line movement macro

mikeabuilder

I'm working to characterize my home-made printer and made this little macro that drives the print head in a straight line from the current location. Parameters are the angle (degrees, not radians), the length of line, the max speed, and the number of round trips to make before stopping. I'm finding it useful for ferreting out odd sounds I sometimes hear when printing - like a vibration when moving at 25 +/- 1mm/sec and within 5 degrees of the X axis. Haven't root caused it, but I can repeat it at will with this tool.

; Macro for making short, repeated print head excursions on a line

; Typical usage    M98  P"0:/macros/line_maker.g"  A45 L30 S25 N2


; CHECK INPUTS

var angle = null ;angle of line, 0-360 degrees
if exists(param.A)  ; see if a parameter "A" was provided
  set var.angle = param.A  
else
  M291 P"Angle of line (param A) not provided. Cancelling macro."  S0 T5   ; S0 means no buttons, t5 means wait 5 seconds and move on.
  M99


var len = null                  ;length of line, in mm
if exists(param.L)              ; see if a parameter "L" was provided
   set var.len = param.L        ;length of line, in mm
else
  M291 P"Length of line (param L) not provided. Cancelling macro."  S0 T5   ; S0 means no buttons, t5 means wait 5 seconds and move on.
  M99  


var speed = null             ;max speed of travel, in mm/sec
if exists(param.S)           ; see if a parameter "S" was provided
  set var.speed = 60 * param.S  
else
  M291 P"travel speed (param S) not provided. Cancelling macro."  S0 T5   ; S0 means no buttons, t5 means wait 5 seconds and move on.
  M99


var loops = 1
if exists(param.N)  ; see if a parameter "N" was provided
  set var.loops = param.N  ;max speed of travel, in mm/sec
else
  M291 P"Number of roundtrips (param N) not provided. Useing default of 1."  S0 T5   ; S0 means no buttons, t5 means wait 5 seconds and move on.


; Gather current position (endpoint 0)
var X_0 = move.axes[0].machinePosition
var Y_0 = move.axes[1].machinePosition

;Calculate other endpoint (endpoint 1)
var X_1 = {var.X_0 + var.len * cos(pi * var.angle / 180)}
var Y_1 = {var.Y_0 + var.len * sin(pi *  var.angle / 180)}




;Loop while drawing the line

while iterations < {var.loops}
  G0 X{var.X_1} Y{var.Y_1} F{var.speed}
  G0 X{var.X_0} Y{var.Y_0} F{var.speed}