Conditional gcode help required - New Problem

[deckingman]

I have a number of different printer configurations, each with a different number of tools defined. I currently use a number of pre-print macros, called from the slicer start code. Among other things, these macros use G10 Pn to set the active and standby temperatures for a number of tools. Setting the active and standby temperatures for a tool number which is not defined in config.g throws an error. So I have to make sure that I use the correct macro for any particular configuration.

What I would like to do would be to have one "universal" macro which would set the active and standby temperatures for any tools that exist (have been defined in config.g). The maximum number of tools is now limited to 50, so a macro would have 50 iterations of "if tool exists, set it's active and standby temperature". Something like this:

iterations =0
While iterations <50
If tool(iterations) (=true?);- i.e. if tool exists
G10 P(iterations) Snnn Rnnn; - set it's active and standby temperature

I don't suppose for one minute that the above would work, but I'd be grateful if someone could tell me what would work. An object model is a completely alien concept to me but I do have a very basic grasp of variables, constants, expressions, loops and so forth.

Tia

Edit. I know that the above would need to be indented.

[A Former User]

while iterations < #tools
  if tools[iterations] != null
    echo "Setting temp for tool T", iterations
    ;G10 P{iterations} Snnn Rnnn ; - set it's active and standby temperature

caveat emptor - batteries not included (i cannot test it, but if you test it with G10 commented out it should do no harm)

(edit forgot to mumble something about pretty close, dogs, and tricks.)

[OwenD]

iterations =0
While iterations <50
If tool(iterations) (=true?);- i.e. if tool exists
G10 P(iterations) Snnn Rnnn; - set it's active and standby temperature

You were actually pretty close

> iterations =0

There is no need to assign a value to iterations initially, as it is an inbuilt variable and si assigned zero for each loop it;s assigned in.

While iterations  <50 

This is technically correct although probably unnecessary,
As @bearer showed, you could just iterate over the number of tools that have been defined by M563 commands however the documentation for M563 doesn't actually say if the tool numbering must be sequential.
There's a small chance if you don't loop over the max array you'd miss a badly configured tool (or someones odd reasoning to not number sequentially)

If tool(iterations) (=true?);- i.e. if tool exists

the tools "group" is an array.
Individual tools can be accessed by their number in square braces.
so in @bearers example tools[iterations] identifies each tool.
If then number didn't exist it would return null, so != null will hit tools that exist.

[deckingman]

@OwenD, @bearer .
Brilliant! Thanks guys, I'll give it go.

Refreshing to know that I wasn't too far away.

I'll likely iterate through all 50 possibilities (the maximum number that can be defined) because it is conceivable that I might have a "n" tools but that they might not be consecutively numbered. With a multi-input mixing hot end, one defines tools (colours) by using combinations of extruders and then setting mixing ratios for those extruders. But having a large number of tools defined at once, takes up too much space on the web interface. I haven't yet worked out the best way to deal with that but one option would be to have a "palette" of 50 tools but only use a selection of that full palette defined at any one time. So it's conceivable that one might have say 3 tools in config.g but they would be numbered 3 11 and 32 or some such.

I feel more macros and conditional gcode coming on...............

[A Former User]

@deckingman said in Conditional gcode help required:

I'll likely iterate through all 50 possibilities

then just swap the while iterations < #tools for while iterations < 50

one thing that had me puzzled is, same temps for all tools?

I feel more macros and conditional gcode coming on...............

hihi .. adicting

[deckingman]

@bearer said in Conditional gcode help required:

one thing that had me puzzled is, same temps for all tools?

Yes - mixing hot end = multiple inputs but a single (shared) heater for all tools. Which is also why active and standby temperatures are also the same.

Edit. My MK1 design did use individual heaters for each filament input, plus a shared heater for the mixing chamber and nozzle, but that was a bit too ambitious (and complex). I might look at resurrecting it at some time in the future but right now, I have my hands pretty full just trying to make the more simplified version work.

[deckingman]

OK, macro uploaded and tested - mostly OK but a little bit "flaky".

I had 11 tools defined - 0 to 10

With iterations set to <50, when I run the macro the active and standby temperatures all get set as expected. But I get an error in the console "Error in file macro line 4 column 6 : meta command : array index out of bounds. Sometimes that error say line 4 and other times it says line 3 but always column 6.

Long story short but I get that error if the number of iterations is set to a value which is greater than the highest tool number. That is to say, if I change the first line to be "while iterations < 11" it will set the temperature for tools 1 to 10 and not give an error. If I change the tool definition for tool 10 and call it tool 19 the I can use "while iterations < 20" and it will work without error. But if I use iterations <21 with tool 19 as one of the defined tools, I get the error.

Which seems to me like the array isn't a fixed size of 50 (0 to 49) but has a variable size which is determined by the highest tool number (if that makes any sense). With tools 0 to 9 plus tool 19 defined, I didn't get any errors for tools 11 to 18 (which don't exist) which is fine, but if the macro tries to set a value for tool 20 then I get the error.

Not sure if that makes any sense but basically, it works and I don't suppose the error does any harm. But in an ideal world, it'd be good if I didn't get the error. Is there such a thing as the highest tool number in the object model which could be used to set the iterations (or some other way of using the array size).

[bot]

@deckingman do you still have if tools[iterations] != null ? Because that is what should check if the array index has a value. Perhaps that is itself what is causing the error, I've never used the object model/conditional gcode.

[deckingman]

@bot said in Conditional gcode help required:

@deckingman do you still have if tools[iterations] != null ? Because that is what should check if the array index has a value. Perhaps that is itself what is causing the error, I've never used the object model/conditional gcode.

Yes - and that bit works.

Like I said, if I define tools 0 to 9 plus tool 19, then there are no errors for the non-existent tools 10 to 18 providing I set the "while iterations < 20". Only when I set that "while iterations" value to something higher than the highest defined tool number do I get the error.

If I redefine tool 19 back to it's original value of "10", then I have to use "while iterations <11" otherwise I get the array out of bounds error.

[A Former User]

@deckingman said in Conditional gcode help required:

array index out of bounds

probably my bad; I added the echo statement above the if statement so it will generate errors for non existent tools, moving it down help.

anyways, could you put up a sample config/macro for the tools to play with?

[deckingman]

@bearer The echo seems to work fine - it shows which tools have had their temperatures set and no others.

The macro is exactly as you wrote except I use a number instead of your "#tools". Here is a cut and paste of the tools section in my config.g - sorry, it's a bit long. The M568 are historic and no longer necessary, hence commented out.

M563 P0 S"Black" D0:1:2:3:4:5 H1 ; Define tool 0 (drive 3 not used)
G10 P0 X0 Y0 ; Set tool 0 axis offsets
G10 P0 R0 S0 ; Set initial tool 0 active and standby temperatures to 0C
;M568 P0 S1 ; Enable mixing for tool 0
M567 P0 E1.00:0.00:0.00:0.00:0.00:0.00 ; Set mixing ratios for tool 0
M563 P1 S"Red" D0:1:2:3:4:5 H1 ; Define tool 1
G10 P1 X0 Y0 ; Set tool 1 axis offsets
G10 P1 R0 S0 ; Set initial tool 1 active and standby temperatures to 0C
;M568 P1 S1 ; Enable mixing for tool 1
M567 P1 E0.00:1.00:0.00:0.00:0.00:0.00 ; Set mixing ratios for tool 1
M563 P2 S"Yellow" D0:1:2:3:4:5 H1 ; Define tool 2
G10 P2 X0 Y0 ; Set tool 2 axis offsets
G10 P2 R0 S0 ; Set initial tool 2 active and standby temperatures to 0C
;M568 P2 S1 ; Enable mixing for tool 2
M567 P2 E0.00:0.00:1.00:0.00:0.00:0.00 ; Set mixing ratios for tool 2
M563 P3 S"Clear" D0:1:2:3:4:5 H1 ; Define tool 3
G10 P3 X0 Y0 ; Set tool 3 axis offsets
G10 P3 R0 S0 ; Set initial tool 3 active and standby temperatures to 0C
;M568 P3 S1 ; Enable mixing for tool 3
M567 P3 E0.00:0.00:0.00:1.00:0.00:0.00 ; Set mixing ratios for tool 3
M563 P4 S"Blue" D0:1:2:3:4:5 H1 ; Define tool 4
G10 P4 X0 Y0 ; Set tool 4 axis offsets
G10 P4 R0 S0 ; Set initial tool 4 active and standby temperatures to 0C
;M568 P4 S1 ; Enable mixing for tool 4
M567 P4 E0.00:0.00:0.00:0.00:1.00:0.00 ; Set mixing ratios for tool 4
M563 P5 S"White" D0:1:2:3:4:5 H1 ; Define tool 5
G10 P5 X0 Y0 ; Set tool 5 axis offsets
G10 P5 R0 S0 ; Set initial tool 5 active and standby temperatures to 0C
M567 P5 E0.00:0.00:0.00:0.00:0.00:1.00 ; Set mixing ratios for tool 5
M563 P6 S"Orange" D0:1:2:3:4:5 H1 ; Define tool 6
G10 P6 X0 Y0 ; Set tool 6 axis offsets
G10 P6 R0 S0 ; Set initial tool 6 active and standby temperatures to 0C
M567 P6 E0.00:0.50:0.50:0.00:0.00:0.00 ; Set mixing ratios for tool 6
M563 P7 S"Purple" D0:1:2:3:4:5 H1 ; Define tool 7
G10 P7 X0 Y0 ; Set tool 7 axis offsets
G10 P7 R0 S0 ; Set initial tool 7 active and standby temperatures to 0C
M567 P7 E0.00:0.50:0.00:0.00:0.50:0.00 ; Set mixing ratios for tool 7
M563 P8 S"Green" D0:1:2:3:4:5 H1 ; Define tool 8
G10 P8 X0 Y0 ; Set tool 8 axis offsets
G10 P8 R0 S0 ; Set initial tool 8 active and standby temperatures to 0C
M567 P8 E0.00:0.00:0.50:0.00:0.50:0.00 ; Set mixing ratios for tool 8
M563 P9 S"Pink" D0:1:2:3:4:5 H1 ; Define tool 9
G10 P9 X0 Y0 ; Set tool 9 axis offsets
G10 P9 R0 S0 ; Set initial tool 9 active and standby temperatures to 0C
M567 P9 E0.00:0.50:0.00:0.00:0.00:0.50 ; Set mixing ratios for tool 9
M563 P10 S"All6" D0:1:2:3:4:5 H1 ; Define tool 10
G10 P10 X0 Y0 ; Set tool 10 axis offsets
G10 P10 R0 S0 ; Set initial tool 10 active and standby temperatures to 0C
M567 P10 E0.16:0.17:0.17:0.17:0.17:0.16 ; Set mixing ratios for tool 10

[A Former User]

@deckingman said in Conditional gcode help required:

• sorry, it's a bit long

no worries; point was to save me re-create it all from scratc:)
(and compulsory thats what she said)

Anyways, I did up two macro files for testing, and seems #tools evaluates to the highest tool number (i.e. you had 10 tools, and I skipped T3, #tools still evaluates to 10). and correctly the echo command doesn't access the array so it will not create an index out of bounds error regardless of it being below the if statement or not, still its tidier inside.

so if you'te getting index errors it might be a tool thats not properly defined?

Can you run M409 and post for the setup that generates the error?

edit: output is the NOT same with while iterations < 29 or any other fixed number - conclusion making a tool with a gap, creates null tools to fill the gap, but testing a tool past the last tool results in a index error. use #tools or another test for valid tools.

6/17/2020, 8:28:31 PM	M98 P"0:/macros/mktools.g"
6/17/2020, 8:28:41 PM	M98 P"0:/macros/tools.g"
Running toosl.g
Setting temp for tool T 0
Setting temp for tool T 1
Setting temp for tool T 2
Setting temp for tool T 4
Setting temp for tool T 5
Setting temp for tool T 6
Setting temp for tool T 7
Setting temp for tool T 8
Setting temp for tool T 9
Setting temp for tool T 19
done

;/macros/tool.g
echo "Running toosl.g"
while iterations < #tools
  if tools[iterations] != null
    echo "Setting temp for tool T", iterations
    G10 P{iterations} S1 R0 ; - set it's active and standby temperature
echo "done"

;/macros/mktools.g
M569 P0 S1	R-1	;drivers are bust..
M569 P1 S1	R-1	;drivers are bust..
M569 P2 S1	R-1	;drivers are bust..
M569 P3 S1	R-1	;drivers are bust..
M569 P4 S1	R-1	;drivers are bust..
M584  E0:1:2:3:4
 
;t0
M563 P0 S"Black" D0:1:2:3:4 H1 
G10 P0 X0 Y0 ; Set tool 0 axis offsets
G10 P0 R0 S0 ; Set initial tool 0 active and standby temperatures to 0C
M567 P0 E0.00:0.00:0.00:0.00:0.00  ; Set mixing ratios for tool 0
 
;t1
M563 P1 S"Red" D0:1:2:3:4 H1 ; Define tool 1
G10 P1 X0 Y0 ; Set tool 1 axis offsets
G10 P1 R0 S0 ; Set initial tool 1 active and standby temperatures to 0C
;M568 P1 S1 ; Enable mixing for tool 1
M567 P1 E1.00:0.00:0.00:0.00:0.00  ; Set mixing ratios for tool 1
 
;t2
M563 P2 S"Yellow" D0:1:2:3:4 H1 ; Define tool 2
G10 P2 X0 Y0 ; Set tool 2 axis offsets
G10 P2 R0 S0 ; Set initial tool 2 active and standby temperatures to 0C
;M568 P2 S1 ; Enable mixing for tool 2
M567 P2 E2.00:0.00:0.00:0.00:0.00  ; Set mixing ratios for tool 2
 
;t3 - skip t3 to create gap in test data
;M563 P3 S"Clear" D0:1:2:3:4 H1 ; Define tool 3
;G10 P3 X0 Y0 ; Set tool 3 axis offsets
;G10 P3 R0 S0 ; Set initial tool 3 active and standby temperatures to 0C
;M568 P3 S1 ; Enable mixing for tool 3
M567 P3 E3.00:0.00:0.00:0.00:0.00  ; Set mixing ratios for tool 3
 
;t4
M563 P4 S"Blue" D0:1:2:3:4 H1 ; Define tool 4
G10 P4 X0 Y0 ; Set tool 4 axis offsets
G10 P4 R0 S0 ; Set initial tool 4 active and standby temperatures to 0C
;M568 P4 S1 ; Enable mixing for tool 4
M567 P4 E4.00:0.00:0.00:0.00:0.00  ; Set mixing ratios for tool 4
 
;t5
M563 P5 S"White" D0:1:2:3:4 H1 ; Define tool 5
G10 P5 X0 Y0 ; Set tool 5 axis offsets
G10 P5 R0 S0 ; Set initial tool 5 active and standby temperatures to 0C
M567 P5 E5.00:0.00:0.00:0.00:0.00  ; Set mixing ratios for tool 5
 
;t6
M563 P6 S"Orange" D0:1:2:3:4 H1 ; Define tool 6
G10 P6 X0 Y0 ; Set tool 6 axis offsets
G10 P6 R0 S0 ; Set initial tool 6 active and standby temperatures to 0C
M567 P6 E6.00:0.00:0.00:0.00:0.00  ; Set mixing ratios for tool 6
 
;t7
M563 P7 S"Purple" D0:1:2:3:4 H1 ; Define tool 7
G10 P7 X0 Y0 ; Set tool 7 axis offsets
G10 P7 R0 S0 ; Set initial tool 7 active and standby temperatures to 0C
M567 P7 E7.00:0.00:0.00:0.00:0.00  ; Set mixing ratios for tool 7
 
;t8
M563 P8 S"Green" D0:1:2:3:4 H1 ; Define tool 8
G10 P8 X0 Y0 ; Set tool 8 axis offsets
G10 P8 R0 S0 ; Set initial tool 8 active and standby temperatures to 0C
M567 P8 E8.00:0.00:0.00:0.00:0.00  ; Set mixing ratios for tool 8
 
 
;t9
M563 P9 S"Pink" D0:1:2:3:4 H1 ; Define tool 9
G10 P9 X0 Y0 ; Set tool 9 axis offsets
G10 P9 R0 S0 ; Set initial tool 9 active and standby temperatures to 0C
M567 P9 E9.00:0.00:0.00:0.00:0.00  ; Set mixing ratios for tool 9
 
;t10 - shifted to 19
M563 P19 S"All6" D0:1:2:3:4 H1 ; Define tool 10
G10 P19 X0 Y0 ; Set tool 10 axis offsets
G10 P19 R0 S0 ; Set initial tool 10 active and standby temperatures to 0C
M567 P19 E10.00:0.00:0.00:0.00:0.00  ; Set mixing ratios for tool 19

[deckingman]

@bearer Brilliant!

As you say "#tools" seems to evaluate to the highest tool number which is just what I want.

So now I can define any number of tools (up to the limit of 50), and use any tool numbers including non-sequential ones, and the macro will always set the active and standby temperatures for all of the defined tools - and without throwing up any errors.

Which means I just need a single macro for each filament type (PLA, PET-G, ABS etc) and it will work regardless of whether I'm using a single input hot end, a 3 colour Diamond hot end, a 5 colour Diamond, or my own 6 colour (if I ever get it working).

Many thanks indeed!

[A Former User]

@deckingman said in Conditional gcode help required:

Many thanks indeed!

No worries, looking forward to seeing what you come up with next

[deckingman]

@bearer I'm one step ahead of you and already thinking about it.

At the end of every print, I run another macro which sets the active and standby temperatures to 0 (I could use -273.something to turn them off but 0 will do). So it occurs to me that if I had another "if" statement, I could use the same macro for both pre-print and post print.

Something like
if the tool set temperature (G10 S or R parameter) >0, set it to 0 else set it to (say) 210.

How would I do that?

[deckingman]

Can I use something like this

After the echo "setting temp for tool"

if G10 P{iterations} S >0
(indented) G10 P{iterations} S210 R210
(not indented) G10 P{iterations} S0 R0

Does that work as an "else"?

[A Former User]

@deckingman said in Conditional gcode help required:

Does that work as an "else"?

no else needs to be explicit; without it it will revert the changes on every run immediately as the last line will always execute.

you're on the right track, but have to access the object model instead of the G10 g-code.

something like

if tools[#tools].activeTemp > 0
  ;set the temp to 0
else
  ;set the temp to 210

I'm not sure about the correct object model node, but will try to poke it some more later, stepping out for a bit now that the sun is no longer scorching everything in an instant.. (and deliberately testing the last tool as it will be defined, the first might not)

[OwenD]

@bearer
if tools[#tools].activeTemp > 0

should be

if tools[#tools-1].activeTemp > 0

Tools array starts at zero, whereas number of tools starts at 1

[A Former User]

to poke the object model you can user M409 it will print out the top level object model in a flat JSON string, use something like https://jsonformatter.org/ to make it more readable.

M409 shows the tool object, and you can dig further with M409 K"tools" which return an array of tool objects, M409 K"tools[19]" will return the last tool object. (The returned JSON string will have the actual object model inside the result object - for for M409 K"tools[19]" you should have result.active[0] for the active temp, but the object model will not use the result as part of the path, but it will need the tools[19] as part of the path giving you tools[19].active[0]. (why active is an single element array idk so this may break in wonderful and unexpected ways)

I now see your thinking was to look at each individual tool inside the loop, but my thinking was to look at the last tool and have two loops - subtle difference. Not sure if either is better, depends a little on wheather or not all tools will be in the same state.

taking

if G10 P{iterations} S >0
  G10 P{iterations} S210 R210
G10 P{iterations} S0 R0

and inserting into

;/macros/tool.g
echo "Running toosl.g"
while iterations < #tools
  if tools[iterations] != null
    echo "Setting temp for tool T", iterations
    G10 P{iterations} S1 R0 ; - set it's active and standby temperature
echo "done"

you get

;/macros/toggletools.g - toggles stand by temps for all tools.
echo "Running toggletools.g"
while iterations < #tools
  if tools[iterations] != null
    if tools[iterations].active[0] > 0
      echo "Turning off tool T", iterations
      G10 P{iterations} S0 R0
    else
      echo "Turning on tool T", iterations
      G10 P{iterations} S210 R210
echo "done"

edit looking back there was something amiss with tools[#tools-1] so worked out well to go with your approach and a single loop avoiding tools[#tools-1]

[deckingman]

@bearer Thanks very much for putting the time into this, and also thanks for the lessons.

Having slept on it and thought about it some more, I can foresee a few scenarios where having a single "toggle" macro could be problematic. I'm often "tinkering" and even my home Z will pre-heat the nozzle. So it is likely that sooner or later, the active temperature might be other than zero when the macro is called but the intention is to set the tools to print temperature. If the active temperature is non zero, then the tool(s) will be set to zero which would be the opposite of what is intended. For that reason I think it will be safer to use two separate macros, one which will explicitly set the temperatures to print temperature, and the other to set them to zero.

But thanks again for showing me how to do it. I'm sure that knowledge will be useful in the future.

And thanks also to @OwenD for your contribution.

Edit - I've changed the title to show (in an unconventional way) that this is solved.