Custom H5 Firmware with DRO (Linear Scales)

[GeckoSub]

Firstly, this FW and Screenset is for use with linear scales. I wanted a traditional DRO on top of the ELS but for users who have ballscrews, it's better to stay with Max's H5 FW or you could consider the NON-DRO version of this FW with a slightly different screenset which can be found here.
Also, consider this thread a handover as it's unlikely I can find more time to work on this and my own use (no X-motor) is different from the majority of you.

First, a screenshot of the custom screenset:

Some important disclaimers:

• AI coded this to my prompts so the FW has strayed quite far from Max's H5V11 baseline by now. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!
• I designed and made the screenset (tft) but I am not a UI designer, so again, use at your own risk
• I don't have a motor on the X, so I have programmed a semi-automatic Thread mode (and Turn mode, too). The FW version shared here should have restored the Thread and Turn modes back to their original full auto behaviour but I have only tested it briefly

Anyhow, I will put the files here and then talk a lot more about what's different in this FW and screenset:
H5_DRO_V97B_FW.zip (A new one will come in a day or two with a few more fixes/small improvements)
H5_GS_DRO_V16_tft_HMI_files.zip
(5/7 refer to Nextion screen size. A/B is orientation - if yours is flipped upside down, choose the other one. BUT wait a day or two as there's also a final version for the screenset coming)

MAIN FEATURES

• No Y-axis stuff at all in this screenset
• DRO/linear scales on X/Z
• External keypad/push buttons via regular ESP32 pins (see more below)
• Semi-auto Thread and Turn modes await button press to start Z-moves (for users without an X-motor) (REMOVED FROM THIS "COMMUNITY VERSION")
• Custom screenset: larger axis readouts, larger numpad, larger Run/Stop, Increment & Jog buttons
• Various other small GUI improvements

SCREENSET VERSION

• For full features, use this FW with screenset file: H5_GS_DRO_V17

KNOWN ISSUES AND BUGS

• Imperial GUI is a tad less polished than the metric modes. E.g. some values/text boxes may spill over into others.
• Jogging on the touchscreen was really buggy. Often a single tap would lead to the axis moving 2-4 increments at the time. It's mostly fixed now: The Z only moves one increment now but the X always moves two - but at least it's stable now. Though it may also depend on your mircrostepping, gearing and lead/ballscrew pitch parameters(?).
  The tradeoff to make this work is that continuous moves (holding down a jog button) now has a jerk at the very beginning of the move. BUT if you use external push buttons/keys for jogging, the issue is pretty much gone and the jerk-start is not present, either - since the code uses different timings for touch/external
• It's possible that I may not have all the code for external push buttons/keys for jogging the X-axis implemented. But it should be pretty simple to copy what works on the Z now and use it for the X (An AI like Gemini can probably do it for you)

HOW TO USE

• Cycle through Modes by tapping the Mode text box
• Tap the left part of the X/Z coordinate box to disable that axis
• Tap the middle part of a coordinate box to toggle between displaying ELS or Scale (DRO) coordinates
• Tap the right part of a coordinate box to zero that axis
• Long press the left part of the X/Z coordinate box to toggle font color of the axis readout (green/white)
  (But as default, the FW has green for DRO and white for ELS to signal which value is being displayed)
• Long press the right part of X/Z coordinate boxes to input a known diameter or length for that axis
• Cycle between showing RPM, Turns or Angle by tapping the box
• Long press the RPM/Turns/Angle value box to toggle between font colors (white/green)
• Long press Left Stop(limit) to cancel all limits
• Tap the Pitch box to change the font type
• Long press the Pitch box to reverse the pitch (negative pitch for left hand threads)
• Tap the Units (mm/in/TPI) under the pitch value box to cycle through units (on DRO screenset)
• Long press Welcome to NanoEls Discussions! #1 for Multistart threading (its designated button has been removed from the DRO screenset)

EXTERNAL KEYS/PUSH BUTTONS?

• Any function that can be controlled on the PS/2 keyboard can be mapped to a touch button now. The idea being that we wont need the keyboard at all, everything can be set on the touch display but it can be nice with a few select tactile push buttons for e.g. jogging and run/stop

DOUBLE DUTY NUMPAD (this is for having numpad functionality on a 10 key keypad)

• Short press on "2" to set "Pitch", Long press to set "Known Dia"
• Physical NUMPAD, long press on "0" locks the value (play/run/enter/set)
• Physical NUMPAD, long press on "5" clears/cancels the value (stop)
  (This is my stab at a custom array of external buttons. I think less than 10 is more than fine, so is not having it work for numerical input. But I would definitely recommend having jog buttons on external buttons and if you have the space, INC (step) and RUN/STOP are nice to have, too)

SCREENSET/GUI/KEYBOARD CUSTOMIZATION

• More notes on this in the FW ino file at the top but perhaps the most important one is:
• You can define which MODES you want to have shown. Search for "mode selection table" and set true/false

[GeckoSub]

A Final Video Overview of the DRO FW
And here's a video going over the FW/Screenset features. It shows all the touch features - though nothing in depth about how each mode works (go to the H4 videos for that for now)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTvUIzqGHik

I didn't show the external keypad in this video - it's shown in other videos - as I wanted to show that everything works with touch, too.

[GeckoSub]

IDEAS FOR IMPROVEMENTS

I probably wont put much more time into this FW or the NON-DRO version of it and especially their screensets but I will share a few ideas that might make sense for others if they want to continue this project:

• I think having a pop-up or second page for any numerical input could be cool. That way, the numpad on the bottom of the screen can be removed completely which means other more important things can be enlarged. This may make the most sense on a 5'' display. I have a 7'' so, personally, it's not that big of an issue to me
• If someone does have a go at adding more pages to the Nextion, you could also consider adding a thread table with common presets so people don't have to go look up what pitch to set for a certain size thread
• As for the DRO, adding a tool offset library would bring it to the next level but would be a fair bit of work. If it tickles your fancy, look up ESP-DRO on github. He made it work so there might be some good leads in his code
• And as others have mentioned, moving user parameters to another smaller files may make sense, too
• If you want to be able to swap the colors of the coordinates and not have it tied to whether DRO or ELS values are showing, I think the solution could be to add a small sign to the tft which lights up when, say, DRO is active. The sign would then be the visual indicator of which values are being displayed and you can then change font color as you please

Also, I do have functioning semi-automatic threading and turning modes, but I don't know how many NanoELS users are interested in this (it's only needed if you don't install a motor on the X). I can share it if anyone needs it, but don't want to have to many conflicting/confusing versions in the same thread.

[andreev-]

Приветствую , можете прислать (если есть конечно ) прошивку только с линейками , можно на почту Andreev-@mail.ru спасибо

[GeckoSub]

Приветствую , можете прислать (если есть конечно ) прошивку только с линейками , можно на почту Andreev-@mail.ru спасибо

I think this is the version I am using now. :
H5_DRO_V104personal.zip

Some pointers and disclaimers:

• This is my "personal" code, I made no effort to take into account what others may need. It works well on my machine but use it at your own risk
• Motor on the Z only. No motor on X
• The code for the scales work
• Some of the modes, like Thread and maybe Turn auto-pause at the end of each pass and you have to press "run/play" to start the next pass (this is because I don't have a motor on the X, so I need time to set the cross slide manually)

[andreev-]

спасибо

[andreev-]

Привет, может у тебя есть вариант где только линейки ручного перемещения ? , хочу продолжить дальше свой вариант делать

[GeckoSub]

Hi, do you have a version where there are only manual movement rulers? I want to continue making my version.

Hello, not sure what you mean, the translation says "manual movement rulers"...
Do you mean a fully manual lathe with DRO readout but no motors at all? If you don't need ELS functionality, then perhaps just build a TouchDRO system?

Either way, I only have the version I just shared (and earlier more buggy versions of the same FW).

I think the code to read the scales was based mostly on this project

But hopefully you (or AI) should be able to find the DRO relevant parts of the code and use it for your needs.

[grinyovvyacheslav-dotcom]

SCREENSET VERSION

• For full features, use this FW with screenset file: H5_GS_DRO_V17
  Hello Geckosub! i search everywhere but didn't find screen version V17 DRO, could you please add this version to this reply?