LumenPNP automatic feeder question

[pete child]

I recently purchased 5 automatic feeders from Opulo for my LumenPNP.  Following their instructions, I downloaded a "special" version of OpenPNP that would recognize and control them.  Unfortunately, the first thing the software did upon launch was declare that the machine.xml file had a problem and that I should delete all the files in the configuration directory and let OpenPNP populate it.

This was distressing news because it had taken me a significant number of hours to get everything sort of calibrated and it would seem I would have to do it all over again.  I was very surprised that a change was made and it was not backward-compatible.

I'm hoping I have missed something here and there is an easier way to get my feeders working.  Any advice would be appreciated.

Pete

[Jim Young]

Did you bring this up on the Lumen PnP Discord?

[Zdenko Stanec]

Hi,

Opulo Feeders run on the "Photon" feeder, you should not need any special OpenPnP revision for it to work.

It is highly recommended to always run the latest "Test" revision of OpenPnP to have all new features, you can download it from here :  https://openpnp.org/test-downloads/

Zdenko,

[pete child]

Hi  Zdenko,

The current version of OpenPNP I am running (2023-3-15_00-30-21) doesn't seem to support them.  If I go to Feeders and then add (+), Photon does not show up on the dropdown.  In addition, Opulo had stated in their documentation that  we needed to download the test version you referenced.  If I use that version, I get the error dialog I have attached.  Could you clarify what's going on?  Thanks

[Zdenko Stanec]

Hi,

Well, your Machine.xml is from some old revision or you were not using the test revisions till now, I think regular OpenPnP machine.xml is not compatible with test revisions of OpenPnP as it has new features.

In any case, the latest test revision of OpenPnP supports a Photon feeder, and you will probably need to setup the machine.xml once again, Issues and Solutions will help you do it faster, you can do it 30min.

Zdenko,

[mark maker]

Hi Pete, all Opulo users,

Opulo has renamed their feeder classes in OpenPnP from "IndexXXX" to "PhotonXXX" because of some registered trademark dispute, or whatever.

When they did that, I warned this will happen...

https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp/pull/1539#issuecomment-1486700116

... they told me it won't affect end users.

https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp/pull/1539#issuecomment-1487412237

Now to fix it:

1. Read this FAQ.
   
2. Make a backup of your machine.xml
   
3. Open your machine.xml with a text editor.
4. Search and replace the text "Index" with "Photon", case-insensitive (and without the quotes).
   
5. Save the machine.xml
6. Try starting OpenPnP again.
   
7. Report back.

_Mark

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "OpenPnP" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to openpnp+u...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/openpnp/122b60f8-a575-4341-845b-6a0df7b46213n%40googlegroups.com.

[mark maker]

Obviously I made a mistake here:

Correct way to fix it:

1. Read this FAQ.
   
2. Make a backup of your machine.xml
   
3. Open your machine.xml with a text editor.

1. Search and replace the text "Index" with "Photon", case-sensitive (and without the quotes).
   
2. Search and replace the text "index" with "photon", case-sensitive (and without the quotes).
   

1. Save the machine.xml
2. Try starting OpenPnP again.
   
3. Report back.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/openpnp/28720ac3-6b23-45bb-be2c-616c15485311%40makr.zone.

[pete child]

Mark,

You are a sanity-saver.  As a software engineer for almost 50 years, I didn't think you would make a change to the software that would render a config file unusable and force everyone to reconfigure their pnp machines.  It was interesting to see the history of this update for Opulo, but I'm having trouble understanding how they seem to have forgotten the details and the fix.  I was working with their support person who, even after checking with others of the team, told me that I would have to re-do my configuration with a default machine.xml file to get things to work.  I will definitely be conveying this "new" information to them.

However, your procedure to fix it is not quite correct.  I immediately noticed that if you changed all the "index" (lower case) entries, things would be badly broken.  Index is a keyword used in many of the xml lines.  I quickly found the appropriate line under the <feeders> group.  I think the only change needed is "machine.index.IndexFeeder" to "machine.photon.PhotonFeeder".  That's all I did and it worked.  I haven't actually tried to set them up yet, but it found and enumerated them.

By the way, I am very impressed by not just the software, but your responsiveness and thoroughness when answering posts, even to those whose failure to read the documentation (or carefully read your replies) can sometimes try your patience.  Thanks for straightening this out for me.

[mark maker]

> However, your procedure to fix it is not quite correct.  I immediately noticed that if you changed all the "index" (lower case) entries, things would be badly broken.  Index is a keyword used in many of the xml lines.

Frankly, I half feared that, but not having much time at my hands, I started with a try&error approach first... I would have requested the machine.xml from you as the next step.

But you found the right way, and yes, please report it back to the Opulo guys.

And thanks for the praise 😳

_Mark

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/openpnp/3e646744-8078-44f7-8a18-9bf57d62f829n%40googlegroups.com.