bartei / rotary-controller-python

Digital Read Out and Single Axis Controller Python UI

Rotary Controller Python

This project is a Kivy based user interface developed for the Raspberry PI for the control of rotary tables and similar devices on manual milling machines, tool grinders and similar equipment.

This software is designed to operate with an RS485 connected control board which is responsible for the precise timing required to control stepper motors as well as the acquisition of high speed encoder signals.

Links for the hardware and firmware needed to complete the project are provided below.

This software is tested on Raspberry PI 4 and 3B and it is recommended to run it from the console using the configuration and libraries suggested by the Kivy project maintainers.

When running this kivy app from a desktop environment, a significant performance loss is evident.

Prebuilt images will be provided eventually so that installation friction can be minimized.

This is still currently under heavy development, further features and pluggable boards will eventually be provided to offer further functionality to the system.

Getting started

This software can be executed from any Python compatible operating system, it has been successfully tested on Windows, Linux and OSX. The recommended way to setup your development environment is to use pyenv for the configuration of a suitable python version in your machine and for the creation of a dedicated virtual envionment.

There are thousands of guides online for the method described above, so for now I'm not gonna write down specific instructions about it.

Once a compatible version of Python is installed with pyenv and a suitable virtual environment has been created, it will be sufficient to install the requirements found in the requirements file.

To run the application simply invoke from your favorite terminal python ./main.py

When running the software from a raspberry pi a few preparatory steps shall be followed to ensure proper operation of the touchscreen, keyboard, etc. etc.

Instructions will eventually be placed here for completeness to assist in the configuration of raspbian.

#TODO: Put here instructions for raspbian

rotary-controller-python's Issues

glitch: zeroing or touching off is considered motion

Per-axis disabling without editing source

e.g. when you only have scales on 2 axis, blank out where the remaining lines would be

sync: thread pitch selector instead of ratio

Make sure the UI can fill the screen

With non-X SDL on an HDMI 1024x600 display, the top ~15% is unused. I suspect this is trivial but could use some hints for kivy.

Add 1/2 function

scale ratio defaults

the dialog could tell you it's the resolution in microns, and probably default to 5/1 instead of 1/20 (I assume that's the kind people will buy because it's inexpensive)

feature request: baudrate in config.ini

Communication with VFD over RS485

Support for basic math (Z +/- quill dro)

On a typical vertical mill, you have both a Z axis (either column, or knee movement) and a quill. To know the position of the cutter, you need to add (or subtract) these values together.

I probably only need to see the combined value most of the time, and would only zero them as a combined unit.

feature request for components/keypad: accept keyboard input

One option for adding hardware buttons is to add a usb 10-key pad. The value dialog for any of the numbers doesn't seem to accept numbers from a keyboard.

Finish Tool Offsets Table

Exception when choosing ratio and hitting ok

Many (all?) of the ui elements that let you pick a number (for example, any of the "num" or the current index) let you hit "ok" without putting in a number. This exits the app and leaves the gui in a weird state if you're using framebuffer.

Add documentation for glass scales

Finish the networking configuration page and display it only when code is running on the OSPI operating system

Finish the origins management (ABS/INC) and perhaps add more origins that can be used in the system