getQueueLength() ?

[jhr1972]

Hi and many many thanks for the great work you are sharing with the community. Do you envision any function returning the current fill grade of the command queue ? In particular, I do only want to add a command if the queue is either empty or has just one single more task do. I currently see no easy way of checking this. The function isQueueEmpty() is not generic enough.

Thank you, Jhr1972

[gin66]

Sure. The latest commit add these functions, which should fulfill your needs:

  // functions to get the fill level of the queue
  //
  // To retrieve the forward planning time in the queue ticksInQueue()
  // can be used. It sums up all ticks () of the not yet processed commands.
  // For pauses, the summed up value is entry.ticks.
  // For steps, the summed up value is entry.steps*entry.ticks
  uint32_t ticksInQueue();

  // This function can be used to check, if the commands in the queue
  // will last for <min_ticks> ticks. This is again without the
  // currently processed commands.
  bool hasTicksInQueue(uint32_t min_ticks);

  // This function allows to check the number of commands in the queue.
  // This is including the currently processed command.
  uint8_t commandsInQueue();

The first two only needed to be exposed. The last one is new.

[gin66]

funny commandsInQueue() has too an existing implementation. So I used that instead:

  // This function allows to check the number of commands in the queue.
  // This is including the currently processed command.
  uint8_t queueEntries();

[jhr1972]

WOW. That was quick! Will pull and try tomorrow. Thank you

[jhr1972]

Seems there are some issues with queueEntries(). Pls compare the following snipplets:

         Serial.print("qes premove: ");
         qes = stepper->queueEntries();
         Serial.print (qes);
         stepper->move(-moveIntervall); 
         stepper->move(-moveIntervall); 
         stepper->move(-moveIntervall); 
         delay(20);
         Serial.print(" qes postmove: ");
         qes = stepper->queueEntries();
         Serial.println (qes);

This will result in the following printout: qes premove: 0 qes postmove: 10 However, I would have expected qes premove: 0 qes postmove: 3

If I remove the delay(20) then I get qes premove: 0 qes postmove: 0

I would have thought that every moveTo() statement is one record in the queue that piles up. Is this a bug in the function or to I misunderstand the concept of queues in this context ? Thank you!

[gin66]

The stepper->move() are not blocking. So this sequence will actually boil down to stepper->move(-3*moveIntervall)

One moveTo are either:

• pause (up to 4ms)
• steps (intervall up to 4ms), number of steps 1-255

Any step rate lower than 250 Hz will require pauses between steps. In addition a move() will implement acceleration/deceleration, which results in several queue entries.

How many queue-entries have been created after a complete move, you cannot see, because the max number of reported commands will be 31.

I would expect after delay(20) you will have qes premove: 0 qes postmove: 0 and not immediately after the move().