#flex-dev Logs

Nov 21 2025

04:56 AM JT-Cave: morniung
05:18 AM lcnc-relay: <AllAboutJake@> Dog walk and coffee time.
05:23 AM lcnc-relay: <AllAboutJake@> Tom, agree. I can brighten up the disabled text a little. I don’t have original art for the probe buttons in SVG so I can’t really render them in the same style as the other image buttons but I may just reduce the brightness with a filter
05:25 AM lcnc-relay: <AllAboutJake@> The arrows for example are an SVG that runs through a script to make enabled, disabled, and pressed versions in PNG for the style sheet
06:59 AM lcnc-relay: <AllAboutJake@> https://jauriarts.org/_heisenbridge/media/jauriarts.org/NHAYQxPYfWeIiaksVgjqtDxq/oY2-pyBOqww/probe_enable.gif
07:28 AM JT-Cave: I just found out my oldest daughter had a heart attack and is in the hospital
07:30 AM Tom_L: oh no
07:31 AM Tom_L: in Tx?
07:32 AM JT-Cave: yup
07:33 AM Tom_L: you goin to Tx?
07:33 AM Tom_L: not alot you could do though
07:35 AM Tom_L: headin out... hope she's ok
07:36 AM JT-Cave: ok
08:56 AM lcnc-relay: <AllAboutJake@> I hope your daughter is alright. That's terrifying.
09:13 AM rdtsc: indeed, hope she's ok
10:07 AM lcnc-relay: <alex.w#18266@> Sorry JT-Cave!
10:07 AM lcnc-relay: <alex.w#18266@> Hope she's okay
10:08 AM lcnc-relay: <alex.w#18266@> AllAboutJake@ I like that you have all of the probe buttons on one page vs having to pick among them like on other interfaces. I would suggest putting the important probing parameters along the bottom though, maybe with an edit button that pops up a dialog to change them.
10:09 AM lcnc-relay: <alex.w#18266@> Other comment: does anyone use the jogging buttons on screen? You are giving them a lot of real estate. Personally I just always use the keyboard or pendant
10:10 AM lcnc-relay: <alex.w#18266@> and on Machine/Coords area, why not have direct buttons there for G54, G55, etc?
11:43 AM lcnc-relay: <AllAboutJake@> alex.w#18266@: Thanks for the feedback, yeah. The machine/coords area hides some additional feature. clicking on the DRO numbers lets you get to a touch-off interface:
11:43 AM lcnc-relay: <AllAboutJake@> https://jauriarts.org/_heisenbridge/media/jauriarts.org/rMPnbYgkRZNfUhBQckFKyjyW/BNmuU6gpeo4/image.png
11:50 AM lcnc-relay: <alex.w#18266@> That's cool. I would just want direct clicks where it says Coords for at least G54...G57 since I have 4 vise stations on my machine. It seems like you'd have room for those 4 buttons plus a ...
11:52 AM rdtsc-w: Flex is flexible... create the .ui any way desired
11:54 AM lcnc-relay: <alex.w#18266@> Yeah, I get that. Was just providing some feedback on this one.
11:54 AM lcnc-relay: How much are people using QtDesigner to build their UIs vs hand editting the file?
11:55 AM rdtsc-w: not sure but I've tweaked things in an editor once or twice - whatever works :)
11:56 AM rdtsc-w: I bet JT wouldn't be opposed to some additional UI's for more variety - maybe one for a lathe, etc.
11:58 AM lcnc-relay: <alex.w#18266@> I've always found qtdesigner really painful and tweak qtdragon directly in the ui file. But flex looks like it works with a vanilla qtdesigner which may remove most of my concerns.
11:58 AM lcnc-relay: <alex.w#18266@> I need to find time to try it
12:39 PM Tom_L: alex.w, all the probe parameters are important :)
12:40 PM Tom_L: you can modify the gui any way you like
12:42 PM Tom_L: not sure why you would need an edit button
12:43 PM Tom_L: same with the jog buttons. you are free to design the gui any way you like
12:44 PM Tom_L: touch-probe3 started out as a test bed for me to test flex as we refined it and i finally just added it to the examples since it has alot in it
12:44 PM Tom_L: recently added tp3-touch as a touch version
12:48 PM Tom_L: that's the purpose with flex is you can make it any way you like
02:05 PM lcnc-relay: <AllAboutJake@> My config is pretty much just my sensibilities laid up on top of touch-probe3 -- I spend most of my time manually jogging or moving to specific positions with the MDI. I run the occasional program. I just just for the first time get a cheap chinese touch probe, so I hope to be doing more of that in the future. In the end, those are the features I want handy.
03:00 PM lcnc-relay: <AllAboutJake@> started my journey with touch-probe3 a while back, so I'm sure I have a very old set of subroutines.
03:57 PM Tom_itx: jake yes
03:57 PM Tom_itx: both sets have been tested now
03:57 PM Tom_itx: in & mm
03:57 PM Tom_itx is now known as Tom_L
03:58 PM Tom_L: i've tried to not put them in the example unless they work
03:59 PM lcnc-relay: <AllAboutJake@> Cool. I’ll grab a fresh set
03:59 PM Tom_L: i had the metric ones there for a while untested but for reference to those that use mm
03:59 PM Tom_L: but i've since tested them all
03:59 PM Tom_L: check the settings for your own setup
04:00 PM Tom_L: there is one Z setting that could bite which is a Z height return level
04:00 PM lcnc-relay: <AllAboutJake@> Yeah. I was just playing with them in the sim. Need to learn how the angle ones work but they seemed to do what they were supposed to do
04:00 PM Tom_L: the base distance is adjustable on those
04:02 PM Tom_L: i tried to keep the readme up to date on the variables and their use
04:03 PM Tom_L: angle touch the short side of the base then move the base distance to touch off that end then the calcs are done
04:04 PM Tom_rpi5: #2018 = ATAN[#2017]/[#2013]
04:05 PM Tom_L: what probe did you get?
04:06 PM Tom_L: https://www.amazon.com/PGFUN-Anti-roll-Waterproof-Coordinate-Compatible/dp/B0B3XMFDX5
04:06 PM Tom_L: works pretty good for a cheap one
04:07 PM lcnc-relay: <alex.w#18266@> I've been using that one for about 6 months, it's pretty good
04:07 PM Tom_L: found spare tips for it as well
04:07 PM lcnc-relay: <alex.w#18266@> the usb-c plug is stupid, but I just leave that part wired all the time and put a different plug at the other end of the wire that plugs into the top of my spindle.
04:07 PM lcnc-relay: <alex.w#18266@> yes, the tips are trivial to find, it's a common threading (m3 if I remember right)
04:08 PM Tom_L: https://www.carbideprobes.com/
04:08 PM Tom_L: i've used them before as well
04:09 PM lcnc-relay: <alex.w#18266@> it has good repeatability in my testing and is pretty easy to center, which are my main critieria
04:09 PM lcnc-relay: <AllAboutJake@> Yeah that probe got mine from Ali express
04:09 PM Tom_L: yeah i keep it in a holder so it's repeatable
04:13 PM Tom_L: http://tom-itx.no-ip.biz:443/~webpage/cnc/probe/probe_adjust.mp4
04:13 PM Tom_L: close enough for me
04:15 PM lcnc-relay: <AllAboutJake@> yeah my spindle isn't really indexed, though I could fake it,,,, and I know you're supposed to adjust/indicate it before use.
04:17 PM Tom_rpi5: G53 G0 Z #2036
04:18 PM Tom_rpi5: #2036 probing Z-safe for edge probe routines
04:18 PM Tom_rpi5: double check that one
04:18 PM Tom_rpi5: i thought about just removing it and using G53 G0 Z0
04:19 PM Tom_L: if you do alot of probing, it's handy because it doesn't return all the way to Z machine home
04:19 PM lcnc-relay: <AllAboutJake@> Does the probe operation adjust the cooridinate system at all. Was wondering what the "Zero angle" and "set angle" buttons did. Seem to load a rotation out of 1005 "G10 L2 P0 R#1005"
04:19 PM Tom_L: i have a yt on that
04:19 PM lcnc-relay: <alex.w#18266@> tom: i meant that if I probe the same edge 50 times in a row that I end up with the same reading in a tight distribution. I wrote a simple script to measure this.
04:20 PM Tom_L: right
04:20 PM lcnc-relay: <alex.w#18266@> A prior probe was much less repeatable
04:21 PM Tom_L: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8hpXoHmHzk
04:23 PM Tom_L: it will offset the gcode to that angle
04:25 PM Tom_L: zero angle returns it to normal
04:44 PM lcnc-relay: <AllAboutJake@> cool. not sure whne I'd use it but I want to play with it now.
05:12 PM Tom_L: you could slap a piece of metal down and probe the edge to align it for the gcode
05:13 PM Tom_L: i tend to align my stuff but it would be handy for that
05:15 PM lcnc-relay: <AllAboutJake@> Yeah. I usually go back and forth with an indicator
05:15 PM lcnc-relay: <AllAboutJake@> Hope everything is okay with JT. Really scary stuff