SE Inspect 1.0.0-alpha.2 — guided workflow and machine integration

2026-10-03 · second public alpha · licence PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0 (LICENSE, commercial use: COMMERCIAL.md)

Two things in this alpha: the operator interface was reorganised around the way people actually work, and SE Inspect can now be wired into a machine. Everything below runs in simulation without hardware and is benched in CI; the hardware paths for digital I/O and Modbus are untested on real I/O — reports welcome.

New: guided workflow

• The sidebar is the workflow: ① Setup → ② Teach → ③ Inspect, each step ticks itself off. A "next step" card leads on; First steps is a six-point assistant that opens once on a fresh cell.
• One primary button per page (INSPECT / Take photo / Record empty image), everything else in the "⋯" menu. Line and arm buttons only appear in line mode; a running line stays stoppable everywhere.
• One settings window (gear): General · Camera · Recognition · Jobs · I/O · PLC/Modbus · Users | Hardware · Diagnostics · Maintenance.
• Jobs (formerly "recipes") bundle the setup per product; the old "save setting" is part of it.
• Teach: objects as cards with photo progress and status light, "Background" instead of "nothing / foreign part", Train … opens the training dialog. Photo delete with Undo.
• Inspect: verdict card marked Live preview, counters below as Logged inspections. Keyboard help with "?".

New: fits into a machine

• Digital I/O (vorsa/eaio.py): input trigger, outputs ready / OK / NOK / fault, pulse or hold. Drivers: simulation (default), GPIO via gpiozero (optocoupler/relay modules), Modbus TCP I/O module. Without the hardware a driver falls back to simulation and says why. GPIO 18 (belt relay) and 0–3 are blocked. New inspection trigger External.
• PLC interface (vorsa/sps.py): SE Inspect as a Modbus TCP server — status bits, verdict, object, confidence, counters, job number, heartbeat, result sequence; commands inspect / reset counters / load job. Off by default, port 1502, optional read-only.
• User roles (vorsa/rollen.py): operator / setter / admin with PIN (hashed), enforced in the server, automatic sign-out, change log. Off until an admin PIN is set.

Configure your cell

spikingedge.com/configure turns six answers into a parts list with test status, rules of thumb for camera and light, a wiring sketch, guide chapters and the configuration files (start.local.sh, eaio.json, sps.json, pruef.json) for this release.

Known limitations

• Alpha: interfaces, file layouts and the vorsa_daten/ format may change between alphas without migration.
• Digital I/O, the Modbus I/O-module driver and the PLC interface are benched against a mocked gpiozero and an in-process Modbus peer — not yet on real I/O hardware. Modbus has no authentication: isolated machine networks only.
• Recognition rates on a real test set are not yet published (Q1–Q10 in SE_INSPECT_1_0_SPEC.md); the test-set tool is in the software.
• The trained SE-M3 detector is not included; live recognition runs geometrically (OpenCV) plus on-chip silhouette matching.
• Tested on Pi 5 8 GB with 1 and 4 cards and Camera Module 3. Nothing in this software is a safety function (SAFETY.md).

Upgrading from alpha.1

Pull, then sudo systemctl restart vorsa. Learned objects and settings in vorsa_daten/ stay. Roles, I/O and Modbus are off until you switch them on.

Changes

CHANGELOG.md lists every build 1.9.56 → 1.0.0-alpha.2; each has a reproducible patch script in tools/patch_19xx_*.py.