Beta for new software

[JuKu]

I'm getting more and more in to the Reza's enhanced version, but I'm still not familiar enough with it that I would feel confident starting to support it officially. In the meanwhile, I put out the work I've dome on the software during the summer. I consider this to be beta, as some features are not tested as thoroughly as I would like to. Further, the documentation for new features in missing or incomplete. I will be updating it, but I wanted to get this out before some of the travelling I have to do this autumn.

New features:

•Fast placement mode, which measures only first and last holes, calculating component positions from these
•Stored values for pickup and placement heights are now used, with user override possibility
•Demo mode (buttons visibility toggled by F4). Assumes needle height calibration done and topmost tape to be 4mm part pitch, +X orientation.
•Jogging is now with numpad keys, with settable plain, ctrl and alt speeds
•In homing, settable Z shade guard: Moves Z down for X homing, so that shade and belt don’t collide
•Mouse wheel rotation for jogging
•Fast and (more) robust camera switching modes
•Support for panelized PCBs
•Support for component trays (Components for a certain product on a removable tray)
•Support for custom tapes (should allow feeders, custom component holders etc)
•Added save, add, delete, copy and paste buttons for CAD data grid.
•Disabling log widow data speeds up the system

Bug fixes

•Needle calibration sometimes crashed the machine if recognition failed
•Arrow keys are problematic with focus in certain controls: Jogging is now with numpad keys, with settable plain, ctrl and alt speeds
•Homing timeout values now derived from machine size and settings
•Fast and (more) robust camera switching modes, should prevent lockups
•deleting a tape from empty tape table no longer crashes
•Disabling log widow data speeds up the system

Documentation for new features will appear on http://www.liteplacer.com/software-reference/ page at some point. Note, that you need to re-do your tape definitions before using this.

[ameli]

Very nice! I'm halfway through the mechanical build and I'm looking forward to start playing with the electronics soon. This is exciting news to see enhanced features ready to go before I even finish building!