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Cursor on display

Discussion in 'Troubleshooting' started by Joseph Duszynski, Mar 12, 2021.

  1. Joseph Duszynski

    Joseph Duszynski New Member

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    I want to plug a regular mouse into my R2 instead of using the touch screen sometimes its hit or miss with the touch screen needless to say "I don't have a cursor" on the display.

    Any Ideas on how to get the cursor to display?
     
    #1 Joseph Duszynski, Mar 12, 2021
  2. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Well, no. I can't think of an easy way to do that not if you keep the stock display (the LCD menu itself).

    The Pi is running Raspbian (linux) which can certainly accept a mouse plugged into it (and a wireless one would be perfect) but the display on that LCD for the R2 and C2 is not a display for the operating system. It is driven by a custom plugin that Robo did for OctoPrint (which is running on the Pi). This is also why if you try to update the version of the Raspbian OS running on the Pi or if you try to upgrade the version of OctoPrint running on it -- you will loose the LCD display. Newer versions of those things are incompatible with the Python library used (by Robo) to build that LCD menu plugin.

    If you read around the forums you will see there have been a few versions of the software on the Pi (Sd card images) created to bring the Pi operating system and version of OctoPrint up to current versions. Doing that will as I mentioned break the LCD menu, but there are generic LCD menus that can be used as OctoPrint plugins so you can switch to one of those and have everything up-to-date.

    As for the main question: Have you tried a touch screen stylus? It may help with the touching part: https://smile.amazon.com/Types-Aluminum-Touch-Screen-Stylus/dp/B00KVPC0M0
     
    #2 mark tomlinson, Mar 12, 2021
  3. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    You can experiment with all of the newer versions of various bits by simply installing them on a new SD card (or backup the one you have) and then play around to see if you like it. If not, restore the factory SD card and you are back to where you are now.
     
    #3 mark tomlinson, Mar 12, 2021
  4. Joseph Duszynski

    Joseph Duszynski New Member

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    Mark thanks for the reply!

    I've had this machine 3 years and.............
    As far as a stylus goes If I had used one I probably would be asking for a good display replacement!! LOL! because I'd have shoved that stylus thru it!! It really is a dodgy thing sometimes it works sometimes not....tap three of five times eventually it will work..
    We use the machine all the time it works flawlessly with the exception of the touchscreen.....

    At this point all I really use the display for is to Z the machine and Change filament and when it decides to work I'll sometimes start a print on it.
    If I knew how to "Z the machine" in octoprint and change the filament in Octoprint
    I honestly wouldn't use the display on the machine at all...... If I could CHANGE The display to act like my other printer and just display The temps current X,Y and Z and maybe the current line of gcode its executing would be far more helpful!! So maybe shifting to the new version of Octoprint is in order????????????

    Anyway....
    These other PI images you suggested.... Are they like the generic OctoPi image from Octoprint??
    Can I just use the Current Image? or do I need a driver? or a special image? I can always hook up a regular HDMI display if the one on the machine won't work anymore..
    My only fear in tinkering with the machine is "breaking it". I guess if I keep the SD in it and use a different one to play around there should be no harm/foul eh?
     
    #4 Joseph Duszynski, Mar 13, 2021
  5. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    I would suggest as far as the Pi is concerned to buy a new microSD card (at least 8gb, but no larger than 32gb) and use Win32DiskImager to write a generic OctoPi image (https://octoprint.org/download/) to the card and then boot from that. You can add the LCD extension to OctoPrint later (after it is up and running). Maybe something like this one: https://community.octoprint.org/t/octoscreen-a-new-software-to-use-octoprint-with-lcd/10629

    There are a number of different ones you can pick.

    For the filament change there is a plugin you can install for OctoPrint that will handle that for you: https://plugins.octoprint.org/plugins/simple_filament_change_buttons/

    If all you are trying to do is set / fine tune the Z offset then you can do that in the startup GCode block for your slicer and OctoPrint will use that as well. It is not a slicer itself, just a host program to send the print to the printer. You could also move the startup Gcode from the slicer into OctoPrint, but I'd say leave it in the slicer.*

    note:[OctoPi is the name of the preconfigured Raspbian image that includes OctoPrint and OctoPrint is the software itself just in case that is confusing]

    *there is a way to integrate the old version of the Cura engine into OctoPrint and use it as a "plugin" slicer. You don't get as much control over the settings since it needs to use a preconfigured profile, but it can be done. IMHO it is better to just use a stand-alone slicer and upload the sliced GCode to OctoPrint.
     
    #5 mark tomlinson, Mar 14, 2021
    Last edited: Mar 14, 2021
  6. Joseph Duszynski

    Joseph Duszynski New Member

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    I have a print that will finish today about Noon/1pm (well whatever that daylight virtual time is now) and am pretty geeked about trying out this change when that print finishes!!

    My other printer is an "Anycubic Chiron" it has Octoprint also but it has WAY-MORE features than the version that is on the Robo 3D...
    Robo reports it is version Version 1.4.0-rc6 which I assume is a release candidate vs a regular version and the Chiron reports version 1.5.3. so I'm looking forward to getting them both running the same stuff!!

    Things that are on the Chiron that I like are the G-code viewer and the Terminal window if I can get those on the Robo it will be exciting!

    Thanks again!!
     
    #6 Joseph Duszynski, Mar 14, 2021
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  7. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Good luck.
    The version of the OctoPrint and the plugins used on the Robo are ... as you noticed ... old :)
    Worse yet, none of it can be "updated" to newer versions and still work.

    You can certainly bring the Robo up to the same level as your others and you can probably find an LCD menu that you like.

    Ping us if you have issues, I use it on all my FDM printers too...
     
    #7 mark tomlinson, Mar 14, 2021
  8. Joseph Duszynski

    Joseph Duszynski New Member

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    Mark,
    So started the process (Maybe I should write a tutorial as long as its fresh)
    Anyway it was pretty straight forward got it loaded... You weren't kidding about screwing up the display!!LOL!! when I powered it on it was upside down and a ton of artifact junk, got it oriented the right way and installed the desktop environment and chrome
    And honestly being able to go to the machine and click print in that browser with a mouse "on the machine" is a 1000x better than tapping that damn touch screen a zillion times trying to get it to "sometimes" work!!

    Was able to run a print.... without any major hitches... save the fact I forgot to put the "home all" sequence at the end of the GCODE so when it finished it just stopped where it was at and the head solidified on the print LOL! I fixed that

    Things I noticed... After running it gives "Voltage Low" this is a Raspberry pi Raspbian/LCD problem I measured the voltages and they are fine so I disabled that nagging thing and I've had that problem with other pi's so its a known issue.

    When I was done I also realized that the Filament Runout appears to be handled by the PI on GPIO pins instead of by the printer motherboard (My other printers the motherboard/Marlin handle the runout switch).
    I assume ROBO had a custom plug-in for that feature??? I do know there are plenty of generic filament plugins for Octoprint that should work...
    It looks like its hooked to GPIO21 and GND... Any suggestions for a plugin and GCode handling??

    Lastly while I have a correctly oriented and perfectly readable display there are a bunch of artifacts on the left edge of the screen not sure why its doing that... I can see 100% of the desktop just the Left edge a "1/2"Margin if you will" is all artifacty. Any Ideas on that?? I could attach a photo... And I have no desire to hook the touch up because I know it don't work.
     
    #8 Joseph Duszynski, Mar 17, 2021
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  9. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    The Pi is very, very picky about the voltage it sees coming into it AND it actually wants 5.1V -- not 5V (which for most power supplies is usually a bit less actually -- say 4.98V) so the only way to avoid it is to get a 5.1v power adapter to source power to the Pi. When you see the under voltage warning it means that the OS will selectively down-speed the CPU cores and drop some out as needed to maintain voltage. Not a crisis and can usually be ignored since for most things it will not matter.

    The Pi controlled filament runout was handled by the same LCD plugin that connected to the Pi. You can add a different one. There are a few options out there -- here is one: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2095911

    Basically you need to run the sensor across a digital I/O pin on the Pi and then the plugin needs to know which digital pin it is.

    The artifacts on the screen I would need to make a guess at without a picture, but it could be the case where it comes over the screen pressing down a bit on it.
     
    #9 mark tomlinson, Mar 17, 2021

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