[cha:touchy-gui]]

Touchy is a user interface for LinuxCNC meant for use on machine control panels, and therefore does not require keyboard or mouse.

It is meant to be used with a touch screen, and works in combination with a wheel/MPG and a few buttons and switches.

images/touchy.png
Figure 1. Touchy

1. Panel Configuration

1.1. HAL connections

Touchy requires that you create a file named touchy.hal in your configuration directory (the directory your ini file is in) to connect its controls. Touchy executes the HAL commands in this file after it has made its own pins available for connection.

Touchy has several output pins that are meant to be connected to the motion controller to control wheel jogging:

  • touchy.jog.wheel.increment, which is to be connected to the axis.N.jog-scale pin of each axis N.

  • touchy.jog.wheel.N, which is to be connected to axis.N.jog-enable for each axis N.

  • In addition to being connected to touchy.wheel-counts, the wheel counts should also be connected to axis.N.jog-counts for each axis N. If you use HAL component ilowpass to smooth wheel jogging, be sure to smooth only axis.N.jog-counts and not touchy.wheel-counts.

1.1.1. Required controls

  • Abort button (momentary contact) connected to the HAL pin touchy.abort

  • Cycle start button (momentary contact) connected to touchy.cycle-start

  • Wheel/MPG, connected to touchy.wheel-counts and motion pins as described above

  • Single block (toggle switch) connected to touchy.single-block

1.1.2. Optional controls

  • For continuous jog, one center-off bidirectional momentary toggle (or two momentary buttons) for each axis, hooked to touchy.jog.continuous.x.negative, touchy.jog.continuous.x.positive, etc.

  • If a quill up button is wanted (to jog Z to the top of travel at top speed), a momentary button connected to touchy.quill-up.

1.1.3. Optional panel lamps

  • touchy.jog.active shows when the panel jogging controls are live

  • touchy.status-indicator is on when the machine is executing G-code, and flashes when the machine is executing but is in pause/feedhold.

1.2. Recommended for any setup

  • Estop button hardwired in the estop chain

2. Setup

To use Touchy, in the [DISPLAY] section of your ini file change the display selector line to DISPLAY = touchy

When you start Touchy the first time, check the Preferences tab. If using a touchscreen, choose the option to hide the pointer for best results.

The Status Window is a fixed height, set by the size of a fixed font. This can be affected by the Gnome DPI. If the bottom of the screen is cut off return the Gnome DPI to the orignal setting of 96 dots per inch.