Hello Chris, The reference to MyData is a pick and place machine that is used to assemble circuit boards. Check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56hQ0oBJ4xk Those machines are about the best example I can think of for a well done application of Linux and robotics. TpSys (the software that runs the machine) has many similarities to Linuxcnc. In addition, TpSys has many features that I would like to see in Linuxcnc:
1) Optical alignment. It uses a camera to look for fiducial marks on the circuit board to align, scale and rotate the coordinate system. (With Linuxcnc, this can be done with a touch probe.) (It also uses a camera to examine each part that it is about to place on the board for bent pins, and alignment. It can reject parts that do not match the programed physical limits.) 2) It measures board height (and Z alignment), tool height, component height, travel limits and collisions by force feedback. I would like to see features like this in Linuxcnc as well, however this is clearly not suited to many machines, but I can think of a few situations where force feedback would really help. For example, I have ran my circuit board drill with EMC/Linuxcnc for over 10 years now. While it works well, commercial circuit board drilling machines use force feedback to determine drill speed, and tool condition. This would be a huge help here. 3) It is a great example of a well done integration and embedding job. Everything it done through the GUI. Setup, programming, backups, software upgrades, configuration, diagnostics, calibration, you name it, the GUI does it all. Sure, you can still hit <ctrl><alt>f1 to get to a login prompt, but under normal usage, and maintenance, there is no reason to do so. 4) There are directories that programs are put in to do various maintenance tasks. You can add anything you want to the directory, and the system runs it with "<program-name> --info" when the GUI loads, and the STDOUT is used to build the menu entry and help screens in the GUI. (Most of these programs are perl scripts, but they can really be anything.) Gmoccapy does something similar with NC programs, so this is a fine start, all it needs is to not involve the configuration file, and it needs another directory to place scripts. 5) This is the kicker that is missing in most commercial grade CNC machines. It has a database to track jobs. It keeps track of how many of each part is made, which components went on which board. (It can tell you that in spot R5, a resistor of 5.51 ohms, yes it tests each component it installs, from reel serial number 1234, 20th part from the start of the reel was installed on board 63 at 11:57:22.10 on 11-2-2015) This also allows you to do partial assembly of boards, and re-load the board later to finish it. Where this crosses over to the machining world is a database to track part programs and associate tool databases with part programs, when they were last used, and at which point tools were replaced. This should also track part serial numbers and a timestamp. Also, it would be really handy to associate machine logs with the part serial number, and which machine operator was running the machine. (TpSys uses a password that is unique for each operator, there is no login.) Asterisk is a phone switch. http://asterisk.org I have been making Asterisk appliances for 12 years now. Many of them run far in excess of 5 years between reboots. They are mostly used in office environments with 10-500 phones. They are configured by a web browser, there is no console. I mentioned this because it is an example of a Linux based appliance that has to "just work". As far as a distro goes, I already have a number of my NC machines running with a custom distro, it is already done. I am happy to make it available. Everything that is distro specific that I created is GPL. I have already added a menu to Gmoccapy to handle system tasks like reboot and shutdown. I replace the exit button in the lower corner with a button that is only active when the machine is in "off" state, that loads a row of buttons into the bottom row that handle system tasks. I realize that Linuxcnc has no official direction. It is like many open source things I have worked with, it exists due to the needs of many which are similar but not the same. This is why since I have been posting about this subject here, I have decided to make a fork of a UI instead of modify and existing one. This way, the goals I have discussed about moving to an embedded platform are for the most part isolated to the GUI, and have very little impact on the core. However, other features that have nothing to do with being embedded or not are tied into the core. Automatic coordinate system scaling and rotation for example. These things are totally unrelated, and are outside of my current project, but it would be fantastic if someone were to look at this. -Neil- > Then it seems you are the perfect person to to build such a distro. > I was telling _why_ (at least one reason) we don't spend more time on a > custom os. > I know nothing of Asterisk. But I must say having a way to run linuxcnc > 'locked and secure' would be excellent on one of my projects, on another i > would prefer the way we have it. > > Hmm another reference I know nothing of. > So far you have said that you need the interface to have shutdown and > reboot. > Which could be added fairly easy I am pretty sure. > In fullscreen mode the desktop is not seen. > > and you want a stripped down os that is more secure and 'hardened' > against user tinkering. > > Your original question asks why we are not working on such things. > I would say that because not many of us are making money making > machines. If I was doing retrofits of machines, selling to manufactures > then I agree i would want an os like you talking of. > > supporting different OSes takes effort and it's not fun effort for most. > If your custom OS didn't add much burden to the code and was licenced > properly and you would maintain it .... Maybe the devs would host it. > > Personally I would love to see linuxcnc on more machines especially in > industry. I love seeing the videos of guys retrofitting linuxcnc to > old iron in money making shops. > > But that is not the official direction of linuxcnc - because it has no > official > direction. By far and large linuxcnc is pushed forward by people who > are interested in a particular feature or a particular challenge. > There has been many 'discussions' and a fork over this reality. > > I would encourage you to work towards you goal - it sounds like a good > one. I can't say if linuxcnc will embrace it wholeheartedly. > I think being able to make the existing screens act more 'embedded' > would be excellent for the guys retrofitting old iron. > > Chris M > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > _______________________________________________ > Emc-developers mailing list > Emc-developers@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-developers > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Emc-developers mailing list Emc-developers@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-developers
