There have been several suggestions of different types where you guys have asked for camera implementation in gSender for various reasons, so I thought it’d make things easier to compile them all here for easier reference:
Hi, I’ve been using my shapeoko 4 as somewhat of an OMM (optical measurement machine) by attaching a simple USB microscope to the spindle mount and jogging the focal point around to capture the precise location of features via the machine coordinates.
Currently I’m just using a webcam app to view the camera and jogging around with gSender, but it would be awesome if gSender could take the image from a webcam and use it to probe after calibrating its position relative to the spindle.
bCNC has this sort of functionality, but lately I’m struggling to get it to behave properly on my mac so I’ve opted to stick with gSender for now.
I am running gSender on a Raspberry Pi to control my machine and I am using ffmpeg to stream my webcam via http. It would be really cool if gSender had the ability to display a camera view for machines in other rooms. It would make it much easier to watch the machine.
Hi Chette,
I am not running my machine on pi but am using both a webcam directly connected to my office pc and an onvif setup that I can pick up troughout my local network (and beyond if need to be.) I’ve checked if it can run http cams and this is the case, I normaly use TCP/UDP to record on my onvif system.
I use the webcam primary to measure out stock on the machine bed to be able to project designs directly on irregular jobs. It’s USB connected so not directly usefull in your setup, but know that lightburn is able to work with a webcam.
If you have your cam connected to your local network you can bypass g-sender and work with any onvif capable software to display the stream. Maybe even use the pi to act as it’s eth hub?
I use ffmpeg to stream to http and I can view it currently. I was thinking from the perspective of it being a feature that might be added to have it all in one interface.
Your setup is awesome!
Yeah, I would like that feature in pretty much all my software that is used for the cnc. I now have to import a screenshot from Lightburn into V-carve and scale it to size using boxes. It’s pretty acurate but I bleep up here and there. It would be nice to not have to do that anymore.
I do run the remote g-sender on my office pc to monitor progress and it would indeed be nice to have a pip running along sinde the rendered one. I might mount a cam on the spindle aimed at the bit/dot if it would display in g-sender. I still need to be at the machine to see if feed 'n speed need adjusting.
It would be awesome to be on top of that too with a mug 'o coffee on the lips.
Setup is a bit over the top, for the space that I am in. Had to panorama the bloody screen to get it all in one shot.
Hi, there is a feature in UGS that I like that helps me with aligning and setting XY zero.
There is a camera plugin. I sometimes make signs mounted on Foamex board and then cut it out to make a speech bubble on my CNC. When I have printed the image on the Foamex, I have a reference mark that I use and set my zero at but it’s tricky because it’s on the surface of the board. The camera plugin in UGS helps line it up. It is the only thing I use UGS for since I discovered gsender which is awesome.
I have also used it to confirm my work piece is clamped in line as well.
Only an idea.
Ideas are where features come from. Keep them coming.
It’d be nice if there was a basic feature for aligning print and cuts - It doesn’t need full camera control, just a way like lightburn does it… where you can set 2 marks (Crosshairs, or a 1/8" bit) And it’ll calculate and measure the stretch / skew of a print and automatically align it.
Maybe there would be way for camera to detect if bit broke?
Would LOVE an implementation of a camera somehow… I have used the feature on my lasers for years where I can take a photo in the control software, and then layout the cut on top of the stock visually, which enables me to sneak and nest as many cuts as I can on already “used” stock pieces. It is an extremely useful feature.
