Zeroing nuisance - confirmation first?

saskia · March 27, 2022, 5:41am

I don’t know if anyone else has this problem in gSender, but still after months of use I often hit Set to Zero instead of GoTo Zero, which messes up my workflow. I use GoTo more than SetTo, but SetTo is more prominent and has no undo. It would be nice if there was a graceful way to backtrack or to have SetTo require a confirmation. @KGN

aringer · March 29, 2022, 3:13pm

I agree, I find myself pausing to think about which to click on, so I don’t screw it up again. The one that still gets me is when I have multiple paths for the same project, and I programmed P2 for the job, the software defaults to P1 after every path is completed.

CrookedWoodTex · April 2, 2022, 11:50am

I’ve had a rant about that before version 1 came out. They said it is common everywhere else. I don’t care about everywhere else.

So, I started taking advantage of that with my default setup, but I still have P2-P6 programmed all over my spoilboard for smaller projects, too. Every time I HOME, I run a macro that initializes the default XYZ zeros for P1-P6.

I, too, am very slow to decide what to click here.

aringer · April 2, 2022, 2:51pm

What do you mean by " I run a macro that initializes the default XYZ"? I have not worked with macros, don’t really know what that is. Thanks

KGN · April 5, 2022, 2:38pm

Hey folks, a couple things to address here,

1) RE “Set” being more prominent than "Go to"

We’ll continue to collect feedback about this, but for the time being we’re going to leave it as it is. Way back in the early releases, we actually had these swapped (ie Go To was the bigger button, Set was the smaller one) and the most common piece of feedback we received was that this was backwards and we reversed them. It’s clearly something that maybe a little more subjective as to what the most important/common action to take is (do you set zero more than go to? Do you jog over using Go To? etc).

It might just be that this area as a whole needs a redesign in terms of visual clarity if people are “slow to decide what to click” or consistently press the wrong action. We’ve tried to stay consistent with the colour scheme of “solid blue results in the machine moving” throughout the main UI as a secondary indicator of what each button does, but maybe that doesn’t work in this case.

We also might just end up adding a preference for button order, but I think some redesign might be likely since we’ve had this conversation before internally about the design of that widget. For the time being, however, we’re going to leave the functionality where it is to prevent confusion for the greater number of users.

2) "Software defaults to P1 after every path is completed"

This statement doesn’t 100% track with implementation and I’m going to ask you to follow up on some things here.

“Stopping” a job (with the red stop button) issues a board reset command which results in all modals going back to default (including G54/P1). In the next release, if you stop a job, after the reset it will return you to whatever WCS you were in previously (so if you ran a job in G56 and stopped it using the red button, after the reset gSender will issue a G56 command to get you back into the previous WCS). We’ve had a change of opinion after internal discussions on this and want to remove this as a possible pain point for users who do use different WCS.

“Job completing” (a file runs through to the end) does not reset the board, so your WCS should not change, which is leading to my confusion - I can run multiple jobs in a row in whatever WCS I want and don’t see my WCS changing on Pgm End. Nothing in the codebase resets WCS by itself - relevant events and code below. The gist is that when the Sender determines the program is finished, it emits an ‘end’ Event. The controller, on receiving an ‘end’ event, sets the finishTime, and eventually sends a “stop” command to rewind the program. At no point is the board reset or modals changed.

github.com

Sienci-Labs/gsender/blob/1a4ef0145d8ab7f28c3d31c0abe26633574b2586/src/server/lib/Sender.js#L410

    
      
          
          
    // Elapsed Time
              this.state.elapsedTime = now - this.state.startTime;
          
          
    // Make a 1 second delay before estimating the remaining time
              if (this.state.elapsedTime >= 1000 && this.state.received > 0) {
                  const timePerCode = this.state.elapsedTime / this.state.received;
                  this.state.remainingTime = (timePerCode * this.state.total - this.state.elapsedTime);
              }
          
          
    if (this.state.received >= this.state.total) {
                  if (this.state.finishTime === 0) {
                      // avoid issue 'end' multiple times
                      this.state.finishTime = now;
                      this.emit('end', this.state.finishTime);
                      this.emit('change');
                  }
              }
          
          
    return true;
          }

github.com

Sienci-Labs/gsender/blob/1a4ef0145d8ab7f28c3d31c0abe26633574b2586/src/server/controllers/Grbl/GrblController.js#L453

    
      
          
          
    this.connection.write(line + '\n');
              log.silly(`> ${line}`);
          });
          this.sender.on('hold', noop);
          this.sender.on('unhold', noop);
          this.sender.on('start', (startTime) => {
              this.actionTime.senderFinishTime = 0;
          });
          
          
this.sender.on('end', (finishTime) => {
              this.actionTime.senderFinishTime = finishTime;
          });
          
          
// Workflow
          this.workflow = new Workflow();
          this.workflow.on('start', (...args) => {
              this.emit('workflow:state', this.workflow.state);
              this.sender.rewind();
          });
          this.workflow.on('stop', (...args) => {

github.com

Sienci-Labs/gsender/blob/1a4ef0145d8ab7f28c3d31c0abe26633574b2586/src/server/controllers/Grbl/GrblController.js#L817

    
      
              return;
          }
          
          
// ? - Status Report
          queryStatusReport();
          
          
// $G - Parser State
          queryParserState();
          
          
// Check if the machine has stopped movement after completion
          if (this.actionTime.senderFinishTime > 0) {
              const machineIdle = zeroOffset && this.runner.isIdle();
              const now = new Date().getTime();
              const timespan = Math.abs(now - this.actionTime.senderFinishTime);
              const toleranceTime = 500; // in milliseconds
          
          
    if (!machineIdle) {
                  // Extend the sender finish time
                  this.actionTime.senderFinishTime = now;
              } else if (timespan > toleranceTime) {
                  log.silly(`Finished sending G-code: timespan=${timespan}`);

What may be happening is that you have some code in your “Program Stop” event in settings that is changing modals/WCS, since that code is run a) if you stop using the button as well as b) the program ends naturally. If this is not the case, could you send a video/screenshot of your console output when a toolpath completes so I can have a better idea of what’s going on for you - we can’t recreate it on our end.

Cheers,
Kevin

saskia · April 5, 2022, 3:02pm

for zeroing what about a confirmation dialog like there is when you close a gCode file? That would solve my problem by alerting me that I am making this change @KGN

KGN · April 5, 2022, 3:31pm

This is also an option we’re considering, but are trying to avoid adding more “clicks” for common actions as a general usability rule.

Kevin

saskia · April 5, 2022, 4:10pm

I would say that the confirmation dialog for closing a file is less useful: the point is that it is an action that is easily recovered from, whereas the change of zero is not. Such confirmations could be a preference, though that adds a different form of complexity

CrookedWoodTex · April 5, 2022, 8:27pm

Well, I’ll be a durned horned frog! That’s what I’ve been waiting for, and I’ll still be looking for it.

Now if you can just get Z to raise to a safe height after a “STOP” …

KGN · April 7, 2022, 4:24pm

Just to follow up on “Workspace resets on program complete”:

After some back and forth, we found that those reporting their WCS is reset after a program completes was due to having a M2 command (program stop) at the end of their gcode program.

M2 resets GRBL to default state, including WCS.

Potential workarounds/solutions are as follows:

Make sure your program doesn’t contain M2/M30 that would reset GRBL wcs to default, or any G54-59 commands that would change workspace
You can use the start and stop gcode blocks to store and restore your WCS at the start/end of each program.

%global.state.workspace=modal.wcs

in the start section will store your current WCS in the workspace variable

[global.state.workspace]

in the stop section will issue the WCS command to restore the workspace after the program ends (if you do have M2 that you don’t want to remove).

This + the change for the stop button itself restoring WCS should cover all situations where people were reporting WCS changing on them.

Cheers,
Kevin

CrookedWoodTex · April 8, 2022, 10:42am

Now if you can just get Z to raise to a safe height after a “STOP” …

Troles · May 27, 2023, 4:38am

I know this topic was mentioned back on April 22, but that discussion is closed. I recently switched to Gsender 1.1.7 on my Homebuilt CNC. Very happy. My only real problem is the go to zero and setzero buttons are too similar, and several times I have messed up coordinated that I set up manually by accidentally hitting set zero instead of go to zero. I think it would be very helpful if the goto and set0 buttons were a different shape or color from one another. Another option would be to have a “undo “button that you could click to undo a previous jog or zero command. This button could be on the main screen, or even in a drop-down under set up or something. I understand it would be a hassle to have a “click to confirm your choice” window or button every time you did a command, so I am not asking for that, but possibly undo button. Or, if you didn’t actually want to build a button on the interface, a keyboard shortcut command that you could hit, for example, control C, to undo the previous command.

saskia · May 27, 2023, 6:10pm

did this a lot, until I got paranoid of those buttons

Parkey · May 28, 2023, 2:33am

I like the control Z option???

Troles · May 28, 2023, 5:26am

Ya, I use carbide create to design my cuts and in that program control z is the undo command and I find it helpful.

spcnc · May 28, 2023, 9:23am

I vote for a longpress required for set zero button, this way an accidental click/tap wont do anything.

A safety backup in the mean time might be to set the same zeros in another workspace, G55, at the beginning of the project when the same zeros are set for G54. If zeros are overwritten in G54, user can switch workspace to G55, select goto zero, switch back to G54 and save those zeros.

CrookedWoodTex · May 28, 2023, 11:51am

Once you get comfortable with a program, none of this will be important. Get some mileage with it, it will be just fine and you won’t want to change anything.

GregM · May 29, 2023, 1:19am

One of the things I sometimes do which may mitigate this, is to set the zero in two workspaces. So if you mess up one you have the backup values in another workspace.

KGN · May 29, 2023, 1:26pm

Next release will have an opt-in setting that forces a confirm on zero - it’s off by default but will guarantee you don’t zero when you don’t mean to if you prefer that option.

We’re going to re-evaluate the DRO area design in general sometime in the near future to move the buttons further apart. This will likely come with the official 4-axis support version.

chrismakesstuff · September 6, 2024, 11:49am

This was implemented! You can find it under Settings → Safety → Warn on Zero, where turning it on will make it so clicking to zero warns you before doing it so you don’t accidentally misclick

As Kevin said, we’re also aiming to redesign the UI which we’re working on right now to hopefully eliminate accidental zeroing . Thanks y’all for your feedback