The control program looks like this (click for a full resolution image):
Most of the window, the top part, consist of several pages. Here, the “Basic Setup” page is shown. We’ll go through each page later. Select different pages by clicking the page tab, (1).
The bottom section stays the same, no matter which page is active on the top section. The leftmost section (2) is the log window. The program show here communication with TinyG, some diagnostics messages and information messages. Normally, you don’t need to pay much attention to this. (If ever there is a need for troubleshooting, I might ask you to take a copy of the content (Ctrl-A to select all, copy and paste to a text document) and send it to me.)
Moving right, there are camera zoom controls (3).
Further right, there is a coordinate display (4). Below it, there is the “home” button (5). Make it a habit to press this every time you start the program, the TinyG motor power times out, you move the machine by hand or any other situation, when you think the machine might have lost its exact physical position.
The ““Send to control board” window (6) under the home button sends the text from the box to control board when you press enter. Normally, this function is not needed.
Further to right there are six user-assignable location shortcut buttons (7). You can name and set the corresponding location for these at the “Basic Setup” window. When these are set up, pressing the button will move the machine to the set location.
Next right are jogging buttons (8). You can move the machine by individual axes using “X”, “Y”, “Z” and “A” buttons, or all axes at once with the “Go” button. You can move in relative to current position or to absolute position. “Load current position” moves the current position to the boxes; “Set current position” sets the machine position to the set numbers. (Use with caution; when the system is set up, all locations in the software are in relation to the homing mark. Using this function removes the reference.) The bottom button is “Park”, which will take the machine to an “out of the way” location called “Park”, defined on the Basic Setup page.
On the rightmost column (9), there are a few test and debug buttons. You can find explanation for these buttons in the software reference section here.
The reference page for the bottom section is here.
The software reference top page is here.
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