Add support for SmoothieWare

[Leary]

When I try to use Universal GCode Sender with my new Shapeoko running Smoothieware I get this;

**** Connected to COM10 @ 9600 baud ****
Smoothie
[verbose][Error] Error while processing response : Attempting to complete a command that doesn't exist: <(-1)>ok

Then if I try to send gcode I get
"Error while starting file stream: Grbl has not finished booting"

[arthurwolf]

This sounds super easy to fix. Appart from the boot message, Smoothie should be mostly GRBL-compatible ...
Somebody wants a Smoothieboard to try to get this to work ?
Can contact me at wolf.arthur@gmail.com if so.

[winder]

If you un-comment the TinyG line in FirmwareUtils the TinyG plugin might work for Smoothie. The "plugin" model here was never fully developed but most of the architectural changes were finished before I ran out of steam.

[GeorgeIoak]

Would somebody mind uncommenting that Smoothie (line 41) line and compiling a test version for me please. I don't have NetBeans installed and would be willing to test this and report back

[GeorgeIoak]

I had some free time at lunch so I thought I'd try this. I'm on a MAC OS X, cloned the project, installed NetBeans, and tried to build (with that line uncommented). Didn't get too far so I thought I'd post this in case you see it and have a quick answer as to what's missing.

ant -f /Users/george/Documents/Github/Universal-G-Code-Sender onejar-build-release
Creating new property file: /Users/george/Documents/Github/Universal-G-Code-Sender/src/resources/build.properties
init:
deps-jar:
Created dir: /Users/george/Documents/Github/Universal-G-Code-Sender/build
Updating property file: /Users/george/Documents/Github/Universal-G-Code-Sender/build/built-jar.properties
Created dir: /Users/george/Documents/Github/Universal-G-Code-Sender/build/classes
Created dir: /Users/george/Documents/Github/Universal-G-Code-Sender/build/empty
Created dir: /Users/george/Documents/Github/Universal-G-Code-Sender/build/generated-sources/ap-source-output
Compiling 56 source files to /Users/george/Documents/Github/Universal-G-Code-Sender/build/classes
/Users/george/Documents/Github/Universal-G-Code-Sender/src/com/willwinder/universalgcodesender/GUIBackend.java:121: error: cannot find symbol
        systemStateBean.setMachineX(Utils.formatter.format(this.machineCoord.getX()));
  symbol:   method getX()
  location: variable machineCoord of type Point3d
/Users/george/Documents/Github/Universal-G-Code-Sender/src/com/willwinder/universalgcodesender/GUIBackend.java:122: error: cannot find symbol
        systemStateBean.setMachineY(Utils.formatter.format(this.machineCoord.getY()));
  symbol:   method getY()
  location: variable machineCoord of type Point3d
/Users/george/Documents/Github/Universal-G-Code-Sender/src/com/willwinder/universalgcodesender/GUIBackend.java:123: error: cannot find symbol
        systemStateBean.setMachineZ(Utils.formatter.format(this.machineCoord.getZ()));
  symbol:   method getZ()
  location: variable machineCoord of type Point3d
/Users/george/Documents/Github/Universal-G-Code-Sender/src/com/willwinder/universalgcodesender/GUIBackend.java:127: error: cannot find symbol
        systemStateBean.setWorkX(Utils.formatter.format(this.workCoord.getX()));
  symbol:   method getX()
  location: variable workCoord of type Point3d
/Users/george/Documents/Github/Universal-G-Code-Sender/src/com/willwinder/universalgcodesender/GUIBackend.java:128: error: cannot find symbol
        systemStateBean.setWorkY(Utils.formatter.format(this.workCoord.getY()));
  symbol:   method getY()
  location: variable workCoord of type Point3d
/Users/george/Documents/Github/Universal-G-Code-Sender/src/com/willwinder/universalgcodesender/GUIBackend.java:129: error: cannot find symbol
        systemStateBean.setWorkZ(Utils.formatter.format(this.workCoord.getZ()));
  symbol:   method getZ()
  location: variable workCoord of type Point3d
Note: Some input files use unchecked or unsafe operations.
Note: Recompile with -Xlint:unchecked for details.
6 errors
/Users/george/Documents/Github/Universal-G-Code-Sender/nbproject/build-impl.xml:923: The following error occurred while executing this line:
/Users/george/Documents/Github/Universal-G-Code-Sender/nbproject/build-impl.xml:263: Compile failed; see the compiler error output for details.
BUILD FAILED (total time: 5 seconds)

[GeorgeIoak]

FYI, if I download version 1.0.8 it will compile without errors yet TinyG does not successfully issue any commands. Interestingly the visualizer does not work either (did not work for me on the other builds either).

If I switch to the edge branch the visualizer and compile work but TinyG does not work either.

Looks like more work is needed to support different responses and setups for anything other than GRBL.

Maybe a better first test is to edit the code to also look for a Smoothie response and accept that along with the GRBL 0.8/0.9 responses?

[winder]

@GeorgeIoak You're absolutely right. If you take a look here you can see that Smoothie is not implemented at all. You can also see the pattern setup for switching between different gcode types. Its just like you suggested - a way to support different responses and setups! A lot of the legwork is done I just haven't found the time to setup the electronics for my TinyG and fix the bugs. That work would be done in TinyGCommunicator and TinyGController. For Smoothie two more files would be created to implement these interfaces.

[GeorgeIoak]

@winder I did make a quick change and bypassed the version check just to confirm that that I could run a file. The good news is that I was able to start a job but the bad news is that the job stopped at the same place 2 times about 1/2 way through (1150/2249 I think). The code that it stopped on (G3) had run successfully earlier in the job so I'm not sure why it stops here.

I think Smoothie would be easier than TinyG in that I think Smoothie is a direct port of GRBL and TinyG was branched off of GRBL. I could be wrong on that so don't quote me!

Not having the visualizer work is a bit of a bummer and I found some clues to try to get it to work but didn't succeed yet. Once I get a job to run successfully I can help create and test SmoothieCommunicator and SmoothieController.

[arthurwolf]

Hey.

Smoothie currently has a G3 problem, so that's probably not a problem with
your code. So you can ignore this.

This does sound like you got Smoothie to work with UGS :)

Cheers.

On Sat, Feb 28, 2015 at 2:32 AM, George Ioakimedes <notifications@github.com

wrote:

@winder https://github.com/winder I did make a quick change and
bypassed the version check just to confirm that that I could run a file.
The good news is that I was able to start a job but the bad news is that
the job stopped at the same place 2 times about 1/2 way through (1150/2249
I think). The code that it stopped on (G3) had run successfully earlier in
the job so I'm not sure why it stops here.

I think Smoothie would be easier than TinyG in that I think Smoothie is a
direct port of GRBL and TinyG was branched off of GRBL. I could be wrong on
that so don't quote me!

Not having the visualizer work is a bit of a bummer and I found some clues
to try to get it to work but didn't succeed yet. Once I get a job to run
successfully I can help create and test SmoothieCommunicator and
SmoothieController.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#204 (comment)
.

Courage et bonne humeur.

[GeorgeIoak]

I'll have to pop over to the Smoothie forums and look into this problem. The code did work once last night using Pronterface but that might have been luck of the draw as I thought I had tested it before and it failed as well. For reference the file I'm experimenting with can be viewed here.

Yes, UGS and Smoothie worked together. I'm a hardware design guy mostly so coding doesn't come naturally for me but I'll start taking a look on how we can officially get Smoothie support. I just happen to be testing with a Mac so that might be throwing in some other issues.

[soundstorm]

@GeorgeIoak Just ran into the same error. Replaced the code snipped (as the Point3d that's being included has no .getX()):

    public void updateSystemState(SystemStateBean systemStateBean) {
        logger.log(Level.INFO, "Getting system state 'updateSystemState'");
        double[] mp = new double[3];
        this.machineCoord.get(mp);
        double[] wp = new double[3];
        this.machineCoord.get(wp);
        systemStateBean.setFileName(gcodeFile.getAbsolutePath());
        systemStateBean.setLatestComment(lastComment);
        systemStateBean.setActiveState(activeState);
        systemStateBean.setControlState(controlState);
        systemStateBean.setDuration(String.valueOf(this.getSendDuration()));
        systemStateBean.setEstimatedTimeRemaining(String.valueOf(this.getSendRemainingDuration()));
        systemStateBean.setMachineX(Utils.formatter.format(mp[0]));
        systemStateBean.setMachineY(Utils.formatter.format(mp[1]));
        systemStateBean.setMachineZ(Utils.formatter.format(mp[2]));
        systemStateBean.setRemainingRows(String.valueOf(this.getNumRemainingRows()));
        systemStateBean.setRowsInFile(String.valueOf(this.getNumRows()));
        systemStateBean.setSentRows(String.valueOf(this.getNumSentRows()));
        systemStateBean.setWorkX(Utils.formatter.format(wp[0]));
        systemStateBean.setWorkY(Utils.formatter.format(wp[1]));
        systemStateBean.setWorkZ(Utils.formatter.format(wp[2]));
        systemStateBean.setSendButtonText(openCloseButtonText);
        systemStateBean.setSendButtonEnabled(openCloseButtonEnabled);
        systemStateBean.setPauseResumeButtonText(pauseButtonText);
        systemStateBean.setPauseResumeButtonEnabled(this.canPause());
        systemStateBean.setCancelButtonText(cancelButtonText);
        systemStateBean.setCancelButtonEnabled(this.canCancel());
    }

Now the code is executed without the error.

[kg5000]

I should have a SmoothieBoard in my mailbox today! I am a professional Java developer with 15+ years experience. I do mostly Point-of-Sale automation and control system development with J2SE. I did some enterprise/web stuff for a while but it's been years.

I'd be very interested in helping to get this working with Smoothie.

Is there any code committed for Smoothie support? If not how can I get what's been implemented so far to help with the cause?

Ken

[winder]

There's an API for adding additional controllers. Currently there is just GRBL and an almost-complete TinyG implementation. You've been working with Java for longer than I have, so I'll be curious to hear you're opinions.

Here's a high level overview of how the backend is implemented:
https://github.com/winder/Universal-G-Code-Sender/wiki/Code-Overview

Adding full smoothie support shouldn't be bad, it may just be a matter of extending the GRBL controller class and re-implementing a couple functions which are handled differently in smoothie (i.e. version checking).

[kg5000]

Thanks for the overview link. I will take a look a little later and get familiarized. I've been using Eclipse for years and have very little NetBeans experience. I need to download NB to get going on this.

Ken

[morrowsend]

I've been trying to get the Smoothie board working. It seems that when it connects, Universal Gcode sender doesn't catch the "Smoothie" hello message. If I force it by setting "isReady" to "true" I can get it to at least allow me to send commands, but each time I get the same error as the timing issue mentioned in #214

Here's a screencast of the weirdness I'm encountering.

Another interesting thing is that if I use a serial terminal to connect to the smoothieboard, I get the hello message, but if I connect to Universal Gcode sender, close the connection, then try the serial terminal, I no longer catch the hello message, but I can send commands and receive replies.

I tried Smoothie firmware from Jan 15th and June 21, 2015