Thoughts after a few months tinkering with BB and observing other controllers

Post any suggestions that you have for new features and enhancements for the Buildbotics Controller here.
wabbastang
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Thoughts after a few months tinkering with BB and observing other controllers

Post by wabbastang » Sat Dec 28, 2019 11:13 am

A few things that at this moment in my limited experience I'd like to see. I have been pouring over CNC router how tos, forums, and have enough experience on my current machine I am starting to get a feel for what to incorporate in the next one. Also, disclaimer, I might be doing something fundamentally wrong here or unaware of an existing solution so please enlighten me :)

Native "one click" support for corner touchplates in the web interface. The corner finders are pretty popular (like this https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07793FGWG ) and a lot of the controllers seem to have the functionality built in for them. This should be a couple buttons on the main interface screen, and an admin page for the touplate settings/sizes. Z-thickness of course, and then be able to select between corner finding by outside edge of the plate, or center of the circle, defining widths of the edges/circle in the setup.

Network access to the file system. Just to be able to quickly manipulate the gcode files remotely. Not a huge deal but seems like a handy little thing.

"Return to home" shortcut button on the main control screen to run the spindle back to 0 without having to go punch it in MDI manually would be handy.

As I saw someone else mention, ability load a program and then have it plot out the X/Y extremes at clearance height on the machine (maybe step through them with a button click). Just to make sure you've got things positioned right. I realize BB will throw a warning about boundaries but would be nice to be able to run through it and see.

While a program is running but paused, be able to save the state to resume later. Along these lines, before actually resuming running it, return to the last position. Here's my thought here, I'd had a couple of times where something started to go wrong during a lot cut process and needed to fix it - Namely bit slipping down in a worn out collet. If I "stop" the program, I have to start over completely. If I "pause" it, i can't manipulate the tooling position in order to fix the problem. Ideally, i wanted to pause the program, move the tool around to get working room, fix the bit, re-zero the axis, and then tell it to move back and resume running.

It would be nice to have a way to dial in the axis travel distances. I realize that the obvious answer is you can enter in all the required values in setup, but things aren't always perfect. For example, universal gcode sender has a pretty easy solution here. Tell it to travel a specified distance on an axis, measure the actual traveled distance, and then tell it how much it was off. When I first setup my machine before going to BB, I ran though this and found that at 200mm of travel, my X axis was about 2mm and Y 6mm off. Don't know why but it was dead on consistent, and correcting for this made it perfect.

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Doug
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Re: Thoughts after a few months tinkering with BB and observing other controllers

Post by Doug » Sat Dec 28, 2019 1:12 pm

Thank you for your excellent suggestions. We are continuously trying to make our product better and customer input is critical for setting priorities.

I am going to break my responses into several pieces, with each one addressing a single issue. Here's the first one:

Native "one click" support for corner touchplates in the web interface. The corner finders are pretty popular (like this https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07793FGWG ) and a lot of the controllers seem to have the functionality built in for them. This should be a couple buttons on the main interface screen, and an admin page for the touplate settings/sizes. Z-thickness of course, and then be able to select between corner finding by outside edge of the plate, or center of the circle, defining widths of the edges/circle in the setup
.

At least one other customer has requested this.

My hope is to solve these "special' functions with programmable buttons. The idea is that users could write a g-code sequence that is automatically executed when a programmable button is clicked. You can follow the status of our implementation of programmable buttons on github at https://github.com/buildbotics/bbctrl-f ... issues/190

In the meantime, I wrote a g-code program that finds the top, x position, and y-position of the work piece using a probe similar to the one you referenced. I have attached that program. You can add the program to your pull down list on the BB controller, and then run it like any other program. You will probably have to adjust some of the distances to match your probe and machine if you decide to use it.

Hope this helps
Attachments
find_workpiece.gc
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Doug
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Re: Thoughts after a few months tinkering with BB and observing other controllers

Post by Doug » Sat Dec 28, 2019 1:17 pm

Network access to the file system. Just to be able to quickly manipulate the gcode files remotely. Not a huge deal but seems like a handy little thing.

We agree that this is a good thing to do and have it on our list. You can follow the status on github at https://github.com/buildbotics/bbctrl-f ... issues/192

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Doug
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Re: Thoughts after a few months tinkering with BB and observing other controllers

Post by Doug » Sat Dec 28, 2019 1:22 pm

"Return to home" shortcut button on the main control screen to run the spindle back to 0 without having to go punch it in MDI manually would be handy.

We think this would best be solved with programmable buttons. Here is the link to the open github issue:https://github.com/buildbotics/bbctrl-f ... issues/190

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Doug
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Re: Thoughts after a few months tinkering with BB and observing other controllers

Post by Doug » Sat Dec 28, 2019 1:25 pm

As I saw someone else mention, ability load a program and then have it plot out the X/Y extremes at clearance height on the machine (maybe step through them with a button click). Just to make sure you've got things positioned right. I realize BB will throw a warning about boundaries but would be nice to be able to run through it and see.

Another customer just recently made this request. I have opened a github issue on the request and mentioned that you have now made the same request. You can track the issue on github at https://github.com/buildbotics/bbctrl-f ... issues/235

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Doug
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Re: Thoughts after a few months tinkering with BB and observing other controllers

Post by Doug » Sat Dec 28, 2019 1:37 pm

While a program is running but paused, be able to save the state to resume later. Along these lines, before actually resuming running it, return to the last position. Here's my thought here, I'd had a couple of times where something started to go wrong during a lot cut process and needed to fix it - Namely bit slipping down in a worn out collet. If I "stop" the program, I have to start over completely. If I "pause" it, i can't manipulate the tooling position in order to fix the problem. Ideally, i wanted to pause the program, move the tool around to get working room, fix the bit, re-zero the axis, and then tell it to move back and resume running.

I agree. Please check out the github issue at https://github.com/buildbotics/bbctrl-f ... issues/220

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Doug
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Re: Thoughts after a few months tinkering with BB and observing other controllers

Post by Doug » Sat Dec 28, 2019 1:45 pm

It would be nice to have a way to dial in the axis travel distances. I realize that the obvious answer is you can enter in all the required values in setup, but things aren't always perfect. For example, universal gcode sender has a pretty easy solution here. Tell it to travel a specified distance on an axis, measure the actual traveled distance, and then tell it how much it was off. When I first setup my machine before going to BB, I ran though this and found that at 200mm of travel, my X axis was about 2mm and Y 6mm off. Don't know why but it was dead on consistent, and correcting for this made it perfect.

This one is new. I have submitted a new github issue based on your description and my experiences with the exact same problem. You can track the github issue at https://github.com/buildbotics/bbctrl-f ... issues/236

wabbastang
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Re: Thoughts after a few months tinkering with BB and observing other controllers

Post by wabbastang » Tue Dec 31, 2019 8:43 am

Doug wrote:
Sat Dec 28, 2019 1:12 pm
My hope is to solve these "special' functions with programmable buttons. The idea is that users could write a g-code sequence that is automatically executed when a programmable button is clicked. You can follow the status of our implementation of programmable buttons on github at https://github.com/buildbotics/bbctrl-f ... issues/190
This is a great idea. I think you're right in that it would be a simple way to tackle a number of interface ideas... Excited to see some of this stuff evolve. And thanks for the gcode starter.

Mick
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Re: Thoughts after a few months tinkering with BB and observing other controllers

Post by Mick » Sat Mar 07, 2020 2:36 pm

Doug wrote:
Sat Dec 28, 2019 1:45 pm
It would be nice to have a way to dial in the axis travel distances. I realize that the obvious answer is you can enter in all the required values in setup, but things aren't always perfect. For example, universal gcode sender has a pretty easy solution here. Tell it to travel a specified distance on an axis, measure the actual traveled distance, and then tell it how much it was off. When I first setup my machine before going to BB, I ran though this and found that at 200mm of travel, my X axis was about 2mm and Y 6mm off. Don't know why but it was dead on consistent, and correcting for this made it perfect.

This one is new. I have submitted a new github issue based on your description and my experiences with the exact same problem. You can track the github issue at https://github.com/buildbotics/bbctrl-f ... issues/236
All the above feature ideas are great and I would love to see them all at some stage.

The quoted one above would be very handy as their is no mention in the doc's of how to find this and edit it, what the values are currently for XYZ amount of travel.

If you have 15 mins to spare I think this video will show the features alot of people are asking for in the buildbotics controller and how its set up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eANuoBiRJTM

Would also be nice to adjust the feed rate on the fly while running a job
Thanks
Mick

bor MC
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Re: Thoughts after a few months tinkering with BB and observing other controllers

Post by bor MC » Thu Mar 12, 2020 3:28 pm

While you're on the path of programmable buttons, will that extend to the game pad controller as well? The Logitech's are programmable with the add on of their software to the computer. This being raspberry PI based that code should be able to be incorporated also.

I can say we switched out our standard logitech gamepad with a wireless F710 and have complete function from great distances. It would be awesome to carry the controller wherever I am in the shop and when the machine finishes a cut I can send it to "park" with a touch of a button on the gamepad .

MC

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