RepRap Host / Arduino GCode

This weekend I spent hacking on the GCodeWriter stuff that was posted in the forums (i forgot who posted it... sorry! plz remind me.)

anyway, i had to make some major changes to get it integrated properly. this led me to branch the host software in subversion and make all my changes there. tons of hacking later, gcode is now integrated and is a 2nd output option.

it works great, and adds some cool features:

1. you can output your gcode to a text file.
2. reprap now uses feedrate (mm/minute) as its speed unit. this is AWESOME.
3. reprap host will fully fill the arduino buffer with commands which means that segment pausing problems are *much* diminished (although not completely.)

theres a ton more stuff, but if you want to try it out, here are the files. check the reprap properties file as some new config options have appeared.

i'll make a much more detailed post once its all finished and merged back into trunk.

vids coming soon too.

in case you havent seen the blog entry, check it: [blog.reprap.org]

So, is this a branch from the existing host software or does it support both Arduino and gen 1 electronics?

both.

i'm not sure if you're familiar with using subversion, but its common practice to make a branch of a project to make major changes so that the 'trunk' doesnt get broken with potentially non-working code.

some major changes were required and i'm now testing everything to make sure that both snap and gcode work. once it all works properly, i'll merge it back into trunk and we'll make a release =)

Where are with this gcode host software? Looking at the svn trunk revision 2296 today, gcode output is there but is this a good version on which to base developments?

I notice that in GCodeRepRap.java there is a comment " * TODO: find a better place for the code. You cannot even detect a layer change without hacking now. "

May I suggest that we need some classes representing layers, paths, extrusions, etc. so that features like ooze control and layer cooling can be incorporated into a well-structured design. I would like to contribute to this development but where is the best design so far on which to build?