Re: XmEmc

[John Moore <jmoore-at-firetalk.com>]

Jon Elson wrote:

> dan falck wrote:
>
> > John,
> >
> > I tried the demo and think that it will be good for a touch screen.  I like
> > the big buttons.
> > When I hit estop, everything on the main screen disappears.  I know that
> > it's supposed to , but could you leave the axis readouts up so that an
> > operator could see where they are at?  I realize that you can hit reset and
> > the axis readouts reappear, but I just like to know where the table is at all
> > times.  (Not that I've had to hit the estop button in real life much.... : )
>
> This is a VERY good point, because the position readouts essentially
> make a DRO when the servos are not powered.  This can be VERY
> useful when diagnosing problems and during machine setup, when the
> machine can be cranked manually to verify encoder calibration and polarity.
> Reading the limit switches could also be very handy, such as when the
> machine is left sitting on a limit switch.
>
> Jon

I had already anticipated the above, and hence the version XmEmc1, which
does exactly as  suggested here. Version 0 was to show look and feel along
with gui capabilities. Version 1 is more geared toward actually replacing
xemc functionality.

I've been debating (with myself) changes to version 1 design (manual):
Have spindle control as a separate popup and keep the axis jogging on
the same screen (changing the dimension to ~ 800x600)

My original thinking was that the jogging of axes would
scale to multiple axes better in a separate popup, following the "homing"
model (which will be enhanced  with increment control and speed
control), and thus reuse the GUI for homing to do manual jogging .
The anticipation of needing more space inclined me towards a popup,
but now I'm thinking it logically belongs on the main panel.

Also, I forsee various implementations of jogging-control, selected by
a radio button, perhaps (Doug  sent me an image of a DOS one
that had x,y with N,S,E,W,NW,NE,SE,SW and z had UP/DOWN
which might be popular in many applications).

--
John Moore
Firetalk Communications
jmoore-at-firetalk.com