Macro Button Proposal - Request For Comments

[bdring]

Macro Button Proposal - Request For Comments

We currently support 2 types of macros.

• WebUI: You can upload a gcode file to the Flash (not SD) storage on the ESP32. You can then create a button for the WebUI and assign a file to run when pushed.
• User Macro Buttons: These are 1 to 4 physical buttons wired to the controller. When the button is pushed it executes a function that the user provides. This can do anything from running static gcode or procedural, "if this then that" type things.

Macro buttons are a commonly requested feature, but the coding requirement scares some people off. The proposal is to have a default, basic mode where physical buttons act like the WebUI and an advanced mode where you provide functions. There would be Settings like $User/Macro0= that would tell the button what to do.

The question is what the setting should provide.

• A line(s) of Gcode? (limited in length)
• A file to run from the SD card? (these files might be a little transient)
• A file to run from the NVS (Flash) of the ESP32 (more stable, but currently you need the WebUI to upload)
• Hybrid with some sort of prefix (possibly confusing)
  • GC:G53G0Z-1 (for gcode)
  • NVS:\foo.nc (to run file /foo.nc from the ESP32)
  • SD::\bar.nc (to run /bar.nc from the SD card)

Is the setting name $User/Macro0= good or is there a better name?

Thoughts...comments?

[MitchBradley]

We have the existing commands $LocalFS/Run=filename and $SD/Run=filename . Maybe the value of the Macro setting is just a verbatim command.

$User/Macro0=G20 $User/Macro1=$SD/Run=foo.nc $User/Macro2=$LocalFS/Run=bar.nc

[MitchBradley]

For verbatim GCode, we could use & as a line separator, translating that into a newline before handing it off. I'm unaware of any existing use of & in GCode - although I haven't done an exhaustive search. Or we could modify the gcode parser to recognize & as an alternative to newline. The former - translate & - would be safer in the event that some GCode programs contain & characters - although I don't see how those would work at present, unless they are inside comments. If we mod the parser, we could ignore & inside comments.

[bdring]

I like that. A simple replace before doing anything else is probably easiest.

[HuubBuis]

I would prefer a "command file" to execute like Command0.txt .. Command4.txt. The content of the file could be a line of gcode, the name of a file to execute, etc. Editing a text file is within the capabilities of most users. In time, the format/language can be extended for future needs.

[bdring]

@HuubBuis That is one of the options @MitchBradley is talking about. foo.nc and bar.nc are both command files. One is stored on the ESP32 and one is on the SD card.

I tweaked the code and these 4 macros work fine.

$User/Macro3=$LocalFS/Run=upg30.nc
$User/Macro2=$SD/Run=upg30.nc
$User/Macro1=G53G0Z-1&G28
$User/Macro0=G28

[HuubBuis]

I have come up with another useful (I think) option, a "macro" to send a (push) message to the GUI, so the GUI can response to buttons.

[rijulmanch]

Is it possible to run a function like this and run it from within the GCode and also with a Macro button?

void sequencerelays(){ digitalWrite(E1, HIGH); delay(500); digitalWrite(E2, HIGH); delay(200); digitalWrite(E2, LOW); delay(200); digitalWrite(E1, LOW); delay(500); }

[bdring]

Yes,

Via GCode You can already do this. You would setup (2) digital I/O pins and control them with the following gcode.

M62P0
G4P0.5
M62P1
G4P0.5
M63P0
G4P0.5
M63P1
G4P0.5

Via Button Macro Setup those same pins and create the macro below, which is the same as the gcode with the & character used as the line end.

$User/Macro0=M62P0&G4P0.5&M62P1&G4P0.5&M63P0&G4P0.5&M63P1&G4P0.5

[rijulmanch]

Actually, I can think of longer sequences like this which are used multiple (20-30) times within one gcode. With a way to define and call an arduino functions from gcode, could add a lot of functionality including waiting for input states and any sensor based if/else sequence.

[sjonholle]

I had to remove all the other files in the Custom directory because it kept saying it couldn't find etc/settings.h in coreXY.cpp. Only my own costum file in this directory and i control my vacuumcleaner (great)