QtQuick Virtual Control Panel

A remote UI implementation for Machinekit written in Qt/C++/QML. More info...

	Travis CI	AppVeyor
Build Status

Features

• enables building remote user interfaces for Machinekit
• automatic service discovery
• control one or multiple Machinekit instances
• remote UI deployment via MachinekitClient
• remote Machinekit instance launcher
• UI components for machine control applications
• textual GCode preview
• 3D GCode preview
• QML live-coding support
• cross-platform: runs on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Android, and iOS

Download

Binaries for the QtQuickVcp library and MachinekitClient can be found here:

From App Store

The MachinekitClient is available in following app stores:

Store	Link
Google Play Store

Rolling releases

You can find rolling releases of the MachinekitClient and the QtQuickVcp library below. Stable releases have been dropped in favor of continuous deployment to decrease maintenance effort.

Operating System	MachinekitClient	QtQuickVcp
Windows 64bit
Windows 32bit
Linux 64bit
Mac OS X 64bit

QtQuickVcp direct download links

For integration into your CI system, QtQuickVcp can be directly downloaded using a simple shell script. For example, the latest QtQuickVcp Android build can be downloaded with the following command:

arch=armv7
platform=Android
extension=tar.gz
package=$(wget -qO- https://dl.bintray.com/machinekoder/QtQuickVcp-Development/ | grep ${arch} | grep ${extension} | grep ${platform} | tail -n 1 | awk -F"\"" '{print $4}')
url=https://dl.bintray.com/machinekoder/QtQuickVcp-Development/${package:1}
wget -O qtquickvcp.${extension} ${url}

Contents

What is QtQuickVcp?

What is the MachinekitClient?

Showcase Applications and Examples

Getting Started

• Hello World in QtQuickVcp
• Building Qt5 UIs with MachinekitSDK
• QtQuick Module Overview
• Using mkwrapper
• Using mklauncher
• Using videoserver

Building and Installing

• Easy Way - Vagrant Box
• Generic Requirements
• Linux
• Windows
• Android
• Mac and iOS
• Building QtQuickVcp
• MachinekitSDK

Contributing

Developing QtQuickVcp

What is QtQuickVcp?

QtQuickVcp is a Machinekit component which adds the ability create new user interfaces for Machinekit. Unlike GladeVCP all user interface functionality can be implemented in QML only.

QtQuickVcp is designed with the aspect of remote interfaces on mobile devices and embedded systems in mind. A UI is designed once for a specific form factor and can then be deployed to any mobile, embedded or desktop device over the network.

What is the MachinekitClient?

The MachinekitClient application is intended to be used as a generic client for QtQuickVcp based user interfaces. MachinekitClient serves as client for remote distribution of QtQuickVcp-based user interfaces.

Using the generic MachinekitClient is the easiest way to use QtQuickVcp. However, you can also build QtQuickVcp UIs as standalone applications.

Showcase Applications and Examples

Full-featured UIs

• Machineface - 3D printer UI
• Cetus - CNC UI

Please add your awesome QtQuickVcp application here!

Example UIs

• anddemo - Simple HAL Remote Example
• BasicQtQuickVcp - Custom CNC application example

Machinekit configurations

• mkwrapper-sim - CNC Simulator
• anddemo - Simple HAL Remote example
• Fabrikator-Mini_CRAMPS - Cartesian 3D printer
• MendelMax-CRAMPS - Cartesian 3D printer
• Arcus-3D-C1-BeBoPr - Cable 3D printer
• Rostock-CRAMPS - Delta 3D printer
• TheCoolTool machinekit-configs - CNC and 3D printer

Getting Started

A good way to get started is to watch the video tutorials on YouTube.

Another resource for learning about QtQuickVcp, Machinekit, and other machine control related stuff is Machine Koder Blog

HelloWorld in QtQuickVcp

Building Qt5 UIs with MachinekitSDK

More detailed videos for specific areas will follow.

QtQuick Module Overview

QtQuickVcp comes with the following QtQuick modules.

• Machinekit.HalRemote - Non GUI HAL remote pins and components
• Machinekit.HalRemote.Controls - GUI items such as Slider and ProgressBar combined with HAL pins
• Machinekit.Application - Non GUI CNC stack application components
• Machinekit.Application.Controls - GUI items for CNC type applications
• Machinekit.Controls - Generic UI items not combined with HAL pins (can be used for non HAL projects)
• Machinekit.PathView - GCode path and progress views
• Machinekit.VideoView - Video views, e.g. for mjpeg-webcam streams

Using mkwrapper

Mkwrapper is the Machinekit server side application for the Machinekit.Application modules. This short intro will help you making your Machinekit configuration work with mkwrapper.

Install or Update Machinekit

If you have no Machinekit installation please follow the installation steps in the wiki Debian Packages

If you already have Machinekit installed make sure it is up to date:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

In some cases, you need a dist-upgrade to upgrade packages from non-debian repositories.

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

NOTE: When executing the dist-upgrade, make sure you have only the Debian and the Machinekit repositories activated. Alternatively, you can update the relevant Machinekit packages manually by running sudo apt-get install <machinekit packages>.

Prepare Machinekit

To enable remote communication you have to set REMOTE variable to 1 in the ini-file:

sudo nano /etc/linuxcnc/machinekit.ini

NOTE: Enable remote communications only in a secured private network. At the moment Machinetalk has no security layer.

Prepare your Configs

To use mkwrapper and Machinetalk for your existing configurations you have to do 3 modifications.

Modify the INI-file

Linuxcnc needs to know which user-inferface it should use. For mkwrapper you need to edit following in the DISPLAY section:

DISPLAY = mkwrapper
INTRO_GRAPHIC =
INTRO_TIME = 0

Modify the HAL-file

For some user-interface you need a running Haltalk server. You can add one to you existing configuration by adding following in the end of the HAL file:

# start haltalk server
loadusr -W haltalk

Note: It is important to add the above line to the end of the HAL file, not in the beginning or else you will encounter connection problems.

Create a Run-Script

Machinekit configurations need a few actions to be performed before linuxcnc can start. Take a look at the following script and modify it to fit your configuration.

Name it <name of your configuration>.py and run `chmod