Hi jlauer and Moderator!
Thank you for the suggestions. I’ll think about them. I just won’t change anything now because the code is working well. I could solve the problems that were holding me back and the GCode is being sent to the CNC respecting the queue buffer size and the rx buffer size. I can monitor the log while the job is done and now I see no issues.
I have also finished implementing a simple GCode translator using boost::regex to turn a laser on and off every time I get a Z+xx or a Z-xx instruction. As I connected the laser driver TTL input to the coolant port of TinyG, I can use this translation to drive the laser on and off while sending a PCB design to the machine. I plan to use the laser to burn a black ink layer over the PCB and, then, to drill the PCB holes and cuts using the spindle.
If I run into more communications trouble I’ll seriously consider using JSON server. If not, I’ll keep using my own libraries.
Regarding the reply from the moderator, my serial reading function blocks the program execution until it finds a specified character, in my case a \n. Another reading function blocks execution until the nothing is left to be read. As they hold the execution until the condition is satisfied (or a timeout is reached), they are considered blocking reads.
I also have not invested any time in a GUI. I used ncurses for a very, very simple text mode interface with one key menu options that control the machine, file sending, laser mode, simulation mode, offset control etc. The most comfortable characteristic of my solution (for me) is that I can control what, and in which order, I send to the machine in the setup cycle. And I can follow the ins and outs from the log file, with microsecond resolution delay measurements.
I am not rejecting your solutions. I just move faster developing the needed solutions in my own code. In this case, I’m using the serial communication libraries that I developed (or customised) for other micro controller projects or for communicating with laboratory instrumentation. But the regex modules came from boost and the JSON parser came from libJSON.
Thanks again for your help, your time and your consideration.
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