Repetier-Host Mac beta released - Feedback needed

Because the Mac version of my Repetier-Host has so many problems running on a Mac, I did a complete rewrite of the code for the mac. The new version is written in Objective-C using the cocoa framework. The result is native Mac app which has none of the problems the .NET version had. I used this to reorganize the whole program in a more clean way. See the screenshot for a first impression:



You find this at Github.

It was developed on a Mac Lion system. I'm quite sure all functions used are supported since Leopard (10.5). Would be nice, If someone with that os could verify that.

I call it an beta release, because I just finished with all function and expect some errors, also it is already quite stable. I released it early to get some feedback about the design and usability. Also reports about errors are welcome. The more people test the faster we get a stable and reliable version.

Installation is simple. I have added a pkg package for quick installation without the need to compile the program.
Download area

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/05/2012 01:48PM by repetier.

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Wow just noticed this! I will be all over testing this once my printer finishes it's current print

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[indieflows.blogspot.com]
[www.emakershop.com]

Just uploaded version 0.11 alpha

Version 0.11 : 2012-02-23
NEW: Load files by dropping them on icon in taskbar.
Fixed: File history
Fixed: SD card manager
Fixed: Printer configuration stores now all data.
Fixed: Fixed scroller for log in Lion

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Version 0.13 alpha

I just uploaded a new version, with the following improvements:

* Slic3r 0.7.0 now included.
* Fixed slicer calls.
* Fixed binary communication bug.
* Save STL now works.
* Fixed display of cursor position in editor.
* Faster G-Code preview with reduced memory usage.
* Minor bug fixes

Download as package installer s available here.

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Great, many thanks!

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Frank

Version 0.14 beta

I'm getting no complains about crashes, so I assume it works stable enough to call it beta. Some function could be improved but after all the Mac version is now a few steps in front of the Windows/Linux version.

Changes in the last version:

* G-Code editor now shows layer and tool of codeline.
* G-Code editor can preview all/single layer/layer range.
* Faster preview of g-code.
* Detects if you unplug usb cord.
* Select multiple stl files in object placement.
* Object placement can now rotate/scale correct.
* Fixed a great memory leakage.

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Hi Repetier,

Thanks a lot for your efforts. It's a great piece of software that you have there !
I only have 3 axes working now on my PRUSA (the extruder is being built) but that's working like a charm on OS X 10.6.8 + Arduinomega 2560 + RAMPS 1.3 + Sprinter + Slic3r 0.7.

it would be nice if the pause panel had also a "kill" button in addition to "resume printing".
The "Print panel" could also have user's programmable buttons.

Questions :
- what the numbers following a * in the log view when printing ?
- why are the line numbers in the G-code view not the same as in the log view ?

Thks for your answers and time.

Francois Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi Repetier,
>
> Thanks a lot for your efforts. It's a great piece
> of software that you have there !
> I only have 3 axes working now on my PRUSA (the
> extruder is being built) but that's working like a
> charm on OS X 10.6.8 + Arduinomega 2560 + RAMPS
> 1.3 + Sprinter + Slic3r 0.7.
>
Good to know 10.6 works too. Have only lion to test.

> it would be nice if the pause panel had also a
> "kill" button in addition to "resume printing".
> The "Print panel" could also have user's
> programmable buttons.
You can kill the job if paused. Kist press Kill job and the continue.
Programmable buttons come later.

>
> Questions :
> - what the numbers following a * in the log view
> when printing ?

What you see is, how a ascii command send to firmware would look like. The * indicates the start of the checksum to test for communication errors.

> - why are the line numbers in the G-code view not
> the same as in the log view ?

The line numbers send are numerated from 1 increasing every step. That way the firmware can detect if it missed a line and ask to resend it. During operation you send e.g. M105 commands for temperature reading, also increasing the line number. So it is only a question of time, until the numbers diverge.

If you compiled your firmware with Arduino 1.0 make sure to set the receive buffer size to 63. 64 byte like in the description will cause many communication errors, as the real buffer size is only 63.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/09/2012 09:59AM by repetier.

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Thanks again for your answers. Understood.
I will keep you posted as I go.
I also have Lion but have not fully migrated yet.
Arduino 1.0 and your firmware are next on the list to try. Thks for the tip.

Hi Repetier,

1) Is there a chance to see the Mac host software compiled as a universal binary so it can run also on a PPC / 10.5.8 ? I have an old G4 that I like to dedicate to only drive (not to slice) the Prusa rather than trow it to the bin. I also have an old iBook G3 / 10.3 that would be perfect for such a task but I guess that's asking too much ...

2) Regarding the latest version of the host software, here is one thing that I think is a bug :
- my X/Y/Z limits are set to 190/200/100 in the configuration.h of the Sprinter software
- Firmware is compiled as such and downloaded to the Arduino mega
- Repetier-Host is started and Prusa is asked to home all axis (mechanical switches are at 0,0,0). All is fine until now as expected.
- If I send a G1 X200 F1500 as an example, the X carriage will move to X190and then stop. Ok that's expected. But the display panel will show X200 in red and that's wrong.
- Further more, if I then request a -10mm on X using the predefined buttons on the panel, then the X carriage will move -10mm correctly but the panel will show X=190 which is also wrong.
- if several another G1 X+10 commands are sent, then the soft. limit is overwritten which can be very dangerous.
- The same problem exists on the other axis.

Kind regards

Francois Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi Repetier,
>
> 1) Is there a chance to see the Mac host software
> compiled as a universal binary so it can run also
> on a PPC / 10.5.8 ? I have an old G4 that I like
> to dedicate to only drive (not to slice) the Prusa
> rather than trow it to the bin. I also have an old
> iBook G3 / 10.3 that would be perfect for such a
> task but I guess that's asking too much ...

While the code should work on 10.5 systems it is not possible to compile ppc code with my Xcode 4. That would need an older Xcode 3.x version which doesn't support the new platforms. So you can say I'm not going to publish PPC binaries but it could be done if Xcode 3 can read all files. I'm a quite new Mac user, so i have no experience with older versions and can't tell if it is really possible. Never used Xcode 3.

>
> 2) Regarding the latest version of the host
> software, here is one thing that I think is a bug
> :
> - my X/Y/Z limits are set to 190/200/100 in the
> configuration.h of the Sprinter software
> - Firmware is compiled as such and downloaded to
> the Arduino mega
> - Repetier-Host is started and Prusa is asked to
> home all axis (mechanical switches are at 0,0,0).
> All is fine until now as expected.
> - If I send a G1 X200 F1500 as an example, the X
> carriage will move to X190and then stop. Ok that's
> expected. But the display panel will show X200 in
> red and that's wrong.
> - Further more, if I then request a -10mm on X
> using the predefined buttons on the panel, then
> the X carriage will move -10mm correctly but the
> panel will show X=190 which is also wrong.
> - if several another G1 X+10 commands are sent,
> then the soft. limit is overwritten which can be
> very dangerous.
> - The same problem exists on the other axis.

It's not really a bug, it's just how it works. The host has no direct feedback from the printer, so it will never know if an endstop is hit and it doesn't modify commands send to the firmware. What it currently does is check if a endstop may be hit. Thats why the color changed to red telling you DON'T TRUST MY COORDINATES. That's also the reason why the coordinates are red at the start. It doesn't know where you stopped.
In future versions I will consider a change of that after homing. But then, what should I do if a command would trigger an endstop or hit the end? Don't send the command, kill the job, modify ot to the longest possible way? I like to kill job and don't send the command. Difficult questions, thats why I started with red coordinates.

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Hi Repetier,

Thks a lot for your answers.

1) I understand. However, I did resarch a bit and here is what I found. Just in case this can help you later :
- [hints.macworld.com]
- [stackoverflow.com]
- [blog.laurent.etiemble.com]
- [www.cocoabuilder.com]

2) I thought that you were using the table dimensions in the pref. panel as software limits and that's not the case. Now I understand.
I seems to me that the best solution is to have software limits in the host too (just like in the firmware) and the display panel shouldn't be allowed to display values above max. table dimensions. Mach3 is working like that.

1) I will see if I have the time. Hope I find a source for older Xcode versions.

2) The limits are currently used for display and warnings. Checking the dimension would be the next logical step and it will come sometime. Need to do other things first, but I will put it on my todo list.

---

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Hi Repetier,

Ok, Thank you.

I didn't give you the link as I thought you would have it.
You will find ALL versions of XCode here ( [developer.apple.com] ) + tons of other goodies ... You will have to sign in and if you do not have an account yet, you can register for free ( see the bottom of this page : [developer.apple.com] )
With this, you should be all set and ready to go ... when time allows it ...

Version 0.15 released

Beside the new slic3r 0.7.1 version this release makes managing your printed objects even easier. If you have multiple objects you only need to hit "Auto place" for a good arrangement. Having a good auto place feature allowed a flexible copy function. Select the objects to copy and press "Copy object(s)". In the following dialog select the number of copies and all selected objects are copied x times and rearranged to fit the available place.

If you are making stl changes, the host now detects the stl has changed on disk and asks to reload the newer version. This helps if you are tweaking your object.

During a print job you now see which layer is printed of how many layers in total. Make sure to enable info in log options to see this.

If you are checking the generated g-code visually, you can now change the visible layers with the mouse wheel. Go into the graphic and press shift+mouse wheel for the lower layer and ctrl+mouse wheel for the upper layer.

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FYI, the link at the bottom of this page is broken. A correct one is : [github.com]

Thanks. Fixed the link now.

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Repetier-Software - the home of Repetier-Host (Windows, Linux and Mac OS X) and Repetier-Firmware.
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repetier Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Version 0.15 released
>
> If you are checking the generated g-code visually,
> you can now change the visible layers with the
> mouse wheel. Go into the graphic and press
> shift+mouse wheel for the lower layer and
> ctrl+mouse wheel for the upper layer.


Hi,
I just can't get the shift+mouse to work. And at first, the same for ctrl+mouse until I realized that there were a conflict with the zoom option in the Mac pref. panel / mouse that was set with the ctrl key. Once this option was unckecked, the ctrl+mouse was working but the shift+mouse still was not.
I suggest that you don't use ctrl as this is commonly used for the zoom since it's by default in the OS with new machines but rather use alt/option or cmd. Even better would be a user's programmable key in your pref. panel.
FYI, there are lots of messages displayed in the Mac console app. whenever I use ctrl+mouse. There are all the same :
16/03/12 11:03:49 Repetier-Host Mac[896] *** __NSAutoreleaseNoPool(): Object 0x2fe49c30 of class NSConcreteNotification autoreleased with no pool in place - just leaking.
No messages are displayed when I use shit+mouse

works fine for me. Are you sure you checked "show layer range" in the visualization panel?

---

Frank

Francois Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> repetier Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Version 0.15 released
> >
> > If you are checking the generated g-code
> visually,
> > you can now change the visible layers with the
> > mouse wheel. Go into the graphic and press
> > shift+mouse wheel for the lower layer and
> > ctrl+mouse wheel for the upper layer.
>
>
> Hi,
> I just can't get the shift+mouse to work. And at
> first, the same for ctrl+mouse until I realized
> that there were a conflict with the zoom option in
> the Mac pref. panel / mouse that was set with the
> ctrl key. Once this option was unckecked, the
> ctrl+mouse was working but the shift+mouse still
> was not.
> I suggest that you don't use ctrl as this is
> commonly used for the zoom since it's by default
> in the OS with new machines but rather use
> alt/option or cmd. Even better would be a user's
> programmable key in your pref. panel.
> FYI, there are lots of messages displayed in the
> Mac console app. whenever I use ctrl+mouse. There
> are all the same :
> 16/03/12 11:03:49 Repetier-Host Mac[896] ***
> __NSAutoreleaseNoPool(): Object 0x2fe49c30 of
> class NSConcreteNotification autoreleased with no
> pool in place - just leaking.
> No messages are displayed when I use shit+mouse

I had no such problems, but I will see what I can do. I will also check the autorelease error message.

---

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Helmi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> works fine for me. Are you sure you checked "show
> layer range" in the visualization panel?


The ctrl-mouse wheel works with all 3 modes. The shift-mouse wheel with anyone of them.

Edit : I mean : The shift-mouse wheel doesn't with anyone of them.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/16/2012 09:22AM by Francois.

Hi,

When starting a new print and while waiting for the temperature to reach the correct value, killing the job doesn't turn off the extruder even when the "Disable extruder after job/job kill" checkbox is checked. I think this should be done too.

Thks

Francois Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi,
>
> When starting a new print and while waiting for
> the temperature to reach the correct value,
> killing the job doesn't turn off the extruder even
> when the "Disable extruder after job/job kill"
> checkbox is checked. I think this should be done
> too.
>
> Thks

You are completely right. Will check that for the next release.

---

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I am having trouble connecting the mega prusa (explorer) to my iMac. seems to not recognize the port. Have you ran into any problems such as this?