Re: emc-0.9-25.src.tgz

[Fred Proctor <frederick.proctor-at-nist.gov>]

Ray wrote:

> I placed the above file (~2.5 meg) in the dropbox at linuxcnc.org.  It
> compiled without major problems on both Mandrake 7.0 using rtlinux-2.2a and
> RedHat 2.0.36 using rtlinux-0.9J.  I have been running with it for a while
> and it seems okay.  You may experience occasional mbuff problems with
> the 2.2 kernel.

I downloaded it, ran it, worked OK for the limited testing I did. I had
a problem with the version creation script,
emc/scripts/generic/setversion, which gave this error when I was root:

[root-at-hostname nist]# emc/scripts/generic/setversion 
sed: -e expression #1, char 33: Unterminated `s' command
sed: -e expression #1, char 30: Unterminated `s' command

but it ran fine when I was a normal user. I looked into the script and
it's OK, line by line, so I don't know what's going on. It may just be
some screwy environment thing I have. If anyone else has this problem
let me know.

> This release includes the probing function and some interesting info under
> the help menu.  Probing is briefly described in the handbook.

I edited the emc/doc/RELEASE_NOTES to reflect this release. Here's what
I propose for how this file should be used:

1. The first heading is "New in this release". When you make a change,
add it to the end of the numbered list in this section.

2. When a release is issued, change "New in this release" to "New in
0.9-25", or whatever the release number will be.

3. This becomes emc-0.9-25.txt, the text file accompanying the release,
that is a quick guide to what happened.

4. When the next modification is made, go to (1).

I noticed that the first 8 mods in the list made it in to the 0.9-25
release, but the two at the end didn't. So, I changed
emc/doc/RELEASE_NOTES to reflect this. Here's what it looks like. Note
the "New in this release" refers to the changes that will make it into
the next release:

New in this release:

1. Fixed syntax error in genedit.tcl, that popped up a Tcl/Tk error
box when you tried to do File->Edit in the editor window.

2. Added phase stepping to freqmod.o. This uses a Gray-coded 2-bit
sequence instead of step and direction, suitable for interfacing
directly to Bridgeport stepper drivers. Set the .ini file variable

[EMCMOT]
STEPPING_TYPE = 1

for this. 0 means step and direction, the default that will be used if
the .ini file entry is not there. TEST THIS PLEASE.

New in 0.9-25:

1. Added the ability to pop up an introductory image for a specified
time. The generic.run script now pulls out the introductory image file
and time it's popped up from:

[DISPLAY]
INTRO_GRAPHIC = <.gif file>
INTRO_TIME = 5

and if the graphic is there, it runs the image viewing script in
emc/src/emctask/popimage.tcl (copied into the plat/XXX/bin directory
as 'popimage'), for the INTRO_TIME, in seconds. Default is 5 seconds.

It pops up right at the beginning, before the subprocesses are run, so
it covers for the dead time before the GUI comes up. The GUI could pop
up its own graphic, but not until after it's run, which takes a
while. This new method pops up an image earlier.

You can point INTRO_GRAPHIC to whatever you want. There is a default
image, emcintro.gif, in the emc/ directory. It's really lame to entice
you to create and submit your own.

2. Fixed bug in emcsh.cc/tkemc.tcl, in which the .ini file name wasn't
passed to subscripts in the "Scripts" menu. Now, emcsh.cc adds a Tcl
global variable, "EMC_INIFILE", which contains the name of the .ini
file, and tkemc.tcl passes this to the subscripts with "-- -ini
$EMC_INIFILE".
Did the same for iosh.cc, so you can reference $EMC_INIFILE in tkio.tcl.

3. Fixed F9/F10 in tkemc.tcl so that each turns off the spindle, if
it's on in either forward or reverse direction. Fixed b/B so that
shift-B turns the spindle brake on. It was alt-B before.

4. Added a check against GET_AXIS_ENABLE_FLAG() before aborting amp
faults. Changed AMP_FAULT_DEBOUNCE from 10 to 100. For 500 usec
servos, this is 50 msecs, and fixes the race condition problem between
amp enable and a reset of amp fault, in systems where amp fault equals
not amp enable.

5. Added a help menu item to tkemc that runs emc/tcl/sysinfo.tcl file.
This shows the contents of the new emcversion file that is generated
during install or RPM.  Extra buttons for Linux Version, Cpu, Mem,
Interrupt, and Module info.  A write button saves text widget contents
to emc/emcinfo file.  Hint - Other diagnostic buttons could be added
here.

6. Added external altering of position input, in support of
dynamically tweaking the position in response to thermal growth. It's
intended to be run outside the GUI or EMC, as a separate process, that
calls usrmotInit() and then usrmotAlter(axis, alter) repeatedly in
response to thermocouple readings and a model that computes a
corrective offset. This won't interfere at all with the EMC operation,
since it uses a different channel than the command/status channels.

7. Modified the Makefile in emcmot directory to eliminate the -lc -lm
flags when the modules are linked together for rtlinux_2_2. This seems
to make the modules return to a little under the size the they were on
rtlinux_2_0 and RedHat 6.1. But with RedHat 6.2/rtlinux_2_2 this makes
a difference of about a factor of 100 in the module size.

8. Modify several install scripts to change them from C shell to
Bourne shell. The install scripts also seperate the error logs for
different platforms. There were also several scripts added to support
the building of RPM (RedHat Package Manager) archives.

...

Does this make sense?

--Fred