New PanelDue touch screen beta firmware - testers wanted

For those of you running RepRapFirmware on Duet, RADDS or Alligator electronics with a PanelDue attached, version 1.12 of the PanelDue firmware is nearing release. You can download the beta firmware for the 4.3 inch panel from [dl.dropboxusercontent.com] and the beta firmware for 5 and 7 inch panel at [dl.dropboxusercontent.com]. The main improvements in this release are:

- Support for up to 4 extruders when using the 4.3 inch screen, and up to 6 extruders using the 5 or 7 inch screen.

- Support for as many macros as you want, instead of just 9

- You can now enter and execute almost any gcode command from the panel. English, French and German keyboard layouts are supported.

I would welcome feedback on the beta. There are already some changes planned before release, such as implementing the Extrude button, and using more icons in place of text on the buttons.

---

Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

The full A-Z keyboard looks good, but is it really a requirement?
Only a few letters are necessary.
You could make the buttons bigger with less letters. ( At least for the 4.3" display )
Just my two cent, I'm using web-control...
-Olaf

Quote
dc42
- You can now enter and execute almost any gcode command from the panel. English, French and German keyboard layouts are supported...

More than I dared to hope for - Thank You!

Erik

Quote
o_lampe
The full A-Z keyboard looks good, but is it really a requirement?
Only a few letters are necessary.
You could make the buttons bigger with less letters. ( At least for the 4.3" display )
Just my two cent, I'm using web-control...
-Olaf

I see your point. However, even if we discount entering gcodes that include filenames (for which we ought to support accented characters and more punctuation characters as well), Gcode commands many include at least the letters ABCEFGHIMPRSTXY. That's well over half the number of letters in the usual alphabet. With that many letters to choose from, I think the standard keyboard layout is best, because it is familiar. I find it much easier to pick the correct letter on the 4.3" PanelDue than on my 5" smartphone, because the keys are larger on the PanelDue.

---

Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

I agree.
I didn't recon there were so many letters necessary.
If you intent to work with filenames, don't forget the asterix (*) as placeholder.
-Olaf

Can i suggest a new feature in the keyboard... add two arrows (up and down). Every time the user send an gcode is saved in memory or better in a file (SD card), this will be the historic of the gcodes send. The arrows up and down are used to navigate in the gcode history.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/09/2015 05:37AM by filipeCampos.

Quote
filipeCampos
Can i suggest a new feature in the keyboard... add two arrows (up and down). Every time the user send an gcode is saved in memory or better in a file (SD card), this will be the historic of the gcodes send. The arrows up and down are used to navigate in the gcode history.

Good idea! I will also change the firmware to clear the current command line once you have sent it, because you will be able to recall it using the up arrow key.

---

Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

What do you think about one another page with jog controls ?
Something like these pictures.

Quote
lolocaledo
What do you think about one another page with jog controls ?
Something like these pictures.

If you press the Move button on the Control tab, you get this popup:



Will that do? I never did like the Pronterface-style controls.

---

Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

David,

Is it possible to change the title in the Red Title Bar on the top of the screen ?
And about the move panel, it's fine :-)

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/10/2015 09:29AM by lolocaledo.

The machine name in the title bar is set by the M550 command in your config.g file.

---

Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

In my config.g, I have M550 DELTALolo but "My RepRap 1" in the title bar on PanelDue.
It's the same title in the Web interface.

Quote
lolocaledo
In my config.g, I have M550 DELTALolo but "My RepRap 1" in the title bar on PanelDue.
It's the same title in the Web interface.

Change it to M550 PDELTALolo - the extra P is required to make it work (I made exactly the same mistake a few days ago, while setting up my Duet board )

Try M550 PDELTALolo.

---

Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

change M550 PDELTALolo in my config.g

Title on web interface now is DELTALolo but always "My Re^Rap 1" on PanelDue ...
But don't worry, it's not so important for the moment :-)

Have you powered down/up or reset the PanelDue since you fixed the config file? PanelDue only fetches the name when it starts up.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/10/2015 11:54AM by dc42.

---

Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

The 4.3 version runs perfectly. The 5.0 version loads with the screen inverted (easily solved in the setup menu post installation). Changing the keyboard language seems to have no effect except on the selection button.

I found it easy to navigate and it feels a little more intuitive/logical than the previous firmware version.

My only request would be a setting to change the number of heaters shown. If I have two heaters and a heated bed, I would like to disable the other two heaters (3 and 4) on the 4.3 and the other four (3, 4, 5 and 6) on the 5.0.

Quote
cglass
The 4.3 version runs perfectly. The 5.0 version loads with the screen inverted (easily solved in the setup menu post installation). Changing the keyboard language seems to have no effect except on the selection button.

On the Console tab, if you press the Keyboard button then a keyboard pops up. The layout depends on that setting.

Quote
cglass
I found it easy to navigate and it feels a little more intuitive/logical than the previous firmware version.

Thanks!

Quote
cglass
My only request would be a setting to change the number of heaters shown. If I have two heaters and a heated bed, I would like to disable the other two heaters (3 and 4) on the 4.3 and the other four (3, 4, 5 and 6) on the 5.0.

I plan to have it show only those heaters that are enabled in the RepRapFirmware config.g file. At the moment I show all 4 or 6 heaters so I can more easily test the layout and icons.

---

Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Personally, I think you have done an outstanding job on this revision!

Quote
dc42
Have you powered down/up or reset the PanelDue since you fixed the config file? PanelDue only fetches the name when it starts up.

Sure ! I only reset Duet :-(
All is ok now

I have just released 1.12 beta 2 at [github.com] (don't forget to follow the link to the version you want and then press Raw to download). I have added a 5-item command history buffer, replaced some button text by icons, changed the console to scroll new messages in from the bottom instead of the top, and on the 5" version I am trying out some new nozzle icons (thanks to Brian Gilbert for providing them).

Let me know what you think about scrolling console messages in from the bottom instead of the top, and the new nozzle icons.

I still need to implement the Extrude popup menu and some of the Fan functionality, but first I need to save some memory as free RAM is running low.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/2015 11:13AM by dc42.

---

Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Hello,

I'll try this beta version this weekend. I could give you my comments :-)

Have a good weekend

I have upgraded one of my PanelDue with beta2 firmware and this what I can report :
I use ITDB02-5.0 from ITEAD STUDIO

- in Console messages, there isn't CR (carriage return) so we can't see all the message if the message is long
- FR keyboard is very nice for me (you doubted yourself in a bit :-) )
- icon for nozzle 1 and 2 is nice
- it should be very nice to replace text button by icons (but this is just a detail for a bit of color on the screen :-) .... )
- could be fine if Probe field become yello when 465 and red when 536

I'm a fanatic of PanelDue :-)

Quote
lolocaledo
- in Console messages, there isn't CR (carriage return) so we can't see all the message if the message is long

Yes , e.g. not able to show firmware version with M115, besides that I love everything about it!

Quote

I'm a fanatic of PanelDue :-)

Ditto - it's bloody brilliant!

Erik

Thanks both of you for your kind comments! I still have the following on my todo list for the firmware:

- Split long messages over at least 2 lines, possibly even more
- Implement the Extrude popup
- Remove the Fan button from the Control page (it doesn't do anything yet, and it's more useful on the Print page)
- Replace more text buttons by icons
- Support subdirectories in the File and Macros popups

I will probably release 1.12 with some of these items still to do.

I like the red/yellow Probe field idea too! Ideally it would be sensitive to the G31 P trigger value that has been set. I'll need to change RepRapFirmware to pass that back in the M408 response.

---

Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Thanks to the new icons I find 1.12 b2 nicer than 1.12 b1, really good job! I have a couple of more ideas, though:

- switch over to the new-style M408 responses - I know it's not trivial to make the necessary adjustments, but these responses already provide everything necessary AFAICS, including the G31 trigger values and chamber heater information (if enabled)
- add an extra "Offline" status to PanelDue indicating when a status response hasn't been received for, say 15 seconds. This would come in handy to see if the UART connection has been interrupted during a print
- (optional) only change the Z probe colour if no print is in progress. this would mimic the behaviour of the web interface
- make the polling interval configurable via the Setup page. The web interface shows changes far more frequently and it would be nice to play a bit with this setting directly via the LCD touchscreen
- close the print dialog again when a new file print is started

And so far I've found two issues with the PanelDue:

- occasionally the LCD panel remains white after I switch on my printer. if I then switch my printer off and on again, it seems to work nicely again
- the print progress bar flickers and I can only see a chunk of it

Other than that I'm pretty happy with it - I already have a few more ideas that could be implemented via RepRapFirmware and PanelDue to make the printer fully autonomous (especially via USB OTG), but I really have no idea when I will have time to look at this and if RRF allows this due to the lack of free RAM.

Quote
zombiepantslol
- switch over to the new-style M408 responses - I know it's not trivial to make the necessary adjustments, but these responses already provide everything necessary AFAICS, including the G31 trigger values and chamber heater information (if enabled)
- add an extra "Offline" status to PanelDue indicating when a status response hasn't been received for, say 15 seconds. This would come in handy to see if the UART connection has been interrupted during a print
- (optional) only change the Z probe colour if no print is in progress. this would mimic the behaviour of the web interface
- make the polling interval configurable via the Setup page. The web interface shows changes far more frequently and it would be nice to play a bit with this setting directly via the LCD touchscreen

All of those will have to wait until a future release.

Quote
zombiepantslol
- close the print dialog again when a new file print is started

Good point, it used to do that but it now needs to close 2 popups instead of 1. Done.

Quote
zombiepantslol
And so far I've found two issues with the PanelDue:

- occasionally the LCD panel remains white after I switch on my printer. if I then switch my printer off and on again, it seems to work nicely again

Sorry, I've never seen that, nor have I heard of it happening to anyone else. I guess I could try adding a startup delay in case the display needs more time to initialize.

Quote
zombiepantslol
- the print progress bar flickers and I can only see a chunk of it

Yes, I need to reinstate the print progress bar properly.

Quote
zombiepantslol
Other than that I'm pretty happy with it - I already have a few more ideas that could be implemented via RepRapFirmware and PanelDue to make the printer fully autonomous (especially via USB OTG), but I really have no idea when I will have time to look at this and if RRF allows this due to the lack of free RAM.

When I get time to work on RRF again, I have some idea for saving a lot of RAM in the movement code. Bear in mind that the Duet 0.8.5 doesn't support USB OTG.

---

Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

1.12 b2 is very nice. working perfect on my duet 0.8.5.

Request for future releases:

Language support.
Not only Keyboards in different languages, but anything in the selected language as well. Like in the webinterface.

possible?

cheers
Dirk

Yes, it's possible. When I have released version 1.12, translations of the remaining text will be gratefully accepted - although I am not sure how many languages I want to support in the standard firmware.

---

Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

FAN button is not working.
If I enter M106 P1 S1 in Console, fan is switched on. But Fanbutton on the Panel is doing nothing...

Extrude button not working also.

Think it´s because of beta?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/2015 12:06PM by critical_limit.