v1.5.0-Edge-7

Yet another release with a number of fixes, look and feel tweaks, and changes.

Config

• Config menu now only shows sections that currently have inputs available in them
• Config hides sections that are filtered or EEPROM only when not connected
• Added a "Non-Default" toggle next to the search filter that filters all EEPROM values to those not default to your selected machine profile
• Added some AltMill specific settings to the appropriate sections
• Added warning when not connected that some settings that are EEPROM only may not appear.
• Look and feel changes

Tools

• Surfacing tool had units added, labels corrected, should convert properly based on preferred units, and some responsiveness changes
• Squaring and Calibration tools look and feel and behaviour changes

Shortcuts

• Jog behaviour changes again - should be better now
• Added missing Rapid Position shortcuts
• Rotary shortcut fixes

Dark Mode

• Numerous tweaks to look and feel for legibility
• Gamepad shorcut area again usable in dark mode
  
  

Connection

• Work on robustness of auto detect firmware
• Fix for situations where connecting to alarmed machine would result in disconnect state and inability to reconnect

Look and Feel

• Side bar sizing scales appropriately based on monitor size
• Various new icons
• Numerous sizing tweaks to text and interactable elements such as tabs
• A jog icons should now be the correct directions.
• Fixed stats menu to bottom of screen
• Many, many other things

General

• Go To flyout again usable. Labelling improved for incremental and absolute.
• Various remote mode config tweaks
• Updating jog defaults in config should be reflected on main UI
• A number of other changes honestly it's exhausting.

v1.5.0-Edge-6

Hey folks, we're back again with another Edge release.

We're pretty happy with the pace we've made over the past 2 weeks in terms of feature completeness and starting to focus on reported issues and in-person testing. It's very likely that future builds will largely be focused on fixing any behaviour problems and fine tuning the look and feel.

As always, there's a large number of new features and fixes in this version so we'll start with some highlights and dive into it.

Park

We've added a new functionality for machines with limit switches and homing enabled called Park. This function lets you configure a set location, and pressing the new UI button will safely move the router to that location. There's a number of possible use cases (for example, setting the location close to the front for bit changes or near the back to move the router out of the way to clear your workpiece) and we're hoping it's a nice convenience for most users.

You can find the functionality on the main UI near the rapid position buttons if you have homing enabled. The behaviour is to move just below Z max height, move to the configured X and Y, and then finally move down to the configured Z location.

The park location itself is set in Config (Basics -> Park Location) and has convenient buttons to both grab the current location and go to the set location to verify it's accuracy.

Dark Mode

Let there be light dark!

Long asked for, we've added Dark mode to the gSender UI.

You can toggle it on with the click of a switch in Config (Customize UI -> Enabled Dark Mode).

While there's still a number of readability tweaks we're planning to make, we're very happy with the look and feel of this and hope it becomes a popular addition to the software.

Shortcuts

A large effort was undertaken by a couple members of the team to both verify parity of shortcuts between main and Edge and verify they are working as expected. We're reasonably certain we've added in all the missing shortcut functionalities and fixed some broken/different behaviours (such as continuous jogging).

Settings Import in Config should let you import your old configuration from main gSender for testing (this was also true in the last build, but there was a bit of a miscommunication between team members - oopsies).

Gamepad default profiles have also returned, and editing gamepad shortcuts should be more functional in this build.

Lightweight mode alterations

Lightweight mode behaviour has been updated. Rather than individual toggles, we've added presets which govern behaviour. Everything is the default behaviour, with full animations and visualization. Lighter swaps out for the SVG visualizer. Off turns the visualizer off.

Lightweight mode is toggled using the feather icon location on the Visualizer.

gSender Update - more info available

We've made some tweaks to how gSender informs the user when an update is available. On top of our beautiful bouncing boy on the logo informing you when a new version is available, clicking that now takes you to the about page, which now includes Patch notes from the new version so you can check what's changing before you update.

On top of that, we've added a percentage indicator when downloading so you know how long you have left.

gSender_Edge_avOgKmqXl7.mp4

Everything else

• Macros running state and animation returned. Editing and adding macros should behave the same, closing the modal.
• Added numerous missing config options
• Updated some config behaviour to hide options based on other selections
• Added Default Firmware, which is used as the fallback controller option in cases where connection cannot determine which firmware it is connecting to.
• Numerous jogging behaviour and jogging area look/feel changes.
• Jog values again editable
• Added missing jog config feedrate options.
• CW, CCW for spindle commands have been renamed to For and Rev in several places for consistency with most VFD labelling.
• Consistent look/feel on units in Config area.
• Stats tool - numerous look/feel changes and functionality fixes for maintenance tasks
• Various look/feel changes across UI
• Numerous other bug fixes.

v1.5.0-Edge-5

Edge-5 is now available with a number of fixes, tweaks, and steps towards feature parity.

• Fixed event emitter leak affecting UI performance
• Updated router library which should increase performance between pages
• Updated look and feel of rapid position buttons
  
• You can now flash and restore defaults in firmware tool
• Added several new config options, including A axis jog speeds
• Fixed home button not showing when it should have been
• Reload file functionality added to reload the file from disk.
• Added permanent unlock button to cycle start or unlock the firmware depending on state
• Added last file run information and recent files list
• Clicking the question mark on alarms now expands the helper area with a more complete description
  
• Fixed incorrect jog values being used on A jogging
• Print shortcuts re-added
• Rotary surfacing ported
• Maintenance reminders will once again appear when tasks are due on program start.
• Fixed visualizer unloading when swapping between tabs
• Added new animations to a number of drawers and flyout menus
• Lock Stepper Motor toggle has made a re-appearance in the Machine Information area
  

v1.4.12

• Added new machine profiles for Altmill 2X4
• Added support for new rotary track options
• Added fallback for jog values in cases where they were undefined.
• Added EEPROM settings export with diagnostic
• Fixed stepover for rotary surfacing on closed loop motors converting unnecessarily
• Dialog on code option now shows on grbl controller

v1.5.0-Edge-4

Another Edge release with a number of outstanding features and tweaks.

Updated Remote Mode/Wireless CNC Control

Remote mode (now known as "Wireless CNC Control") is back and better than ever! We're exposing more functionality and will continue to expand this in future Edge releases. We hope that by splitting up functionality into navigable pages the user experience will be improved and we'll have a much more usable remote interface on the phone. The plan is to get configuration, stats and remote tool changing all present in a future build.

You'll notice that the phone interface is now located at a separate link, "/remote". The QR code has been updated to link to this for easier navigation.

Gamepad Support

Press your buttons, champs. You can find the gamepad configuration in "Tools".

Even more Config Updates

Some sections now have relevant pins and functionalities available on the config page so you can test as you configure.

About Page

You can find this again in the Stats section. The plan is to also include update information here, so you're able to see what's new in updated versions of gSender before actually updating.

Look and Feel Tweaks and bug fixes

A number of small tweaks, small features, and bug fixes have made it in.

Some highlights include an updated job progress bar (with animation), units displayed on UI near the DRO, Back buttons on tools, tweaks to buttons for consistency and sizing.

We've also added touch zoom and lightweight mode to the visualizer as buttons, split recognized and unrecognized ports again, and much much more!

v1.5.0-EDGE3

Edge has seen quite a bit of work with regards to feature parity and we're excited to release our next iteration.

Stats Page

Older versions of gSender had numerous related tool in relatively disparate places - things like diagnostics and configuration overview, jobs listings, and maintenance tasks were all in separate areas. We've combined them into a sort of machine dashboard, where you can get a quick at-a-glance overview of your machine and recent jobs.

On top of the quick overview, you can still drill down into any specific sections you could previously. We hope grouping these related functionalities on top of future iteration on those features themselves will help users diagnose any problems with their machines.

Diagnostics also has also been updated (like in Main) to generate a ZIP file which includes the former diagnostic file, any loaded gcode files, on top of your current settings for easier support.

New Tools

Surfacing, XY Squaring, and Movement Tuning have all been ported over with some UI/look and feel improvements. You can access them under the "Tools" section.

Tool Changing/Helper

Tool changing wizards should be appearing again within the UI. When a tool change is parsed, the new "Helper" area should become active in order to guide you through your tool change process depending on the strategy you've chosen.

In the future, the plan for the Helper is to be expanded to guide the user through several processes/issues if enabled.

Config Updates

The configuration section has had a number of styling and behaviour tweaks to better group related application and eeprom settings.

You might notice that related EEPROM and application settings can now intermingle rather than being kept to distinct sections. We've added an indicator to more clearly differentiate when something is updating something in EEPROM (the microchip) and when something is updating an appliation setting. We hope to hear more feedback on this distinction moving forward.

Nav bar

One point of feedback we've had is that it's not always clear how to get back to where you want to be to run a job. We've made some updates to the look and feel of the nav bar to both highlight the Carve (formerly known as "Control") view and make it more obvious which application section you're currently in as well as increased the visual hierarchy of the Carve section itself.

We're also planning on adding breadcrumb navigation to certain sections of the application (such as tools) for easier navigation when drilling down into specific tools themselves so you always have an easy way to get back to where you want to be.

Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcut implementation is ongoing but we've added a subset of keyboard shortcuts. The shortcut tool can be accessed under "Tools".

Gamepad support is upcoming.

Other

• Various bugs and other UI tweaks are included in this version.
• Small features such as console clearing added
• Nav minimizer removed
• Pinnable machine status flyout
• Support for new spindle message parsing on upcoming firmware release
• Flipped visualizer camera cube and updated camera view to match
• Console input history again arrow scrollable
• Various text/copy tweaks
• Start from Line shows proper last run line

What's next

Since we're nearing feature parity, the next version of Edge is going to focus on the following things:

• Responsiveness and UI cohesiveness
• Dark Mode
• Remote Mode/Portrait Mode
• Gamepad support
• Breadcrumb navigation

v1.4.11

• Added "Skip Dialog" option to code tool change which combines both blocks and skips the "Continue" dialog
• Removed commenting on T during tool changes when 'Passthrough' is enabled (thanks @siganberg)
• Diagnostics now generates a zip file which includes the original diagnostic PDF, a copy of current gSender settings, and any loaded toolpath for better support.
• Continuous jogging now bitwise compares homing location to avoid non-XYZ axes causing invalid corner detection.
• You are now able to update EEPROM values using the firmware tool when in Alarm state.
• Start from line now starts the spindle after the Z safe movement but before X and Y.
• Fix for A axis jog keybinds not working on standard grbl controller.
• Reverted HAL changes $G using the realtime alternative to reduce instances of error 1 since it was not playing nicely with the new line parser.
• Fix for available axes and axes count not being emitted properly when disconnecting and reconnecting over Ethernet.
• AutoZero touch plate probing now properly converts bit diameter when using imperial preferred units and a specific bit size.
• Available ports are now case insensitive when matching known controller types (Thanks Dymk!)
• Macros no longer overflow the macro widget.
• Tweak to 30x30 machine profile for missing acceleration change for $111.
• Fixed rare situation where connecting to grblHAL controller, disconnecting, and reconnecting to GRBL controller caused invalid laser/spindle mode toggle behaviour.

Thank you for your contributions @dymk, @siganberg

v1.5.0-Edge-2

Hey folks, we're back with another Edge release, adding a few new features and functionalities, on top of catching us up to any changes that made it into 1.4.10.

As always, Edge is beta quality software - so please be aware that things can and will go wrong. Please use your brain when it comes to using Edge for deadlines/projects.

Firmware detection

gSender now detects your firmware flavour on connection and chooses the controller for you! No longer do you have to worry about forgetting to swap firmwares when connecting to different machines or connecting to a new machine. We hope this allows an easier, more plug-and-play experience when connecting to a machine for all users and less situations where behaviour is not what's intended because the user chose the wrong firmware to connect with.

We've made some assumptions - if you're connecting with ethernet, for example, it will default to grblHAL.

Let us know how this works for you! We're especially looking for feedback from people using non-Sienci boards to make sure we've worked through the edge cases.

Settings and EEPROM

Settings and the firmware tool have been combined into a new Configuration tool for a one stop shop in setting up your machine. We're hopeful that having settings and EEPROM more closely grouped allows the user a more straight forward experience in configuring their CNC.

Groups should make sense from a high level - for example, the Spindle contains both the settings for gSender to enable the tab and set laser/spindle max and min power, along with any EEPROM settings relevant to configuring your spindle. In cases where grblHAL supports natively some functionality such as laser offsets, the setting will use those EEPROM values instead of the local values for a more seamless user experience and less confusion (what value is going to be used, the one in EEPROM or the one in gSender settings?).

There are some slight behaviour changes. Settings must be applied instead of automatically saving, for example. We hope there is not too much of a learning curve - we're excited to hear feedback on both groupings and how it functions.

Machine Information

We've added an easy interactable information modal to let you know about both current firmware modals and pin status. Some of this information was available in the old user interface within the diagnostic tool, but we hope having a single cohesive spot on the main interface will be helpful to non-novice users.

Notifications

We've made some changes to application notifications. No longer will a toast with relevant information get missed- you now have history of application notifications.

Various other tweaks

There's a number of other tweaks and fixes from the first release, including the minimize handler and active tool indicator working, rotary A controls appearing in the correct situations for vanilla GRBL, no more -0.000 and more.

The next release should largely be focused on the last remaining tools (such as tool changing) and responsiveness/mobile control.

And as always, thanks for your feedback and reports throughout the EDGE process. We're hopeful as Edge becomes more feature complete, we'll receive a wider variety of feedback from all user types.

v1.4.10

• Jog no longer sends double jog commands on touch devices
• $G output emitted to UI when connected using grblHAL and manually sent
• AltMill profile updated $103 A steps to account for compiled microstepping
• SLB profiles updated with new values
• Updated defaults on MK2, MK1, and Mill One profiles
• AutoZero touch routine updated when running specific diameter bits to be more accurate, and retract distance on Z slightly increased for non-tip routines
• Rotary toggle no longer updates values when cancelled on grblHAL
• Custom theme visualizer background now saving correctly
• AltMill profile now at top of profiles with other Sienci Machines

v1.5.0-Edge-1

New UI Early Alpha Edge release!

Features:

• All new UI that should be familiar but address some long standing pain points
• Rotary is a first class citizen - A axis jogging and DRO values will appear if your firmware reports that it exists
• Numerous functionality updates
• New Jog wheel design and touch support
• Seriously, just look at it 🤩