tklinuxcnc.txt
1 2 Menus 3 ----- 4 File->Run... : prompts for an NC program to run. You need to be 5 in Auto mode, or you'll get an error. 6 7 File->Reset : resets the interpreter. The modal G and M codes are 8 set to their defaults. 9 10 File->Quit : quits the Tkemc graphical application. The controller will 11 also shut down. 12 13 View->Tools : shows the tool table. You can edit the table. Selecting 14 the Done button will save the table and reload it into the 15 controller. Note that Tab and Return affect the text, so you have to 16 click the Done button with the mouse. 17 18 View->Offsets and Variables : shows the interpreter parameters, which 19 hold the work offsets and user variables. You can edit the 20 file. Selecting the Done button will save the file and reload it into 21 the controller. Note that Tab and Return affect the text, so you have 22 to click the Done button with the mouse. 23 24 Settings->Relative Display, Actual Display : sets the display to show 25 positions as relative to the current work offset, or in absolute 26 machine coordinates. In relative display mode, the work offsets are 27 shown also. 28 29 Settings->Actual Position, Commanded Position : sets the display to 30 show either the actual position of the axes, as reported by their 31 feedback, or the commanded position, which is where the controller is 32 commanding them to go. 33 34 Help->Help... : brings up this help window. 35 36 Help->About... : brings up a credits window. 37 38 Status Command Buttons 39 ---------------------- 40 The buttons in the next two rows are labeled according to the current 41 EMC status. Click on them to pop up menus that send commands to the 42 EMC. The labels on these buttons will change to reflect the new 43 status. 44 45 ON/ESTOP-RESET/ESTOP : changes the power state of the machine. At 46 startup the machine is in ESTOP. Selecting Estop Reset will enable the 47 estop circuitry, but the servos will not yet be enabled. Selecting 48 Machine On will enable the servos. Selecting Machine Off will disable 49 the servos. Selecting Estop at any time will return the machine to the 50 initial estopped state. Function keys F1 and F2 will toggle the states 51 of the estop and servo systems, respectively. The Function Keys are 52 listed completely below. 53 54 (!) SAFETY NOTE: ESTOP will put the machine into the estopped state, 55 but should not be relied on for this action in the event of an 56 emergency. Always use the hardware estop to assure physical disabling 57 of the machine. 58 59 MANUAL/AUTO/MDI : changes the execution mode of the machine. Manual 60 mode allows the operator to jog and home the axes, and control the coolant 61 and spindle. Auto mode allows the operator to load programs into the 62 machine, run them, and pause/step/resume them. Manual Data Input (MDI) 63 mode allows the operator to type in blocks of NC code 64 interactively. Function key F3 puts the controller into manual 65 mode. F4 puts the controller into Auto mode. F5 puts the controller 66 into MDI mode. 67 68 MIST ON/OFF, FLOOD ON/OFF : turns mist or flood coolant on or 69 off. Function key F7 toggles the state of the mist coolant; F8 toggles 70 the flood coolant. These buttons and function keys only work in Manual 71 mode. 72 73 SPINDLE FORWARD/REVERSE/OFF : turns the spindle on forward, reverse, 74 or off. Function key F9 turns the spindle on forward if it's off, or 75 off if it's on. F10 turns the spindle on reverse if it's off, or off 76 it it's on. These buttons and function keys only work in Manual mode. 77 78 The speed of the spindle can be decreased or increased using the < and 79 > buttons to the left and right of the spindle control button, 80 respectively. F11 and F12, while pressed, decrease or increase the 81 spindle speed, respectively, until they are released. These buttons 82 and function keys work in manual, auto, or MDI mode. They are not 83 active when the spindle is off. 84 85 BRAKE ON/OFF : puts the spindle brake on, or releases it. This can be 86 used to manually operate the spindle brake for maintenance or tramming 87 operations. The 'B' and 'b' key, in manual mode, 88 89 ABORT : stops all motion and any program that is running. The Escape 90 key accomplishes the same result. Use ABORT or the Escape key to stop 91 machine motions while testing programs. 92 93 (!) NOTE: ABORT will not affect the estop state of the machine. 94 95 Tool and Tool Offset 96 -------------------- 97 At the left, below the command buttons, is a display of the currently 98 loaded tool and the tool offset, if any. A value of 0 for the Tool 99 means that no tool is in the spindle. The offset is non-zero if a tool 100 length offset is active. 101 102 Position Display Options and Work Offsets 103 ----------------------------------------- 104 At the right, below the command buttons, is a display showing how to 105 interpret the position numbers. There are two sources of position 106 feedback, either Commanded or Actual. Commanded numbers are what the 107 motion system asks for, and is not necessarily what the machine axes 108 positions are (servo lag may mean they are different). Actual numbers 109 reflect the current position of the axes. Normally, actual numbers are 110 what you want. In some cases, for example running a program in 111 simulation with the axes inhibited or disconnected, commanded numbers 112 are what you want. 113 114 Position numbers can also be Absolute or Relative. Absolute numbers 115 are not affected by any work offsets in a program. They are relative 116 to the machine home position. Relative numbers include any work 117 offset. If Relative numbers are selected, the applicable Work Offsets 118 are shown. 119 120 To change these settings, use the '@' key for Commanded/Actual, and 121 the '#' key for Absolute/Relative. The default values can be set in 122 the INI file, e.g., 123 124 [DISPLAY] 125 POSITION_OFFSET = RELATIVE 126 POSITION_FEEDBACK = ACTUAL 127 128 or 129 130 [DISPLAY] 131 POSITION_OFFSET = ABSOLUTE 132 POSITION_FEEDBACK = COMMANDED 133 134 Axis Positions 135 -------------- 136 Axis positions are displayed in a large font in the middle of the 137 display. The values are interpreted in units, commanded/actual, and 138 absolute/relative, as described above. 139 140 The color of the numbers shows the state of each axis. Yellow numbers 141 mean the axis has not yet been homed. Green numbers mean the axis has 142 been homed and is within limits. Red numbers mean the axis is at a 143 soft or hard limit. 144 145 Axis Command Buttons 146 -------------------- 147 Below the axis position numbers is a row of command buttons that 148 affect axis motion. The Axis Speed setting, displayed in units/minute, 149 can be changed by clicking and holding the < or > buttons until the 150 desired setting is reached. 151 152 The Increment button shows the current 153 value of the jog increment, or "continuous" for continuous 154 jogging. Clicking on this button brings up a menu that changes the jog 155 increment or selects continuous jogging. 156 157 The Axis Motion buttons jog an axis in the negative direction using 158 the "-" button, positive direction using the "+" button, or home the 159 axis using the "home" button. 160 161 The Feed Override value in percent is displayed, and can be changed by 162 clicking and holding the < or > buttons until the desired setting is 163 reached. 164 165 Manual Data Input (MDI) Box 166 --------------------------- 167 Below the axis command buttons is an input box labeled "MDI:" that is 168 active when the machine is in manual data input (MDI) mode. You can 169 type NC code statements into this box, and hit Enter to send the 170 command. Note that many of the function and alphanumeric accelerator 171 keys don't work as accelerator keys, so that they can be used to 172 compose MDI statements. Keys F1-F5 (estop state and manual/auto/mdi 173 mode), and F11-F12 (spindle speed control) do work; others do not. 174 175 Below the MDI box is a display of the current modal settings for G, M, 176 F, and S codes. These are only valid when in MDI mode. In Auto mode, 177 they hold the modal values up to the point where the interpreter has 178 read, usually far ahead of the executing line in the program. They do, 179 however, always show the modal groups that are applicable when you 180 next enter an MDI line. 181 182 Program Display 183 --------------- 184 At the bottom of the main screen is a label showing the current 185 program, or the last program loaded. Below this is a row of command 186 buttons to Open, Run, Pause, Resume, or Step the program. The Open 187 button is identical to the File->Open... menu at the top, as is the 188 'o' or 'O' accelerator. The run, pause, resume, and step accelerators 189 are 'r', 'p', 's', and 'a', respectively, lower or upper case. 190 191 The window at the bottom shows a few lines of text of the currently 192 loaded program. The display window is moved through the program so 193 that the currently executing line is always at the top. 194 195 Function and Accelerator Keys 196 ----------------------------- 197 Escape abort motion <-| 198 F1 toggle estop/estop reset state | 199 F2 toggle machine off/machine on state |- work in MDI mode also 200 F3 manual mode | 201 F4 auto mode | 202 F5 MDI mode <-| 203 F6 reset interpreter 204 F7 toggle mist on/mist off 205 F8 toggle flood on/flood off 206 F9 toggle spindle forward/off 207 F10 toggle spindle reverse/off 208 F11 decrease spindle speed <-|- work in MDI mode also 209 F12 increase spindle speed <-| 210 x select X axis 211 y select Y axis 212 z select Z axis 213 Left, Right Arrow jog X axis 214 Up, Down Arrow jog Y axis 215 Page Up, Down jog Z axis 216 Home home selected axis 217 <, > decrement or increment axis speed 218 c/C select continuous jogging 219 i/I select incremental jog, and toggle through increments 220 1-9,0 set feed override to 10%-90%, 0 is 100% 221 @ toggle commanded/actual position display 222 # toggle absolute/relative position display 223 o/O open a program 224 r/R run an opened program 225 p/P pause an executing program 226 s/S resume a paused program 227 a/A step one line in a paused program 228 b take spindle brake off 229 Alt-b put spindle brake on 230 231 Note that MDI mode disables most of the keys, since they are valid 232 symbols that can be typed in. F1-F5 work in MDI, as do the spindle 233 speed change keys F11 and F12. 234 235 The RS-274-NGC Interpreter 236 -------------------------- 237 The EMC runs a dialect of RS-274 "G codes" that originated from 238 Allen-Bradley as part of their work for the National Center for 239 Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS) on the Next Generation Controller (NGC) 240 project. The dialect is similar to the Fanuc series of CNCs. 241 242 G codes: 243 244 G00 X Y Z rapid feed 245 G01 X Y Z linear feed, e.g., G01 X10 Y20 Z30 F60 for 60 ipm 246 G02 X Y Z I J clockwise circular feed (helical with Z) 247 G03 X Y Z I J counterclockwise circular feed (helical with Z) 248 G04 P<#> dwell # of seconds 249 G10 L2 P<#> X Y Z set coordinates for system #1-9, 1 = G54, 9 = G59.3 250 G17 XY plane circular interpolation 251 G18 ZX plane circular interpolation 252 G19 YZ plane circular interpolation 253 G20 English units (inches) 254 G21 metric units (millimeters) 255 G40 cancel cutter compensation 256 G41 D<#> cutter compensation for tool <#>, tool on left 257 G42 D<#> cutter compensation for tool <#>, tool on right 258 G43 H<#> use tool length offset for tool #, 0 = no offset 259 G49 cancel tool length offset 260 G53 turn any coordinate offsets off for this block 261 G54 use coordinate offsets for system #1, from G10 L2 P1 262 G55 "" for system #2, from G10 L2 P2 263 G56 "" for system #3, from G10 L2 P3 264 G57 "" for system #4, from G10 L2 P4 265 G58 "" for system #5, from G10 L2 P5 266 G59 "" for system #6, from G10 L2 P6 267 G59.1 "" for system #7, G10 L2 P7 268 G59.2 "" for system #8, G10 L2 P8 269 G59.3 "" for system #9, G10 L2 P9 270 G61 exact stop mode 271 G64 cutting mode 272 G76 threading canned cycle 273 G80 cancel fixed (canned) cycle 274 G81 drilling cycle, no dwell, rapid out 275 G82 drilling cycle, dwell, rapid out 276 G83 deep hole peck drilling cycle 277 G84 tapping cycle 278 G85 boring cycle, no dwell, feed out 279 G86 boring cycle, spindle stop, rapid out 280 G87 back boring cycle 281 G88 boring cycle, spindle stop, manual out 282 G89 boring cycle, with dwell, feed out 283 G90 non-incremental programming (the usual) 284 G91 incremental programming 285 G93 inverse time feed mode 286 G94 feed per minute mode (the usual) 287 G98,G99 set canned cycle return level 288 289 M codes: 290 291 M0 optional program stop 292 M1 program stop 293 M2 program end 294 M3 turn spindle clockwise, e.g., S1000 M3 for 1000 rpm 295 M4 turn spindle counterclockwise 296 M5 turn spindle off 297 M6 tool change, e.g., T1 M6 for tool 1 298 M7 mist coolant on 299 M8 flood coolant on 300 M9 all coolant off 301 M48 disable override control for M50-51 switches 302 M49 enable override control for M50-51 switches 303 M50 enable/disable feed override 304 M51 enable/disable spindle speed override 305 M52 enable/disable adaptive feed override 306 M53 enable/disable feed hold 307 M62 <| 308 .. |- digital IO control 309 M65 <| 310 M100..M199 user defined commands 311 312 (check the user manual for details). 313 314 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) 315 -------------------------------- 316 Q. The axes don't move when I try to jog them. 317 A. Make sure you're out of estop, in manual mode. 318 319 Q. Software limits don't work. I can jog past a soft limit. 320 A. Software limits only work when an axis has been homed, since 321 otherwise the machine doesn't know where the limits really are. 322 323 Q. Why doesn't the mouse or return key work? 324 A. Sometimes the cursor needs to be in the part of the window with the 325 text in it. Move the cursor to a different region and try it. 326 327 Q. Why are the modal G and M codes not correct in Auto mode? 328 A. The modes that will be active when you enter MDI mode are 329 shown. These are read ahead of actual program execution. 330 331 Q. How can I change the fonts/colors/sizes in the Tkemc display? 332 A. The "Tkemc" file in the emc/ directory contains the X resources used 333 by the program. Almost nothing is hard coded in the program 334 itself. You can change any of these values and see the effects.