WebControl Open Beta

Its not a burden to have a user connect an HDMI screen once during setup to set the wireless and then go headless. Often you need an Ethernet cable once during initial setup on various devices for example.

-Jeff

A Pi Zero W is $15. Not sure if it is sufficient for WC? If it is then perhaps standardise on it and stop spending cycles on windows and macos and make it all web access to the Pi?

Trying to be on 3 platforms to save $15 is a high cost I think, judging by this thread… I just want it to work and a dedicated black box Pi gets there…

-Jeff

The Pi Zero doesn’t support docker… so some other container/update methodology would be needed to use it. But a $35 regular PI works fine.

That’s the approach I’ve taken. Focus on the RPi and if someone wants to do windows or macos, they can download from the repo and build it.

I prefer having some extra firepower and the gpio pins already on anyway. And four cores… Pi3b at this point until the heat issues if the pi4 get fully addressed.

-Jeff

Sounds like we have a volunteer!

There’s a post on it up near the top of this thread (I’d have to go looking
which I can’t do at the moment)

David Lang

Since I built my cnc early this year, I have run it with a dedicated linux box and USB. Prior to even getting the Maslow kit I tried setting up the Pi, but got frustrated trying to make things work. It was a combination of not having used the software (gc) before and not being sure what was actually necessary for a final result. Lots of different methods, suggests, etc for Pi setup. I have set up several Pi systems and have used Linux for years, so I’m very comfortable in Linux. I don’t even run windows at my house unless I have to for some software reason, and then only in a VirtualBox. For some reason all the Pi setup hints and suggests made the Pi a time sink for me.

I put effort into getting the Pi to work a few times over the months, but gave up due to frustration and lack of time. I got the Maslow working quite easily on the Linux PC, so I was satisfied. A couple of weeks ago, I thought I’d give the Pi a try again since I had the CNC working fairly well. The Pi would be the “final touch”, if you will. I puttered around with the Kivy install instructions for a couple hours. Then (and I feel there should be some dramatic music here) I stumbled on webcontrol… and DOCKER!!!. I had the Pi running in less than 30 minutes. It hooked up to the machine, I loaded my previous config, and presto. It worked.

If you are not running WebControl on a Pi, you are missing out. The only feature I’m missing is auto-z zero… which I’m sure will be available (soon)?

The UI is a bit different and you have to make some small mental adjustments in the way some of the inputs work, but this was so easy I almost couldn’t believe it.

@madgrizzle you have my admiration. Just open a browser and presto. I’m spoiled. If the Pi-w works I’d recommend one be preconfigured in every kit! Pi + WebControl… you’ll never look back. :yum:

Outstanding effort!

4 Likes

Webcontrol is acting as though I don’t have a z-axis installed. After uploading my GC.ini the z-axis was disabled so I enabled it. when I try to jog the z-axis the motor buzzes bot does not move. the UI then asks me to manually adjust the router. BTW I’m running the pre-assembled image on a pi3b+.
Any thoughts?

(edited: fat fingers)

go into the settings and make sure the Z axis is enabled

David Lang
k

@dlang Yep, I tried the slider in both directions. With it off it prompt me to move it. With it on the motor buzzes but does not move and then it prompts me.

does this only work with a certain firmware? I’m using 1.27 from the MaslowCNC GitHub.

yes, it has not yet been updated to work with the 1.27 firmware

I am using 1.26. I got the message about moving Z, but after updating the Z-enabled setting, it worked for me.

I would add that I started with a Raspbian Buster lite and then proceeded with docker image. I don’t think this has an effect, but thought I’d mention it.

Sometimes, for some reasons I haven’t tracked down, setting updates don’t sync between webcontrol and the controller. I’m hoping to rewrite that code, yet again, to see if I can make it more reliable. Sometimes calling Actions->Sync Settings will correct the problem.

this is something that holey triangulation did a lot of work on, you may want to
look at what is done there. (every startup it compares the values and asks you
which you want if they differ)

The way I have to do settings in webcontrol is entirely different than ground control. ground control uses kivy’s built-in setting routine (real nice and easy to use) but I had to roll my own from scratch. Generally pressing sync settings fixes any issues (sends the ‘$$’ command). I’ve thought about just calling that function after the setting form is submitted and webcontrol updates its copy of the settings but I’ve tried to mirror how ground control works by only sending changed values to the controller.

2 Likes

So interesting thing about this. As you may know, I reuse a lot of code from groundcontrol and when you change the home position, it modifies the gcode by applying the offset. So when you then go to edit it, all the x,y positions are modified as well. For example,

G1 X0, Y0
G1 X10, Y10

with a home of 4,4 becomes

G1 X4, Y4
G1 X14, Y14

So, when you go to edit gcode, do you want to see the re-homed gcode or the un-homed gcode?

Then the problem is that when you go to save the file, it will save as a re-homed file unless its de-home.
Do you want to save the edited re-homed gcode or edited un-homed gcode?

we really need to implement G54 and similar in the firmware and stop re-writing
the g-code in GC/WC http://linuxcnc.org/docs/html/gcode/coordinates.html

editing g-code would ideally be the code as loaded into WC/GC

David Lang

Well, in the meantime… I can try to de-home it for the editor and saving routines.