jlauer

One thing you could try is the ChiliPeppr Tablet workspace, which doesn’t load the 3D viewer, and thus should be able to handle more (if not unlimited) lines. It doesn’t instantiate the 3D viewer, which is what chokes on large files because it loads all lines into the 3D viewer and that chews through massive RAM. This makes the workspace act more like a simple Gcode sender, but still has lots of goodies in it.

http://chilipeppr.com/tinygtablet

One of the main features of 1.86 is fixing stalling, so I would try that out and see how it goes. The stalling was likely a threading issue and more mutex locking was added between the inbound serial data thread and the outbound serial data thread. Early reports are showing that it 100% solved it.

Also, the latest version of SPJS is not necessarily more CPU efficient because the feed rate override did add a bit of overhead. SPJS now has to parse each line to keep track of the current feed rate. Then when you ask for a multiplier, it knows what to multiply against. So it is constantly watching, parsing, and calculating.

enhering, one thing to consider is possibly using Serial Port JSON Server behind your app and just having your GUI connect to it. The reason is that a lot of work is being done to solve lots of nitty gritty problems that you are running into. If you don’t want to have to reinvent all that work, this could possibly be a better way to go.

Here’s a quick list of some top things SPJS solves for TinyG:
1. Buffer flow algorithm that works perfectly for TinyG
2. New buffer flow algorithm that works perfectly for TinyG G2 (the new Arduino Due dual port version)
3. USB info traversal to figure out the related dual ports for item 2.
4. Programming ability for any Atmel chip, i.e. any Arduino or TinyG, courtesy of the Arduino guys actually contributing code to SPJS so that you can upgrade the firmware of the CNC controller without any extra work.

Small arc movements were fixed in newer firmware. Are you sure you have the latest firmware? I too have seen issues in the past with small arcs, but my understanding is those got fixed. I have not personally tested that though.

Actually, I’ve been doing a ton of testing and Rpi2 is really awesome running Serial Port JSON Server. The original Rpi is what seems to not do well on intense jobs. So I highly recommend Rpi2. I do NOT recommend original Rpi.

Hi Christine,

Could you perhaps describe the top 3 to 5 things about ChiliPeppr to get it to be workable like Mach 3 is for CNC work? I think this type of feedback would help the community get tools like ChiliPeppr closer to what folks really want/need.

-John

What was your CAM process? Folks are asking over at https://plus.google.com/u/0/+JohnLauerGplus/posts/bNqSresLKpv?cfem=1

Well, one idea would be to have ChiliPeppr be your glue. If the Teensy can show up as a serial port like an Arduino can, then check out some of the videos I’ve done where ChiliPeppr talks to the Arduino and the TinyG at the same time. This way you could read/write to the Teensy as well as read/write for the TinyG.

You could write a macro that generates the Gcode for what you want. Perhaps go into “recording” mode to grab your final positions after the jog. Store that in a javascript variable. Then go into “run” mode where you calculate out your steps and send them as normal Gcode via ChiliPeppr’s standard programmatic interface.

I suggest looking at all the sample macros in ChiliPeppr. There’s a few that will give you the code commands for what you want. For example, sending Gcode to TinyG is as simple as:
macro.sendSerial(“G0 X0 Y0\n”);

Or, you could generate all your Gcode as a string and then send it into the Gcode widget to visualize it. Although the 3D viewer is meant for XYZ positions and with a lathe you won’t get your visual the way you want, but it still could be helpful.

Here’s the macro for injecting code generated Gcode into Gcode widget:
var gcodetxt = “(This is my gcode)\nG92\nG0 Z1\nG1 X10\nY10\nX0\nY0\n”;
var info = {
name: “My gcode file”,
lastModified: new Date()
};
// send event off as if the file was drag/dropped
chilipeppr.publish(“/com-chilipeppr-elem-dragdrop/ondropped”, gcodetxt, info);