TinyG / TgFX Problems

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  • May 7, 2014 at 2:28 am #5887
    acwright
    Member

    I am having all kinds of problems getting a lot of things really working. First here are my particulars:

    Mac OS X 10.9 (I have done the “Mac fix”)
    Shapeoko 2
    TinyG V8 (421.01?). Pretty sure.. Whatever it was sent to me with 2 weeks ago.. I haven’t changed it. It says “Up to date” on TgFx
    TgFX build 3009. I downloaded this from the “Experimental” folder on your dropbox…
    I have set up the TinyG for the Shapeoko 2 (from the wiki? post? I’ve lost track of where I found the link… pretty sure from the wiki) and I’m fairly confident it is configured correctly. Mainly I’m having trouble with communications and software.

    First I have read over the wiki many times and posts in this forum and still have some basic questions:

    1. What version of TgFX should I be using?? This is really confusing and poorly documented! I have tried both versions for OSX in the dropbox downloads (the other was 2404) with poor results. How about at the very least providing a folder on this dropbox labeled “Current” or something to make this more clear!! Experimental and old are both not reassuring folder names…
    2. Is 421.01 the correct TinyG firmware? Also very confusing and poorly documented.
    3. Are TgFX, CoolTerm and the TG compatible fork of Universal Gcode Sender the only options for sending GCode to the TinyG on a Mac? I have tried all three and had issues with all three:

    UGS – Crashes regularly. Seems to connect OK. I can jog the machine but sending Gcode either fails or crashes the program.
    CoolTerm – Connects just fine. I can send GCode or JSON instructions and they are executed. I used this to manually set all the settings and confirm them for my Shapeoko and it worked great for this, but when I turn on XON in settings (following the wiki) and try sending a file it just quits (sending?) part way through running the job.
    TgFX – Here is the very little that is working:

    – I can jog the machine most of the time but not 100% of the time. Sometimes it just doesn’t move at all even though I am connected and hovering over the preview area or it just switches tabs instead of moving the machine.
    – I can open a file and run the job successfully on occasion but only if I do the magical mysterious combination of board resets, reconnects, program restarts, and random button pressing to get it to properly communicate with the board. See below…

    Here is what is not working or causing problems:
    – I seems to only occasionally connect to the board correctly? I would say about 80% (4 out of 5 tries?) of the time it connects and I can jog the machine but nothing updates in the GUI and it seems to accept no commands from the GUI. When this happens, the preview doesn’t update at all and the X,Y,Z and A indicator on the right always stay at zero even when jogging. And none of the GUI buttons related to zeroing seem to have any effect although it does show the command in the console window. Also, it does seem that the command line does accept commands. This problem is my MAIN issue at this point.
    – When I DO get it to connect properly I can see it update the position numbers on the right and the preview. I can then run some jobs and every thing seems to work good for a bit then occasionally it will revert back to the above condition and I have to start fiddling again with resets, relaunches and reconnects until it works again.

    So am I doing something wrong? Is this simply the current condition of TgFX? What can I try next?

    I feel very frustrated and I’m not sure where to go from here. I have read every piece of information on the wiki and this forum looking for answers and I’m running out of ideas! Please help!! Thanks in advance

    May 7, 2014 at 7:52 am #5888
    cmcgrath5035
    Moderator

    Disclaimer – I am Linux centric, Windows when I have to, so you will have to translate to OSx.

    Perhaps most important, look here

    You may have to run from netbeans, Riley having issues getting the OSx binary to build. The Wiki has procedure for setting up the OSx Netbeans environment.

    This thread has links to the tgFX build 3256 that runs with 412.01 (I believe you have a typo in your post).

    The 412.xx and future tinyG builds are not well compatible with tgFX build 3009 and earlier.

    I am still digesting the rest of your post,but moving to this newest experimental tgFX build will likely work much better for you.
    Give it a go and revise your issues list as necessary.

    Some of us have experienced your described situation where the X-Y-Z position display stops working. For now, fix seems to be exit and restart tgFX.

    May 7, 2014 at 4:12 pm #5889
    acwright
    Member

    Yep I did mean 412.01…

    Ok. So do I clone from the dev or master branch to try this build?

    May 8, 2014 at 7:24 am #5890
    cmcgrath5035
    Moderator

    I believe you want dev branch, where at the moment (could change any time) the version.properties file shows `BUILD=3,256
    DATE=2014/04/20 15\:05`

    You might also be able to do a similar hack to what I describe in this thread

    As I said, I don’t run OSx but assume the setup is similar to Linux.

    I have found that all you really need is the tgfx.jar file, which itself is an archive.
    When a new windows release is posted, I unzip it and copy the tgfx.jar into my established Linux folder structure and run it from there.
    That might be easier than setting up the netbeans environment.

    July 11, 2014 at 8:28 pm #6413
    periscope
    Member

    Could you post an update on your progress on Mac OSX 10.9? I am trying to do the same as you do and am going through the same frustrations as you are describing. Were you able to get it run properly? Thanks in advance.

    July 11, 2014 at 10:34 pm #6415
    cmcgrath5035
    Moderator

    periscope
    This thread is sort of old. I am a linux user primarily, Win when I have to, zero direct knowledge in MacOS world, aside from knowing it is Linux-like. That is not much help when you come to specifics.
    I see you making progress in search for more current support threads.
    Focus there.
    You need to find a path to tinyG 435.10 (or greater) and, if you want to use tgFX, build 3625.
    I know you are doing that, this thread won’t help.

    July 12, 2014 at 12:26 pm #6419
    michael w. mckosky
    Member

    Am new to this site, have not yet fired up TinyG board, played with tgFX very briefly.

    Problem: The board has what appears to be a USB port, not a conventional serial port. Yet it seems to have a FT230X chip, judging from the schematic and using a magnifying glass to try to see the board markings.

    I have little confidence in the documentation since the board does not look like the picture in the documentation downloaded from Synthetos, the latter not showing a USB port or the FT230X chip (I don’t see it).

    The j14 is indicated as TTL Serial, is this to be from the computer’s com1 output???

    The tgFX software asks to scan for a serial port. Yet the TinyG board has a USB port. Is there a way to output on a USB port to the board? Is it intended to be two possibilities? Is there a version of tgFX that would output on USB???

    So at this point I am in doubt as to what the heck is going on. Am I correct in thinking that there is a mismatch between the documentation and the board??

    Ultimately it is not the board and hardware that I paid $130 for, but for the information in the documentation, the firmware in the Atmel, and the information in the tgFX application.

    Lastly, is the response to this going to be sent to my email address, or to here?

    Thanks
    Mike

    July 12, 2014 at 4:24 pm #6422
    alden
    Member

    I’m afraid the terms “serial” and “USB” are being used loosely here. tgfx talks to the TinyG USB port, aka the serial port. I’d recommend reading this page and trying it first with Coolterm. https://github.com/synthetos/TinyG/wiki/Connecting-TinyG

    Once that’s working move on to tgfx.

    The TTL serial is a 3.3v serial line that can be connected to Arduinos and such, bypassing the USB port. The TTL serial port does not connect to the Computer’s RS-232 serial outputs.

    • This reply was modified 10 years, 5 months ago by alden.
    July 15, 2014 at 3:07 am #6435
    jlauer
    Member

    This sounds like Java’s garbage collection. It “stops the world” when it needs to start collecting and that can kill your Gcode from sending smoothly. When you say it keeps being slow on the next run that feels for sure like garbage collection.

    Try out http://chilipeppr.com/tinyg and run the job. Does that work better? Chrome’s Javascript garbage collection is amazing.

    July 15, 2014 at 1:40 pm #6437
    cmcgrath5035
    Moderator

    Mike
    RE:

    So at this point I am in doubt as to what the heck is going on. Am I correct in thinking that there is a mismatch between the documentation and the board??

    Ultimately it is not the board and hardware that I paid $130 for, but for the information in the documentation, the firmware in the Atmel, and the information in the tgFX application.

    The predominate (I think) use of tinyG is a PC-tinyG connection via a USB interface, which in tinyG v7 and tinyG v8 is implemented using an FTDI USB to serial interface chip. That is well documented in the wiki and, to best of my looking, the tinyG pictures and diagrams match up with the boards.

    If you recently purchased, you probably received (or were supposed to have received) a V8 board. As on right now, that is what you see when you navigate to

    If your board does not say V8 (or V7) and you did order a tinyG, perhaps you were sent a Gshield by mistake.

    Does your intended application need to use the TTL serial protocol interface (NOT to be confused with a standard PC RS232 serial port)? If so, you may need to better describe what you are trying to setup so someone who has attempted to use this TTL serial protocol interface can perhaps chime in.

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