The suggestion is that “Time Remaining” also show the estimated clock time.
So instead of “78 minutes, 8 seconds” it shows “78 minutes, 8 seconds (14:30)” where 14:30 is 2:30pm and is the time on the clock 78 minutes and 8 seconds from now.
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One thing I would love is to have built in checklist that can be enabled or disabled. Pilots know how to fly their planes. But they have checklist because repetition also makes it easy to forget something. I am still new but learning very fast and the one thing that I wish is that I could put a checkpoint (ie Install Dustboot), then click on OK. If you click start and the next screen is to “Turn on Spindle” , if I forgot to slap on the dustboot, then the spindle drops and yes I can get it on but a hassle. The ability for users to “enable optional check points” during the process will allow for any user to use or not use them. (so everyone is happy).
In laser printing you can trace the outline which would sort of be a nice feature. I have learned to always print my job sheet from Vcarve Pro to make sure that board size and material size in the job match. The ability to do a quick “outline trace” would also confirm that and take just a few seconds. I would think that it is a feature that beginners would certainly use and appreciate and if they don’t want to use it, they don’t have to.
Someone mentioned having a visual guide which would also show where the router is at in relation to the board which would be very nice!
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I would like to see estimated time till a toolchange.
The idea is:
We have the overall progression, we could have Tool change at 35%, or 90% till next tool. I like the idea of knowing when the next tool change is.
I would like customizable hotkeys, I use a Xbox one controller for my jogging, and It’d be awesome if I could just map what keys I want.
Since I have the bitsetter, and the touch probe I would like to change the machine initialization (or end procedure).
Best example I can give, Right now when a program is over it goes to the home position. I’d like to change it where it will go to the tool change position and let me take out the bit. I know I could do this in the post processor, but having macros or other items I can change at the controller would be fantastic.
Macro to use the bit as a reference in setting the material. (This may be way off but hear me out.). I’d like the bit to be able to do an "outside Left position of the stock, and allow me to move the bit down to use it to reference to but the stock up against. I get that it is one reference point, but 1 reference point is better than none.
It seems like we are re-hashing the what you want to see in CM since we don’t know what has been deemed to make the cut but having CM calculate if the job is within the operating limits of the Shapeoko after we set zero would still address many issues reported here where the limits switch have been triggered while running the job and ruined their projects. IMO, it should say something like Y limit exceeded at line XXXX.
Happy to report that the functionality is on point and after 8 hours of machining there weren’t any errors or issues.
Uploaded some pretty intense 3d machining fusion 360 files with multiples toolpaths and toolchanges per and it worked flawlessly.
edit only onscreen controller was used for jogging
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There is what appears to be a focus issue with the current version, when used with a touchscreen. From either the jogging or probing screens (at least), a button which is touched retains the focus - which means that the keyboard doesn’t work. The workaround is to just touch some non-button portion of the screen to remove focus from the button.
(My usual workflow is to use the touchscreen to get in the ballpark, then the bluetooth keyboard to get more precisely located from inside the enclosure.)
That’s the only issue I’ve had, though. So far, things are looking good.
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What device and operating system?
Updated to 509 today … and for the first time I had an issue, twice: I use a usb wireless little keyboard to zero the machine, and for the first time ever today, the Z axis kept going down even after I stopped hitting the keys… result: the bit snapped.
(and the Z kept going until it hit the bottom of the HDZ)
And this happens TWICE (so two separate bits snapped)… vs never before. While this could be EMI on my side in theory, I’ve never had this happen before and twice is… well … makes me wonder if something changed on keyboard repeat rates or something else in CM509
Sorry, should have said. It is a Surface Pro 4 with Windows 10.
I guess I should note that it has a comically-high resolution (2736 x 1824) and out of the box is set to 200% scaling. CM looks correct at that scaling - any higher scaling gives the issues others have mentioned with regards to DPI scaling. I have no idea whether any of that has anything to do with it.
Using 509 on a 13" Macbook Pro (latest MacOS), no special UI zoom settings.
- Seeing most of the UI layout issues that other users are
- Not sure if this was mentioned, but when using the Z probe, the font in the popup menus is too big (small amounts of text are cut off).
- Movement controls no longer work from the probe screen
- Probe screen no longer consistently remembers which bit was set. I almost exclusively use the #201 for this but most (but not all) times I go in here, it’s defaulted to some 1/8" bit (presumably the first in the list)
- I think it’s always been like this, but the
+in the probe UI screenoptions is confusing. Why is itZ, X+, Y+when probing all 3, onlyZfor Z (notZ+to account for the whole probe being on top of the surface), but stillX+andY+for those (which presumably would not be+because the probe is now sitting flush with the edge of the stock rather than hanging over the edge. - I agree re “skeuomorphic” radio buttons. Those have been “request for user input” for decades, especially in a settings screen with no instructions to the contrary. If you’re going to use standard form elements as indicators of state, checkboxes (not radio buttons) are still the correct element to use … and if they are not intended to take user input, they should be marked as disabled to the UI paints them as greyed out to discourage user input. Updating the text to include “current state of …” would go a long way to helping clarify this, too.
- I had my first random stop today in the middle of a cut (twice). It was also the first time using another power tool at the same time, but also odd so I’m mentioning it here just in case. If there are logs/etc to grab the next time this happens, please tell me how.
- Stops were at different times (not a specific line of gcode), presumably while I was using my drill press (back was turned, but I don’t know for sure it stopped when the drill was on, or just when I wasn’t facing/watching the CNC). The UI just froze at a gcode step. Couldn’t click pause/stop or anything else in the UI. Quit (command-Q) worked but after reopening CM it wouldn’t connect until after I power cycled the shapeoko.
- Latest shapeoko XL board (received December 2019), so it has the new ferrite-bead USB cable
- Macbook and drill press were on one breaker, shapeoko (board and spindle) on a different one
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100% agree. Need keyboard shortcuts for the run screen.
We just uploaded 510 to:
https://carbide3d.com/carbidemotion/beta/
- (FIX) Tweaking layout
- (NEW) Save probe tool between runs
- (NEW) Removed “Set Inch” and “Set MM” from jog pane. UI units now set in the Settings dialog box
- (NEW) Gamepad support in jog pane in Windows (Just a test right now)
- (NEW) Additional safety for jogging via keyboard to preven runaways with bad keyboards
In more detail:
- We’ve tested CM on Retina 16 and 13" laptops, with the Apple 4k/5k monitor, and with a standard HD 15" external monitor and the layout is roughly what we expect it to be. We do not expect to make any changes to it for OSX based on what we’ve seen so far. Windows may trigger further tweaks.
- Based on @fenrus feedback, we added some additional safety triggers for keyboard jogging. It should be safer for flaky keyboards and lower-powered PC’s where events might get delayed/dropped.
Gamepad:
This is just a test build at this point with the following inputs configured :
- D-Pad X/Y jogging
- L1/L2 Z Jogging
- R1/R2 Change increment
- When entering the jog screen the app will attempt to connect to a gamepad. If it finds one and is able to connect, “GAMEPAD ENABLED” will show on the jog pane.
We do not plan to make the keys/buttons configurable. If gamepad support seems to work well we do envision being able to add more functionality to this feature going forward.
We tested it with a Logitech F310 in XBox mode and an wired XBox controller knockoff from Amazon. Both worked well.
5 Likes
More repro info on my “keypad doesn’t work after touchscreen usage” thing (with 510 as well) - it doesn’t actually require a touchscreen. A mouse click will do the same thing. For instance, if I click on X+, I can see the little dotted-line focus indicator on that button. If I then use the left arrow on the keypad, the focus indicator moves to X-; again and it moves to Y+. Again, and it seems to go away (well, I can’t find it at least) - but one more time after that and the carriage finally moves.
So things appear to be in “navigate the UI” mode and not “drive the spindle around” mode. I will note that page up/page down works at all times, presumably because those aren’t ever interpreted as UI navigation commands.
I reported the same problem with the main keyboard on my Mac… It was intermittent for me. But that was back on 506. 509 has been good for me so far…
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We just uploaded 511 to:
https://carbide3d.com/carbidemotion/beta/
- (FIX) Changed focus policy for jog buttons. Should fix problem going from touch to keypress
- (FIX) Log window now able to move behind main window
- (NEW) Only filename shown, not full path
- (NEW) “Hide Status Reports” option in log window
More specifically, this seems to fix the touch/keyboard focus problem on Windows touch machines (at least it did on the Surface Book we tried).
4 Likes
Thanks for the heads up !!!
I like the Log window and “Hide Status Reports” option changes! They work well for me. One thing that still bugs me a little is the file open dialogue. One of my GCode generators outputs files with a TAP extension and I saw that mentioned here by someone else. Can we get that added to the default list? I also think that another list of all files should be available. Like the Universal G-Code Sender file open dialogue does. The default should be all known GCode file types, but another selection of all files should be available as well.
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Sure- .tap will be in 512 when it’s released.
3 Likes
Sure- .tap will be in 512 when it’s released.
Man your hard to get along with! 
3 Likes
That works out well… for the jog buttons. Unfortunately, the problem still exists for all the other buttons on the “Jog” page - so if you, for instance, probe and then come back from probing, the “Probe” button has focus. But really all the other buttons do the same thing.
I realize that what I’m asking for here boils down to “disable keyboard UI navigation for the entire Jog screen,” so if that is off the table then what we’ve got will have to do. If that is the case, then some alternate keys for jog (specifically 4, 6, 8, 2, 9 and 3) would not go amiss - I could just set numlock and call it a day, I think.