Re: Text file description of GUI - controller uploaded

(sorry for the incomplete post, I just discovered quite by accident
that my keyboard has a shortcut for "post")

Ok,
Chris, I agree.
In my example, the large buttons are not designed to replace any
keyboard button, but rather to make onscreen button pushing via mouse
or touchscreen require a less precise action.
However, considering the amount of typo's I make daily using my PC I
would not be comfortable using that as my sole source of critical
input either.
The GUI I submitted is designed to cover as much as possible...
If you have only a mouse and keyboard, the keyboard still works and
the buttons are easy to find with your mouse.
If you have a touchscreen (they are easy to find from Point of Sale
systems), you have the option to touch it quickly without searching
for a mouse, a small button on a keyboard (which may be on the floor
if a machine is going nuts), and of course, a physical button.
I also would much prefer if physical buttons could be "hardwired"
into a control for any of the critial operations (E-stop, cycle
start, jog, spindle start/stop...etc), and this possibly could be
done with programmable input devices such as the X-keys pad and such.
E-stop is of course hardwired separately anyway to a physical button
in addition to any other ways of tripping it.

Also, Camsoft (camsoftcorp.com) states that it's GUI is configureable
to use a person's own graphic "icons" to represent buttons onscreen.
Apparently it's a drag and drop process to create your own controller
to suit your individual machine. However, this software is rather
pricey. Perhaps this a quite a programming feat for the shareware
developer, so maybe a compromise is at hand....
Perhaps instead of the drag and drop creation of your GUI, you could
have something "similar" to the GUI I created, but each button is
programmable for title and which function it triggers internally in
the app (don't have coolant for your wood router?...make that button
something else you can use) Each button has a number which you simply
assign an action to it from a list of actions possible in the app.
I don't know much about EMC, but being able to create your own front
end would be great. The only problem I have with that is that one of
my favorite ideas about PC control is the ability to use Windows
software on the control so that I can easily network with my CAD/CAM
computers and get on the net for downloads. I don't know how this is
done in Linux... I don't know squat about it. Take for example the
various machinist's calculators available for Windows... It would be
nice to have this available at the machine. Control upgrades, G-
codes, engraving files, etc., are all available on the net and a one-
stop shop PC controller makes this possible. Perhaps you can do this
running Linux? As I said, I have no clue.
Of course it's not smart to load up your controller with a bunch of
junk, but networking with your windows machines, the internet, and a
few small machinist oriented apps would be nice. With PC's
approaching 2ghz, I don't see this as a problem since what we are
usually replacing is 20 year old motion control technology that
worked on controllers with 32k or less ram (or even tape).

Sean

>
> Well there are some GUI controls which a completely
> customizeable... such as the popular front ends for EMC.
>
> Personally, I do not believe on-screen controls have any place in a
> machine that does not have a touchscreen - the last thing I want to

do

> is look for the mouse when I need to hit something quickly. I'd
> rather do everything with the keyboard. This is preferable even to

a

> touchscreen in my view since you don't have to look at a keybaord

once

> you get familiar with it. But an open source control program lets
> anyone who wants to take the time (I have yet to need to badly

enough)

> change anything they want.
>
> Chris Stratton
>
> -------------------------------------------------
> Christopher C. Stratton
> Engineer, Instrument Maker, and Horn Player
> ccs@m... 617 628 1062
> http://web.mit.edu/~stratton/www/brassbuild.html