Daedelus,
    Congratulations on your program, an excellent job. As a programmer, I too was considering writing something similar but as I managed to get the Autoleveller version of PCB-Gcode working, the need to do so lessened.
    Your approach of making it independent of PCB-Gcode is definitely a step forward and as you point out in your earlier posts, makes it much more generally applicable to a range of other uses.

    I have had a little play with your program using a PCB-Gcode file and all went well. As you asked for feedback, I have a couple of comments / suggestions.

    1) In the output file, after the inserted probing code, just after the motor speed command (S25000 in my case) your code inserts an S20000 command. A bug I guess.
    2) In the Probe Settings section of your GUI, you have a Z Safe Height parameter. After looking through the output Gcode file, this only seems to be used (together with the X and Y parameters) to define the point to return to after the probing stage. As the whole area has just been probed at "Probe Movement Height" we have to assume that it is clear and therefore is this parameter really necessary.
    3) The probing, whilst essential, is time consuming and therefore anything that can be done to minimise the time it takes has to be good. Only the part of the board that is going to be machined needs to be probed, therefore could I suggest that your code analyses the input file to pick out the X and Y extremities and therefore automatically sets the parameters X, Y, X Length and Y Length, thus minimising the number of probe points. This has the added benefit of four less parameters to fill in and to possibly get wrong.

    Thanks again for your efforts. Keep up the good work.

  10. #30
    Thanks very much for the encouragement and feedback. I appreciate it.
    In general, I agree that anything that can automate and reduce the user effort or potential for problems is a good move.

    1. Ah yes, I forgot about this. Good spot. The problem is in LinuxCNC the motor does not start when you use M3 until there is a speed set. For some reason the version of PCB-GCODE I have does not add a Speed setting so my motor does not start. I added the S20000 bit for myself really but I meant to make some other arrangement for this. In reality, my own motor has a max. of 7000rpm and theres no speed control so for me it doesnt matter what I set S to. Its either on or off.
    2. Good point.
    3. Another good point. I was actually adding this a few minutes ago Well I was making a primitive parser for reading GCode files, so that extremities (and other things can be displayed). Actually I was thinking that in some cases you might want to probe and level only a small portion of a board despite the surface in the original file being much larger. So actually you would still need those text boxes. Maybe there could be a pop-up box asking if you want to automatically adjust these settings based on the results from parsing. This would reduced the user effort a bit.

    thanks,

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