Hi, is there anyway to get the machine control panel to display more than the temperature plot while printing? I'm using a UM2 and printing for the SD card, but I initiate the print from the UM2. I can see the temperature plot update but the x,y and z values are static. Updating the graphical preview would be even better, but I guess this is possible at the moment.
Lastly, when previewing the gCode, is there anyway to see what time a certain slice occurs at. I know it won't be 100% accurate, but it would be useful so you can just go and watch the printer while it performs a certain piece of code to make sure you've got your settings correct.
-
Mechinnovation
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2014 6:34 pm
Re: Machine control Panel
The machine control panel will display x/y/z position and bed/extruder temperatures as long as you are printing via USB. If you run the print from the SD card, the software doesn't know exactly what commands are being read off the card, so the x/y/z position isn't being constantly updated.
And that's a great idea about displaying some kind of estimated time for the G-Code preview. For example, line 1671 is expected to be printed at 5 minutes and 12 seconds. You're right, it would definitely just be an estimate, but it might be helpful. For example, if the printer took 5 minutes to preheat, that would definitely skew the estimation.
You could probably make a good guess by just multiplying the total print time by the fraction of lines that the previewer is showing. So if you are showing 100 lines out of 1000, and the total print time is 20 minutes, you would expect line 100 to print somewhere near (100/1000)*(20 minutes) = 2 minutes.
And that's a great idea about displaying some kind of estimated time for the G-Code preview. For example, line 1671 is expected to be printed at 5 minutes and 12 seconds. You're right, it would definitely just be an estimate, but it might be helpful. For example, if the printer took 5 minutes to preheat, that would definitely skew the estimation.
You could probably make a good guess by just multiplying the total print time by the fraction of lines that the previewer is showing. So if you are showing 100 lines out of 1000, and the total print time is 20 minutes, you would expect line 100 to print somewhere near (100/1000)*(20 minutes) = 2 minutes.
-
Mechinnovation
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2014 6:34 pm
Re: Machine control Panel
Thanks Clayton. I always pre-heat the bed and soak the temperature for 10-15 minutes just to get my enclosure up to temperature so that would not be an issue for me 
I appreciate it would still just be an estimate though. Did you see my email about using the M114 command to feedback the printer position and update the graphical display. I would of course require that you have the same model loaded in the application and the printer, but that would be fantastic. For me the perfect functionality would be, having the model playing in real time and then have the ability to fast forward the display to a future piece of code and have a count down to when that will be printing relative to where you are now.
Does that make sense?
I appreciate it would still just be an estimate though. Did you see my email about using the M114 command to feedback the printer position and update the graphical display. I would of course require that you have the same model loaded in the application and the printer, but that would be fantastic. For me the perfect functionality would be, having the model playing in real time and then have the ability to fast forward the display to a future piece of code and have a count down to when that will be printing relative to where you are now.Does that make sense?
Re: Machine control Panel
to add to the print time thing...it would be really helpful if the total print time was displayed somewhere other than real tiny for a split second at the bottom of the screen just before the preview. many times i wont catch it and ill have to go back and reslice just to see how long the print is estimated at. let it continue to display during the preview or something.
Re: Machine control Panel
jimc - We've already taken care of that for the next software update 