CHANGES.md

This file lists major or notable changes to OpenPnP in chronological order. This is not a complete change list, only those that may directly interest or affect users.

2022-12-02

UI translation improvements

User interface (UI) text strings were externalized in most parts of OpenPnP to be translated to other languages. Russian language translations were provided. Thanks to VSSavin.

Users/translators are invited to contribute translate in their language. :-D

See also: https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp/wiki/Getting-Started-with-Eclipse#translations-in-eclipse

2022-07-12

Vision Compositing - Multi-Shot Bottom Vision

Adds Vision Compositing, i.e. multi-shot bottom vision, where multiple corners of a part can be aligned individually and then combined into the whole-part alignment. Features:

• Align packages that are larger than the camera view.
• Align packages that are not rectangular in their hull shape.
• Align on corners facing inwards.
• Improve accuracy by detecting in the camera center, avoiding optical errors.

See also: https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp/wiki/Vision-Compositing

2022-06-10

ReferenceStripFeeder Rotation in Tape

The ReferenceStripFeeder Rotation in Tape has been adapted to the EIA-481 industry standard where the tape 0° orientation is the one where the sprocket holes are on top. Part rotation in tape is determined from that baseline. This was already the case for other feeder classes.

Formerly, ReferenceStripFeeder had the tape 0° orientation with the sprocket holes on the left. The Wiki documentation, reflecting the EIA-481 industry standard was actually wrong. Existing feeders are automatically updated to the new orientation.

See also: https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp/wiki/ReferenceStripFeeder#rotation-in-tape

2022-02-23

Pipeline Parameters

Pipelines can now expose essential stage properties as parameters to be controlled directly from vision settings, without having to go to the pipeline editor. These parameters can be controlled using customizable sliders. During adjustment, the camera view shows a preview of the affected stage and/or the pipeline end result. The solutions makes tuning pipelines much easier. See the Wiki:

https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp/wiki/Exposed-Pipeline-Parameters

2022-02-19

Background Calibration

Automatic calibration of the bottom camera background can be enabled to drive the color- keyed removal of the background in a bottom vision pipelines. The calibration is done with no part is on the nozzle tip, during the nozzle tip calibration (for run-out compensation).

The MaskHSV stage for knocking out the green key-color of Juki nozzle tips (and similar) is fully controlled. A trouble-shooting function detects bad background conditions such as missing shading, nozzle tip reflections etc. See the Wiki:

https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp/wiki/Nozzle-Tip-Background-Calibration

2022-01-23

Advanced Camera Calibration

Camera setup and calibration has been improved to eliminate the need for manual setup of camera flips, rotation, position, units-per-pixel scaling, and lens distortion compensation. In addition, camera tilt is also now corrected. See the Wiki:

• https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp/wiki/Advanced-Camera-Calibration
• https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp/wiki/Advance-Camera-Calibration---Camera-Mounting-Errors

2021-12-30

Vision Settings

Alignment (Bottom Vision) and Fiducial Locator vision settings (including the pipelines) are now stored in separate Vision Settings entities that can be assigned to Parts, Packages and to the default Machine Setup Vision presets.

If a setting is not assigned on any of these levels, it will be inherited from the more general level. The system allows for more efficient, more centralized management of vision settings. The vision settings are now also available on the GUI for all these levels. Quick specialization and generalization functions are provided. The OpenPnP stock settings and pipelines are always present in the central list and can be assigned and copied.

Existing configurations with old part settings are migrated automatically. All combinations of settings and pipelines that happen to be equal will be unified into one new Vision Setting. Inheritance will be established, where Vision Settings are common among Parts or Packages.

A new table linking feature (in the menu) can be used to link a selected Part to its Package, Feeder and Vision Settings. Selecting one, automatically selects the other across tabs.

2021-11-07

Machine Calibration with Issues & Solutions

The Issues & Solutions system has been substantially expanded to cover automatic machine calibration. See the Wiki:

• https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp/wiki/Vision-Solutions
• https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp/wiki/Calibration-Solutions

Rotation Mode / Support for Limited Articulation Nozzles

The new Rotation Mode on Nozzles can optimize rotation for different machine types including those with limited (< 360°) articulation. See the Wiki:

• https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp/wiki/Nozzle-Rotation-Mode

BlindsFeeder OCR and QR Code

The BlindFeeder now supports OCR or QR code automatic part discovery. As a side effect, the ReferencePushPullFeeder now also supports QR Codes. See the Wiki:

• https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp/wiki/BlindsFeeder#ocr--qr-code

2021-05-03

Better Issues & Solutions

Issues & Solutions now provides guidance based on the milestones of a step-by-step machine building process. Essential configuration comes first, advanced features are only suggested later. Potentially problematic solutions are even taken back when going back to earlier milestones for troubleshooting or machine reconfiguration.

The Issues & Solutions UI has been promoted to be a top level tab. It even sports an indicator on the tab to alert the user to detected issues. Solutions can now take multiple choice and other input for enhanced solutions. Nozzle setup can now be done using a few clicks.

Nozzle Tip Changer Z Calibration, Auto-Focus, Part Height, Feeder, Placement sensing

This adds Nozzle tip changer Z calibration. Used to calibrate the nozzle to be able to precisely contact probe part heights, feeder heights and placements. Also adds Auto-Focus based part height sensing for parts with enabled bottom vision.

• Manual and automatic nozzle/nozzle tip/slot Z calibration for precision multi- nozzle leveling and nozzle tip length calibration.
• Bottom vision uses auto-focus to determine the part height, if unknown.
• ContactProbeNozzle provides on-the-fly part height probing/learning, feeder Z calibration, placement height calibration.

2021-03-20

(Another) OpenCV Upgrade and Arm7 (32 Bit)

The OpenCV package has been updated to a new version that has automatic builds for Arm7. This allows OpenPnP to work with Raspberry Pi 3 and lower. Note that openpnp-capture is not yet ported for Arm7, so using OpenPnPCaptureCamera will not work, but OpenCvCamera and others should. Support is bundled into all of the usual Linux downloads for OpenPnP.

openpnp/opencv#71

Thanks @falkena!

2021-03-13

Dark Mode and Modern, Customizable Themes

OpenPnP now supports the FlatLAF look and feel, which brings a more modern look to the application. With this we also get support for Dark Mode, along with a number of additional themes.

To change your theme, visit Menu -> Window -> Customize Appearance.

See https://github.com/JFormDesigner/FlatLaf for more information about themes and customizing, and openpnp#1151 for the pull request.

Thank you @SG-O for this nice upgrade!

OpenCV Upgrade and Arm64 Support

The OpenCV package has been updated to a new version that has automatic builds for Arm64. This is the last native library that was not compatible with Arm64 which means that OpenPnP is now compatible with Raspberry Pi 4 (with a 64 bit OS) and Jetson Nano. Support is bundled into all of the usual Linux downloads for OpenPnP.

Feeder Recycle

This new feature from @doppelgrau adds a Recycle button next to the Discard buttong which allows you to put a picked part back in the feeder if the feeder supports the operation. Currently supported on: Strip, Tray, AdvancedLoose, Loose, Blinds, and RotatedTray feeders.

openpnp#1143

Thanks @doppelgrau!

CreateFootprintTemplateImage Minimal Images

Added a boolean value to disabling the default border around the part.

Just enable the checkbox in the stage settings, and the border disappears. Warning: only works with symmetrical parts. Parts where the body is not in the center, one side will have border, the other will be cut off.

openpnp#1152

Thanks @doppelgrau!

2021-03-12

CreateFootprintTemplateImage Stage Improvements

The CreateFootprintTemplateImage CvPipeline stage can now automatically create a footprint from a Nozzle.Part if the footprint is not supplied to the stage.

openpnp#1140

Thanks @doppelgrau!

OrientRotatedRects Stage Improvements

You can now specify a snap-to angle for this stage helping orientation in LoosePartsFeeder and other advanced vision feeders.

openpnp#1138

Thanks @MatSpy!

Part Size Check Option in Bottom Vision

Option to check package size during bottom camera part alignment. Compares measured vs. expected dimension with a part configurable tolerance. This can be used to detect mis-picks, wrong part loaded, tombstones, etc.

openpnp#1135

Thanks @crashmatt!

2021-02-04

New Thermistor Linearizing Actuator

A new Actuator, the ThermistorToLinearSensorActuator, has been added. This Actuator converts sensor readings that have been processed with thermistor transforms, like Smoothieware does, to linear readings. If you use Smoothie and have linear sensors attached to the thermistor inputs this may be useful in linearizing the output.

See https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp/wiki/ThermistorToLinearSensorActuator for more info!

2021-01-14

Actuators with Profiles / Built-in Camera Lighting / Camera Automatisms

Actuators that can control Camera lights in various ways have been implemented inside OpenPnP.

• Actuators can be configured for a specific (writing) value type (Boolean, Double, String, Profile).
• Non-Boolean actuators can be configured for specific typed ON and OFF values, so they can be triggered using Boolean semantics.
• Actuators can automatically be state-initialized or actuated when Machine States change: Enabled, Homed, Disabled.
• The GUI was reworked to adapt itself to the value types.
• HttpActuator and ScriptActuator were extended to support all value types.
• The new actuator value type Profile introduces a "multiple choice" actuator.
• A Profile type actuator can control multiple target actuators (including itself).
• Each of the choice profiles controls a set of specific values to be written to the target actuators.
• Added a Light Actuator to the Camera. A Profile type actuator is the ideal choice to control multi-channel lights such as RGB lights or other selective/angular light sources, or to provide predefined step values for scalar light intensity.
• Actuator based light triggering can be configured in various ways.
• The pipeline ImageCapture stage can set/override the Light Actuator value as a parameter.
• Camera implementations have been unified in terms of broadcasting, preview FPS etc.
• Full support for 0 fps where only the actual vision captures are displayed.
• Improved SwitcherCamera to only broadcast the correctly switched channel.
• Optional Auto-Camera-Preview: the active Camera is automatically switched in single preview.
• Various related bug-fixes.

2020-12-29

Retry Bug Fixes and Improvements

This is the first in a series of updates to improve retry and error handling in OpenPnP. The goal of this change is to fix features that were already in OpenPnP but not working correctly and additionally bring back (and fix) a feature that existed in OpenPnP 1.0.

• Feeder.feedRetryCount now works correctly: feeds will be retried if they fail due to the feed() method throwing an Exception. This most often happens in feeders that can detect they are out of parts, such as Strip and Tray feeders. If a feeder fails all of it's retries it is disabled.

• Feeder.pickRetryCount implemented: If the vacuum check after a pick fails, the pick and vacuum check will be retried without performing another feed. Since this was not previously implemented at all, but the setting was there, and this could potentially break feeders or nozzles that use shutters the value will be reset to 0 on initial load of this version. You can set it if you want to use the new functionality.

• Part.pickRetryCount: This new retry value controls how many times the feed-pick sequence will be retried for a part. Defaults to 0. Setting this value makes it possible to automatically try additional feeders when one becomes disabled.

2020-12-12

Advanced Motion Control

• Simpler all-GUI setup of machine axes, axis transformations and their assignment to Nozzles, Cameras etc. (no more machine.xml hacking).
• Making features such as Axis Mapping, Backlash Compensation, Visual Homing, Non-Squareness Compensation etc. available for all types of drivers (formerly just the GcodeDriver).
• Allowing multiple drivers of mixed types.
• Better control of speed factors: properly control the average speed, including acceleration/deceleration phases. A move at 50% takes exactly twice as long, regardles of how short or long the move is.
• Simulated Jerk Control to reduce vibrations, prevent slipping of parts on nozzles, etc.
• Experimental: Motion Blending.
• Asynchronous communication between OpenPnP and (multiple) controllers. Decoupled and paralellized operation.
• Graphical diagnostics for Motion Planning as a basis for fact based machine optimization.
• Issues & Solutions system to automatically solve machine specific setup and migration issues, enable advanced features, generate firmware-adapted Gcode commands and regular expressions.

2020-06-23

Actuator API Change (Non-Breaking)

• Actuator.actuate(String) has been added, along with support in GcodeDriver. This makes it easy to send completely custom commands from machine object implementations. This is an optional, non-breaking API change.

2020-05-18

Camera Jogging Revert

• The old method of camera jogging by clicking and dragging anywhere has been restored. This was removed when camera rotation jogging was adding because it seemed necessary with the new drag handles, but it turns out it's not necessary and the new version was far less convenient.

2020-05-17

Sponsors and About Dialog

• The About dialog now includes a Credits tab to thank sponsors of the project. A SPONSORS.md file is also included, which is shown in the dialog.

• The About menu item is now correctly added to the Help menu on MacOS when the MacOS integrations are not available.

Installer Improvements

• Sample files are now installed by the installer in the user's Documents/OpenPnP directory, instead of in the installation directory. This fixes an issue #836 where users loading the sample files on Windows would experience a write error.

• Install4J has been updated from version 6 to 8.

2020-04-29

Advanced Camera Settle

Camera Autosettle is now exposed on the GUI, it was significantly expanded to allow for different methods in image processing and for settling quantification. Graphical diagnostics and image replay with motion "heat map" are provided.

Advanced Part On/Off Detection

Vacuum sensing part-on/part-off detection was significantly expanded to allow for differencial vacuum level assessment and adaptive dwell times. Graphical diagnostics are provided.

2020-04-20

Improved Actuator Read Errors

Actuator reads are used for a number of subsystems in OpenPnP, and this feature tends to be confusing to configure. Previously, a misconfigured actuator read would often result in a cryptic NullPointerException that was difficult to debug. This system has now been improved so that the Actuator will report the three most common errors: missing command, missing regex, and unmatched response.

Additionally, actuatorRead() will no longer return null under any circumstance. It will either return a valid string (which may be empty) or throw a descriptive error.

GcodeDriver Test Framework

A new GcodeServer class has been added, along with a number of small GcodeDriver based tests. The GcodeServer in combination with the test system allows end to end automated testing of complex features such as Actuators.

2020-04-12

OpenCV Upgrade

OpenCV has been upgraded to 4.3.0-0. This is a major update (for OpenCV) and may introduce new issues. This is a necessary step on the way to Java 10+ support.

Note that support for 32 bit Linux has been dropped from the OpenCV package due to difficulty of maintenance. If you are using 32 bit Linux please make it known.

2020-04-02

Vacuum and Blow Off Levels

You can now specify vacuum and blow off levels on packages. These values are used to trigger actuators when picking (vacuum level) and placing (blow off level).

See openpnp#965 for more information.

Thanks Thomas!

2020-01-22

Camera Jogging Update

A new camera jogging system has been implemented which allows for rotation and better precision for XY. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TvqQBkTGP8 for details.

2019-12-03

New feeder: ReferenceLeverFeeder

This is for feeders where a lever is pushed by a actuator (usually the head) to advance the parts. It was made from the ReferenceDragFeeder. A Part Pitch field is added and multiple feed operations will be performed as required.

2019-11-24

BREAKING CHANGE: Vacuum Valve and Pump Actuation Remodel

Vacuum valves and pump actuation is now modeled with Actuators and
made independent from pick() and place() functionality and from the Driver. The changes refine and unify the machine model and ease the development of new capabilities. The new ContactProbeNozzle demonstrates this by adding contact probing to pick() and place() which allows for more tolerance and robustness in the Z height handling of parts, feeders and the PCB.

• The vacuum Actuator is no longer just used to read the vacuum pressure level but also to actuate the valve (Boolean).
• The Nozzle's pick() and place() methods will actuate the valve Actuators as needed.
• At the same time the Nozzle's pick() and place() methods are now dedicated to what their names imply, making vacuum switching independent from them.
• Consequently the Nozzle pick() or place() can now do more than just actuate the vacuum, they can also be properly sub-classed/overridden for extended functionality.
• In turn the valve Actuator is now used independently to test if a part if off after placement. An "in-the-air" pick() and place() cycle is no longer used, avoiding unexpected behavior when pick() and place() do more than vacuum switching.
• Users can also use the Machine Controls' Actuators tab to test the valve Actuator independently and to simulate and determine part on/part off vacuum readings.
• A new pump Actuator is added to the head. It will actuate the pump as needed.
• The pick() and place() methods in turn govern the pump Actuator, i.e. as long as at least one part is on a nozzle, the pump will be switched on.
• Users can also use the Machine Controls Actuators tab to test the pump Actuator.
• All pick(), place(), pump and valve actuation are removed from the Driver.
• Consequently the PICK_COMMAND, PLACE_COMMAND, PUMP_ON_COMMAND, PUMP_OFF_COMMAND are deprecated in the GCodeDriver. They will no longer work but the fragments are available in the GUI for G-Code migration to the Actuators (these entries will be removed end of 2021).
• In turn the new Actuators define their G-Code in the proper ACTUATE_BOOLEAN_COMMAND fragments.
• Users must add the new pump Actuator and revisit the vacuum reading Actuator and migrate their G-Code there.
• To ease the now more important plug-and-play of Actuators, they can now be assigned by ComboBoxes rather than by loose name references.
• As a first benefit from the changes, the new ContactProbeNozzle subclasses the ReferenceNozzle and adds a contact probe to sense when the nozzle tip hits the target i.e. when the pick() makes contact with the part in the feeder or when the place() hits the PCB with the part on the nozzle (the Liteplacer has such a probing nozzle). This allows for more tolerance and robustness towards variances in Z height of parts, feeders and the PCB. Users can more quickly (i.e. more roughly) setup Z heights.
• More information, guidance and screenshots can be seen in the PR: openpnp#859 (comment)

ReferenceStripFeeder Vision Bug Fix

A long standing bug in ReferenceStripFeeder has been fixed by @tjanuszewski in openpnp#919. If you have struggled with the vision on ReferenceStripFeeder in the past, especially on longer strips, please give it a new try as this fix seems to improve it's functionality greatly.

Thank you @tjanuszewski for finding and fixing this!

2019-06-13

New Scripting Events

Added several new scripting events for pick and place events:

• Nozzle.BeforePick
• Nozzle.AfterPick
• Nozzle.BeforePlace
• Nozzle.AfterPlace

2019-06-12

Switcher Camera and Camera Interface Changes

This update adds a new camera type called a SwitcherCamera. This camera is a virtual camera that allows you to have multiple virtual cameras sharing the same physical capture device. This is a common configuration on commercial desktop pick and place machines, where a single capture card captures images from two analog cameras. A serial command is used to switch which camera is currently streaming.

Some small changes were also made to the camera interface in general. Two new methods were added:

• Camera.captureForPreview(): Captures an image and applies transforms, but does not perform scripting or lighting events.
• Camera.captureRaw(): Returns a raw image from the capture device, with no transforms.

The first is mainly for future expansion - in the near future changes will be made to how camera streaming works to improve performance and make the cameras more context sensitive.

The second is added specifically for the new SwitcherCamera, so that it can get raw images from the source camera. This new method is also being used to clean up and consolidate the camera code across various camera implementations.

In general, if you aren't using the SwitcherCamera you shouldn't notice any differences with this update. If you notice new problems with cameras, please report an issue.

See https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp/wiki/SwitcherCamera for more information.

2019-06-10

Global Nozzle Tip Update

The nozzle tip system has been overhauled so that nozzle tips belong to the machine, rather than to each nozzle. This removes the need to duplicate nozzle tips for each nozzle, and better fits how nozzle changers typically work.

Additionally, you can now easily set package compatibility directly from the packages panel.

This is a large, breaking change. For more information on why this change happened, please see: openpnp#183

Thank you to @markmaker for reviewing and for merging in his recent calibration changes. He has also provided some help for migrating:

• copy the big <nozzle-tips/> XML block to the right place (I took a default OpenPNP 2.0 machine.xml as a guide).
• start OpenPNP again and again, note the elements/attributes no longer supported and delete them (would be so nice to have a command-line option for the XML parser to ignore unknown elements and attributes, but it seems the parser in OpenPNP has no such thing*)
• define nozzle tip to nozzle compatibility on the Nozzle
• learn the new way to change nozzle tips (by clicking the checkbox in the list)
• define vacuum levels not forgetting the fact that isPartOff is now measured with opened valve for a moment (but see #855).

2019-06-02

Runout Compensation and Bottom Camera Position and Rotation Calibration

Feature changes:

• Using the Runout calibration facility, an automatic bottom camera position and rotation offset calibration is provided. In a multi-nozzle machine, this should be done with the first/best nozzle.
• For all the other nozzles in a multi-nozzle machine, a new "Model & Camera Offset" calibration system is provided, compensating for any offset introduced through imperfect Z travel when the bottom camera focal plane does not match the PCB surface plane.
• The user can not set how many missed vision detections are tolerated in Runout Calibration for more robustness inside a job.
• The user can set a Z offset for calibrate per nozzle tip to allow the focal plane of the vision-detected feature to be further up on the nozzle tip (e.g. receded air hole in a cup shaped nozzle tip).
• If a nozzle tip is named "unloaded" it is used as a stand-in when no nozzle tip is loaded. Very useful when the nozzle tip holder itself has so much runout that even nozzle tip changing is scary without calibration. Again use the Z offset to calibrate the bare nozzle tip holder in the focal plane.
• User settable automatic recalibration trigger:
  • On each nozzle tip change
  • On each nozzle tip change if used in a job (like before)
  • On homing/first change of a nozzle tip after homing. Nozzle tips that are later unloaded and reloaded will not be recalibrated, saving time. This assumes that both the nozzle (i.e. the C axis) and the nozzle tip in the holder will retain a known rotation (i.e. the runout phase shift does not change).
  • On manual calibration only. The compensation is stored in the machine.xml which is useful for machines that have a homed/spring-loaded rotation C axes so the runout phase shift remains the same on every power up.

Fixes:

• Removed unnecessary start/stop rotations in calibration
• Changed the threshold property into a unit-aware Length
• Fixed missing LengthUnit conversions in the "Model" calibration system (it compensated in millimeters but based its model on camera units).
• Fixed camera not updating its width/height when the frame size changes due to changed transformations such as rotation (like after the above-mentioned rotation calibration). VisionUtils performed bad pixel to Location coordinate conversions until the next OpenPNP restart.

Changes in models and utility functions:

• Added a home() method to all HeadMountables to trigger recalibration when needed.
• Added a Camera.getLocation(tool) method to get a camera position adjusted for a specific nozzle/nozzle tip. This helps with multi-nozzle machines that have the bottom camera focal plane at a Z height that differs from the PCB surface. Therefore the different nozzles might introduce a slight offset due to the Z axes not being perfectly perallel to each other.
• Added reverse transformation in VisionUtils (Location to pixel)
• Added "center" property to vision stage MaskCircle to allow off-center nozzle tip recognition for camera calibration.

For more information see openpnp#825

2019-06-01

OpenPnP 2.0 Ongoing Changes

• Actuators are now added to the tools dropdown in jog controls so that you can select one and move it. This is probably a temporary change as this dropdown will go away in the future, but for the time being it helps with setting up drag feeders.

• Swapped positions of "capture" and "move" buttons wherever those buttons are grouped together, and added a separator between the two groups of buttons. This is intended to make it a little less easy to accidentally click the capture buttons, which many people have recognized as being a UX problem.

• Moved the "Feed" button on the Feeders panel to the front of the list as this is the most common action.

• Split the reference nozzle and reference nozzle tip configuration wizards into separate panels. This is will make it easier to refactor for global nozzles.

• Added basic Z Probing by setting actuator name on head.

• Added canned cycle for getting a Z Probe at a location.

• Z Probe is now automatically performed, if enabled, when capturing a camera location. This results in a fully formed location capture including Z. If no Z Probe is available Z is left unchanged.

2019-05-27

OpenPnP 2.0

This update includes a large number of major changes to how OpenPnP works, along with several breaking changes. Because of the severity of the changes I am calling this OpenPnP 2.0.

Please read the release notes carefully before using it, and please back up your configuration directory, job, and board files. Some of the changes will modify your files and you will not be able to go back to the older version without restoring your backups.

• JobProcessor Rewrite: The JobProcessor has been rewritten from the ground up to solve a number of long standing bugs and issues. The new version allows for finer granularity in steps, better error handling - including context sensitive errors, better retry options for pick and feed failures, improved vacuum checking, and increased flexibility.

  • The FSM implementation that caused the "No defined state from..." type errors has been removed completely. Fixes #695.

  • Each step is now in it's own class, and maintains it's own state. This lets each step determine what level of granularity it wants to expose.

  • Steps now direct the job processor to the next step when they finish, making it very easy to add customized steps and to retry when things fail.

  • The JobProcessor interface now returns a custom exception type that includes a source. In general these sources will be instances of model or SPI objects such as Nozzle, Feeder, Part, Placement, etc. This makes it possible to help the user find the source of the error in the UI.

    A future update will include a new "Production" panel that will let you quickly jump to the source of an error.

  • Granularity has been greatly improved in several long running steps. Fiducials, and pick, primarily. Now clicking stop during a fiducial check will not continue checking every board before stopping.

  • Vacuum checking is now performed in the job processor, instead of in the nozzle. With this change additional vacuum checks have been added as well. Vacuum is now checked after pick, after bottom vision, before place, and after place. In addition, the after pick check is now performed after lifting the nozzle for better accuracy and the after place check is performed with vacuum turned on.

  • Feed retry and pick retry are now separate steps.

    Feed retry allows retry of a feeder that has an error while feeding, such as a vision failure on the strip feeder, or a hardware error on an auto feeder.

    Pick retry handles retry of the entire pick sequence. This is primarily a factor when using vacuum sensing. After a part is picked, if the vacuum sensing system does not detect the part on the nozzle a discard cycle is performed and the entire feed / pick cycle is restarted.

  • These changes fix #280.

• BREAKING CHANGE: Changed the vacuum sensing levels from the trio of logic inverted, part on level, and part off level to a dual range for on low/high and off low/high.

• BREAKING CHANGE: Removed job auto save and config auto safe from the job processor. This feature caused a serious performance hit and cluttered up the job processor. This feature will be added back at a later date with a new implementation that does not harm performance.

• BREAKING CHANGE: Removed "Check Fids?" from the placements panel, and it's functionality from the job processor. This feature was originally meant to be a way to check local fids around important placements but it was not implemented correctly and was not generally useful. PRs welcome to add true local fid checking.

  This change should not break any jobs or configurations, but I've labeled it a breaking change to get the attention of anyone who was using the feature for further discussion.

• BREAKING CHANGE: The park when complete option has been removed and park when complete is now always performed. You must set a park location before running a job on this version. This is a preperatory change for more automation in machine movements in general. It will become much more important that the machine knows where it can safely park.

• BREAKING CHANGE: Removed the isPartOn and isPartOff variables from the GcodeDriver. This is better handled by the main vacuum system. It would be possible to add the new vacuum variables to GcodeDriver, so if someone is depending on this functionality please speak up.

• BREAKING CHANGE: Placement Type "Ignore" has been moved to Placement Enabled. The Type field will be used only for specifying Placement or Fiducial, and a new Enabled field has been added. This makes it easier to disable placements for a job without losing whether that placement is a fiducial or a placement.

  Additionally, Type Place has been renamed to Placement.

  This change is backwards compatible but not forwards compatible. If you open and save a job using this version you will not be able to open it with an older version.

• BREAKING CHANGE: The Paste Dispense feature has been removed entirely. This feature is used by by very few people, does not work well, and is not well maintained. Removing the feature allows OpenPnP to focus on the pick and place user experience without having to maintain backwards compatibility with paste dispense.

  A version of OpenPnP with Paste Dispense will be saved and will be made available for users to download if they need that functionality for an existing setup. That version will receive no future updates.

• Added a new error handling system that allows users to specify on a placement by placement basis how errors should be handled. The options are Alert and Suppress.

  Alert will raise the error immediately and pause the job. The user must fix the problem before continuing.

  Suppress will mark the placement errored and continue on without alerting the user. When the job finishes the list of errored placements is printed. The user can then fix errors and re-run the job to fix unplaced placements.

  In the very near future there will be a GUI added that shows the errored placements at the end of the job so that you can see what needs to be fixed to finish the job.

• Removed Skip, Ignore and Continue, and Try Again from the Job error dialog. Now the error is shown and the job is paused. The user can make adjustments to the job and start it again to recovery from the error.

• Refactored vacuum sensing to Nozzle.isPartOn() and Nozzle.isPartOff(). Fixes #753, and #102.

• Removed the post pre-flight nozzle tip calibration from job processor. I can't see why this would be useful since the planner may immediately change out the nozzle tips. Calibration is now performed after tip changes for any tips that are not already calibrated. If this change is detrimental to your setup please speak up.

• Added missing signaler signals for job running and stopped.

• Increased the speed of the demo driver to make the demo a little more fun to watch.

• Fix tooltips and button names on footprint pads.

• Renamed Feeder.retryCount to Feeder.feedRetryCount.

• Added Feeder.pickRetryCount.

• Changed hardcoded pick retry in job processor to use Feeder.pickRetryCount.

• Coming Soon: There are a number of other features that are based on this work, which are coming very soon.

  • Production Tab: Job controls will be moved from the Job tab to a new Production tab. The Production tab will include status about the running job in total, and status for each placement being processed by the job.

    The Production tab will also include a list of placements that have errored during processing and will allow the user to quickly jump to the source of the error.

    The Placement Status and Placed? columns will also move to this tab. After this change the Job panel will be mostly used for Job editing before starting a job, and will be mostly read only during a job run.

2019-05-10

Bottom Vision Pre-Rotate Updates and Bug Fixes

• Bottom Vision Pre-Rotate now stores the rotation offset in the PartAlignmentOffset allowing Pre-Rotate Bottom Vision with multiple nozzles sharing a C axis.
• The angle calculation is unified and simplified with regard to math laws (distributive modulo equivalences).
• Pre-Rotate Bottom Vision is done in a multi-pass loop until a good fix is obtained.
• X, Y offsets are obtained together with the rotation offset, so with a good fix only one vision pass is needed (formerly two needed). This way Pre-Rotate Bottom Vision becomes as fast as Post-Rotate in most cases.
• The maximum allowed linear center and corner offset as well as the angular offset can be configured (GUI). If the allowed offsets are not met, an additional compensation & vision pass is done. A maximum number of passes can be configured.
• The use of Pre-Rotate can now be overridden per Part (Default, Always on, Always off).
• A bug in Test Align was fixed, where the part height was not added to Z i.e. the part held too close to the camera.

For more information see openpnp#815

2019-04-21

Italian and French Translations

Thank you to Davide and Sebastien for adding Italian and French translations!

2019-02-26

New Job Planner

A new Job Planner is being tested. The SimplePnpJobPlanner replaces the StandardPnpJobPlanner as the new default. The new planner attempts to fill as many nozzles as possible per cycle, and tries to limit the number of nozzle tip changes, but does not try as hard to "look ahead" as the old planner.

The upside is that the new planner is much, much faster and works for jobs of any size, while the old planner would fail on jobs larger than a few hundred placements when multiple nozzles were in use.

The downside is that the new planner may perform more total cycles, and may perform more nozzle tip changes, although in testing so far it seems to perform pretty similarly for a number of common configurations.

The new planner is enabled by default. Please give it a try and report if you run into any issues. If you need to switch back to the old planner, you can edit machine.xml and change

<planner class="org.openpnp.machine.reference.ReferencePnpJobProcessor$SimplePnpJobPlanner"/>

to

<planner class="org.openpnp.machine.reference.ReferencePnpJobProcessor$StandardPnpJobPlanner"/>

New Job Planner Interface

As indicated above, the Job Planner interface is back and it is now possible to write custom planners and plug them in using the method described above. This interface is not final, and will likely undergo some small changes in the future, but the basic concept should remain the same.

See either of the two planners described above for an example of how to write one.

2019-02-21

High Profile Bugs Fixes and Updates

A few important bug fixes for long standing bugs are now in, along with some long standing feature requests:

• "No defined transitions from Preflight to Initialize": There were a number of errors related to state management in the JobPanel FSM and these are now corrected. The primary cause of this error was clicking Job buttons while an action was already taking place. State is now managed correctly, and more importantly, the buttons are disabled while operations that can't be interrupted are taking place.

  This is a significant change that is hard to test under every condition, so please let us know if you run into issues with this.

  See openpnp#478 for more info.

• "Stopping a job should stop the job as soon as possible": This issue was related to how the job would continue for a time after pressing pause or stop. In general, once a pick and place cycle started it could not be interrupted. In addition, the startup process of a job would be impossible to interrupt. This is now fixed and granularity of steps is increased. Clicking pause or stop will now stop the job as soon as the current operation is complete.

  See openpnp#278 for more info.

• Multi-select tables and right click menus: All of the primary tables now support multi-select and right click menus. This makes it much easier to enable / disable a number of feeders at once, or set the "Check Fids" for multiple boards at once, for instance.

2019-02-18

Major Change: Fiducial System (Affine Transforms)

The fiducial system has undergone extensive changes to support compensating for scale and shear in boards. When three or more fiducials are available, three will be used during the fiducial check and this data is used to calculate much better positions for placements. This should result in an overall accuracy improvement when using three fiducials.

In addition, the two fiducial system is now using the same code, minus shear processing, so it should show an improvement in accuracy as well when using two fiducials. The difference will not be as significant as when using three.

Note that board locations are no longer updated when performing fiducial checks. The fiducial data is used in real time to calculate placement positions, rather than relying on the board location. This means that if you perform a fiducial check and then move to the board location, the board may not look perfectly aligned, but when you move to a placement it will be correct.

The fiducial check will still position the camera over the located board origin at the end of the process so that there can be visual verification of success.

In general, users should not notice any differences in using the new system aside from overall better accuracy.

Related issues:

• openpnp#648
• openpnp#791

This above changes are complete. There are a few remaining related tasks which are:

• Implement transform for the two point board locator.
• Add an indication to the user when a board has been located.
• Verify compatibility with panels.
• Implement inverted transform in calculateBoardPlacementLocationInverse so that manual training benefits from the transform.

2019-02-14

New GcodeDriver Variables

Some new GcodeDriver variables have been added for the MOVE_TO command. The new variables are used for heads where the controller needs to know the direction of motion to choose the right output.

More information at: https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp/wiki/GcodeDriver:-Command-Reference#move_to_command

2019-02-12

Breaking Change: Park System

Please reset your park locations!

The Park system has had a number of breaking changes made. They are:

• Park XY now always parks the head at the same location, regardless of what tool is selected in the jog control dropdown. This ensures that if you choose a park location with one tool selected and then attempt to park with a different tool selected you don't crash the head. This is primarily a safety improvement.
• Z and Rotation have been removed from the park head configuration since these are each specific to the tool being parked.
• Park Z now parks the selected tool at Safe Z instead of the Z entered in the head configuration.
• Park Rotation now parks the selected tool's rotation at 0 instead of the Rotation entered in the head configuration.

The overall goal and result of these changes is to ensure that park always parks at the exact same location no matter what tool is selected.

See openpnp#279 for more information.

New Feature: XY Soft Limits

You can now set soft limits for X and Y moves in head configuration. When limits are set and enabled any attempted moves outside of the limits will fail and an error will be shown.

2019-02-09

Breaking Changes Coming Soon

A number of breaking changes are coming soon in the develop / Latest branch. These changes will likely break configurations and potentially require re-setup and re-calibration of machines.

If you are seeing this message it means you are currently running the develop / Latest branch. In the coming weeks, if you automatically update on this branch you are likely to receive these breaking changes.

If you are running a production machine and do not wish to follow along with these latest developments, please download and install the master / Stable branch from:

http://openpnp.org/downloads/

Stable has been updated as of today and will not be updated again until these breaking changes have been fully tested and released.

2019-01-18

• Runout Compensation Feature Enabled

  There has been worked on issue #235 in pull request #804 to fix the nozzle runout compensation. It was a new runout compensation algorithm implemented. That algorithm is the new default but it coexists with the improved algorithm that was in the OpenPnP code before already.

  The feature was tested on two machines, but things are different on others. If you encounter any problems file an issue. Information on how to use this feature you will find in the wiki at https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp/wiki/Runout-Compensation-Setup

2018-12-08

• Serial Library Change

  The library that OpenPnP uses to communicate with serial ports, jSSC, has become out of date and is unmaintained, so we're trying a new library. The new library is jSerialComm: https://github.com/Fazecast/jSerialComm.

  This change should not affect existing users, so if you notice new problems with serial port access, please file an issue or post to the mailing list.

2018-11-17

• OpenCV 3.4.2 Upgraded

  The bug in the OpenCV library has been fixed so once again OpenPnP is upgraded to OpenCV 3.4.2.

• OpenPnP Compatible with Java 9, 10, 11.

  With the upgrade of OpenCV OpenPnP is now compatible with all versions of Java after 8. This includes Java 8, 9, 10, and 11.

2018-10-31

• OpenCV 3.4.2 Upgrade Reverted

  The OpenCV upgrade has temporarily been reverted due to an issue found in the OpenCV library during testing:

  openpnp/opencv#38

  Once this issue is resolved, this patch will be re-added.

2018-09-26

• Connection Keep Alive

  Thank you to @markmaker for PR openpnp#767 which adds a keep alive option to the drive communications configuration. This option, which is on by default, can be turned off to cause OpenPnP to close the serial port or TCP port when clicking the disable button. This makes it possible to connect to the serial port from another program without having to exit OpenPnP.

  Note, again, that this option is on by default which is the pre-existing behavior. You can turn it off if you want the new behavior.

2018-09-10

• Nozzle Offset Setup Wizard

  There's a new nozzle offset setup wizard in the Nozzle setup area that now makes it very easy to setup nozzle offsets. This is one of the more confusing aspects of setting up OpenPnP and the new wizard makes it very easy. Many thanks to @pfried for this new feature!

  See openpnp#765 for more information.

2018-08-18

• Placements Comments

  The Placements table (Pick and Place) now contains a user editable Comments column that is saved in the board file for each Placement.

2018-08-04

• OpenCV Upgraded to 3.4.2

  OpenCV has been upgraded to 3.4.2, which is the latest release.

2018-07-15

• TCP/IP Support in GcodeDriver

  Thanks to a great effort from @PeeJay, GcodeDriver (and the OpenBuilds driver) now support communication over TCP/IP in addition to serial. This makes it possible to use Smoothieboard over Ethernet now, for example. To use TCP/IP, go to your Driver settings and check the Communication tab for new options.

  This change requires a migration of communication settings. This should happen automatically. If it doesn't, or if you get an error on startup, please let us know and post your machine.xml to the Discussion Group at https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/openpnp.

2018-07-13

• Dwell Times per Nozzle Tip

  Pick dwell time and place dwell time has been added to nozzle tip. This means the total dwell times are now the sum of the nozzle dwell times plus nozzle tip dwell times. The idea behind this is that larger nozzle tips are used to lift bigger/heavier chips and typically require a bit longer dwell times in general.

2018-07-08

@aneox submitted a bunch of great new features. Some are still being worked on, but the following ones have been merged in:

• Filter PlacementsTableModel, show only active board side. Note that this change makes it so that if you want to edit both sides of a board you have to add it to the job twice and set the side.
• Added option to AutoHome after machine enabled. To activate, need to set checkbox in machine settings.
• Windows saves sizes and position in Multiple Windows Mode.
• Save configuration menu button. (Moved from Machine menu to File menu)
• Camera window can be split in vertical or horizontal style.
• Job autosave after each placement. Please post to the list if this causes a performane issue on your machine.

The following items have been merged but some additional work may still need to be done on them:

• Added peel off actuator option for Drag Feeder.
• Drag Feeder improve accurance of feed, now drag distance can be adaptive with vision enabled.
• Drag Feeder can work with 0402.

Thanks @aneox for all the great work!

2018-07-04

• Placement Status Indicator and Progressbar

  A new panel in the bottom status bar has been added that lists the current jobs total number of placements, completed number of placements and the same values for the selected board only. A progress bar shows the percentage of completed placements for the entire job. These indicators update in real-time whenever any placement/board is edited or while the job runs.

2018-07-02

• Machine -> Save Config

  A new menu option called Machine -> Save Config does a force save of the machine.xml, parts.xml, and packages.xml.

2018-01-28

• OpenPnpCapture New Properties

  The OpenPnpCaptureCamera now supports new properties for backlight compensation, hue, powerline frequency and sharpness.

2017-12-23

With thanks to @mgrl:

• Bugfix: Discard correct nozzle on skip part

  If an error raised while job run (vacuum sense/bottom aligning failed), the first nozzle was cleared always regardless which nozzle failed in a multi nozzle setup. This is fixed now.w

  See: * https://groups.google.com/d/msg/openpnp/x249mhevB3U/DSJg2fyVBAAJ * openpnp#693

• Bugfix: Setting placed flag correctly (fixes #663)

  There is now a fix having the placed flag set correctly if fiducials checking is enabled.

  See: * https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/openpnp/4MKg7JaUTAk * openpnp#663

• Enhancement: Added option to ignore error and continue assembly

  To handle errors in a running job, next to Try Again, Skip and Abort there is a new option "ignore and continue". It continues a running job as if no error has been occurred (e.g. vacuum check/bottom vision failed).

  See: * https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/openpnp/x249mhevB3U * openpnp#688

• Bugfix: A feeder feeder with no part assigned doesn't throw an NullPointerException if try to edit pipeline due to missing part name

  See: * openpnp#689

2017-11-20

• Manual NozzleTip Changing Fixes

  Thanks to @netzmark there is now a fix for manual nozzle tip changing. Now, if you do not have auto changing turned on, when the job attempts to change nozzles, the job will be paused and you will be shown a message indicating the change.

  See: * https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/openpnp/00ead7a9-e7d5-49e8-856c-2a403208058d%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer * openpnp#118 * openpnp#526

2017-10-26

• Fiducial Locator Retry and Averaging

  With thanks to @mgrl, retry count on the fiducial locator, which was previously fixed at 3 is now configurable in Machine Setup -> Vision -> Fiducial Locator.

  In addition, a new option is added which allows averaging the results from the retries. This helps alleviate some jitter that happens as the results shift with the movement of the camera.

• ReferenceLoosePartFeeder Improvements

  There is a new default pipeline that performs well for non-polarized, rectangular components such as resistors and capacitors.

  It attempts to include the electrodes as well as the bodies to better recognize rectangular parts and it performs landscape orientation on the results so that there is a deterministic orientation for rectangular parts.

  The camera feedback is now only shown at the end of the process, and for a longer time. This better represents what OpenPnP is "seeing" before it picks the part.

  The feeder's rotation defined on it's location is now added to the final rotation so that you can set the orientation you want parts picked in.

• New CvPipeline Stage: OrientRotatedRects

  The new stage ensures the orientation of RotatedRects is set to either landscape or portrait. This is used in the above pipeline.

  In addition, you can set a flag to negate the angle of the RotatedRects. This is primarily used when converting from the output of MinAreaRect to what OpenPnP expects for Locations.

2017-10-25

• CvPipeline Editor Model Info

  The pipeline editor will now show some information about any identified models it finds as you move the mouse around the result window.

  For instance, if the result you are viewing includes a List and you mouse over the center of one of them in the image view, you will see the description of that RotatedRect in the status field.

  This is very helpful for learning more about what is happening in your pipelines and makes it easy to debug model data.

  This feature currently works for RotatedRect, Circle, and KeyPoint models, and Lists of the same.

  This video shows the feature in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHuUPtJNIXw

• New CvPipeline Stage: Add

  A new stage has been added for use in pipelines. The stage is called Add and it simply outputs the sum of two previous images. This is used in a new Loose Part Feeder pipeline that will be released soon.

• CvPipeline Standalone Editor Pipeline Restore

  The CvPipeline Standalone Editor will now save and restore the last pipeline you were working on, similar to how the last directory you were working on is saved.

2017-10-24

• CvPipeline Memory Usage Improvements

  CvPipeline now implements AutoClosable and all of the code that uses it has been updated to release after use. This should greatly improve memory usage on large jobs with many parts.

• ReferenceBottomVision Improved Error Messages

  ReferenceBottomVision will now throw specific error messages for common pipeline setup errors such as an improperly named result stage or an invalid result type.

2017-10-21

• GcodeDriver Axis Pre Move Command Coordinate Variable

  Pre Move Command in GcodeDriver Axes now has a Coordinate variable which can be used to reset an axis' position before moving it. This can be used in controller firmwares that do not support individual variables for multiple axes. In particular, this makes it possible to use Marlin with multiple rotation axes by using a Pre Move Command like T0G92E{Coordinate:%.4f}

2017-10-18

• Vision Usability Improvements

  As a result of the discussion in https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/openpnp/7029bade-fa16-46e5-8c2d-d9e22105c5fe%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer several changes have been made to the vision pipeline system.

  • ReferenceBottomVision now looks for it's results in a stage named "results", like the other primary vision operations. It also falls back to "result" for backwards compatibility.
  • ReferenceBottomVision now has improved error messages when a result is not found, or when the result in not in the correct format. This should help users as they experiment with new pipelines.
  • Vision operations all now reference a common name to avoid mistakes like this in the future.

2017-10-05

• OpenPnpCaptureCamera Updates

  • Implemented the rest of the camera properties.
  • Camera properties now refresh when changing device or format.
  • Auto disabled state now reflects if auto is supported.
  • Added display of default value.

2017-09-30

• Major Update: New Camera Capture System!

  OpenPnP now has it's very own, custom written camera capture system written specifically to solve all of the problems that have plagued camera capture since the beginning of this project!

  openpnp-capture is a brand new capture library written by Niels Moseley (@trcwm) specifically for OpenPnP. Using this library we are now finally able to do things like run multiple USB cameras on a single port/hub, manage camera properties such as exposure, focus and white balance and select camera data formats to make intelligent choices based on quality, size, frame rate, etc.

  Two of the biggest difficulties with capture in OpenPnP from the start have been the inability to run multiple cameras over a single USB port/hub and the inability to control manual exposure. The first is important because many people use OpenPnP with laptops which may have a limited number of ports. The second is important because most commercial USB cameras default to auto exposure and this causes problems with vision as the camera adjusts the exposure to compensate for differences in the image.

  Using the new library, you can now set up your lighting and choose the exact exposure that works best for your machine, and you will know that it won't change just because the camera is looking at something else.

  To use the new feature, add a new camera using the OpenPnpCaptureCamera and see the General Settings tab to select a device, format and property settings.

  I want to give a HUGE shout out and thank you to Niels for all his incredibly hard work on the new capture library over the past couple months. He wrote a robust and expansive library for video capture for all three major operating systems in a very short period of time, knocking out feature after feature faster than I could integrate them into OpenPnP. This is an invaluable contribution to the project and will really push OpenPnP forward in it's computer vision abilities. Thank you Niels!

  For more information about the capture library itself, see: https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp-capture

  For information about the Java and Maven bindings for the capture library, see: https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp-capture-java

  Finally, be aware that there are some known issues:

  • When you switch the selected device, the wizard doesn't reload the properties. To work around, simply click to another wizard and then click back. To be fixed soon.
  • Brightness, contrast, saturation, gamma properties not yet implemented in OpenPnP. These properties were recently added to the capture library but have not yet been implemented in OpenPnp.

  If you run into any other issues, please file a bug report or post to the mailing list. Your feedback will help us make this new feature even better!

2017-09-21

• Ctrl-Shift-L Hotkey Added for Park Z

2017-09-16

• Job Save Always Enabled

  The File -> Save Job menu option is now always enabled so that you can save the job and any associated boards at any time. Previously this was only enabled when the board was marked dirty, and it did not reflect the status of the associated boards which made it hard to save boards on demand.

• Camera FPS in Image Info

  The Image Info pane in the camera view now shows current FPS being received from the camera. This was put in for testing some new features but was useful enough that I decided to leave it in so users can check their camera feeds.

2017-08-31

• Job Placed Status

  Placements now have a Placed column that indicates if the placement has been placed. This value is saved with the job, so it is now possible to do partial assembly, exit OpenPnP, and then recover the job from where you left off.

  You can right click the placements table to perform a bulk set or reset of the Placed flag and there is a new Job menu item that will reset the Placed status for the entire job at once. This can be used to quickly prep the job to be run again after it's finished.

  Associated issues: openpnp#205 openpnp#258

  Implemented in PR openpnp#632

  Thanks to @sp-apertus for this huge improvement in usability!

2017-08-29

• ReferenceStripFeeder Improvements

  • Added auto-thresholding to the default CvPipeline for ReferenceStripFeeder to better detect tape holes and eliminate false-positives in noisy camera images. Users should reset their feeder vision pipelines to the default to get this change, then re-apply any pipeline changes if still necessary.
  • Auto Setup for ReferenceStripFeeder is now a lot smarter, more accurate, and is able to catch common setup issues.
  • Fixed issue where strips with 2mm part pitch could result in the reference holes being detected flipped depending on where on the two parts the user clicked.
  • Fixed issue where part pitch was calculated in the units of the camera, not necessarily millimeters.
  • User is notified if they selected parts in the wrong order for the orientation of the strip.
  • Tightened the max distance from a component center to the feed hole centers to accurately reflect the spacing as defined in the EIA-481 standard and thus reduce false-positives for adjacent strips.
  • Multiple, full lines of strip holes are detected and grouped appropriately, and only the correct line of holes are used for the selected parts/strip (some spacing is still required between adjacent strips, but it is much reduced and more reliable).

  Implemented in PR openpnp#628

  Thanks to @richard-sim for these improvements!

• Head Movement Speed Limiting

  Head movements are now limited to the speed of the slowest part on the head at any time. This means that if you have more than one nozzle, and you have picked more than one part, if one part has a slower speed setting than the other, the slower one will dictate the speed of the head. Movements initiated by Cameras and Actuators on the same head will be limited in the same fashion.

  Implemented in PR openpnp#630

  Original issue openpnp#576

  Thank you to @johngrabner for this nice improvement!

2017-08-28

• ReferenceStripFeeder Improvements

  • Added auto-thresholding to the default CvPipeline for ReferenceStripFeeder to better detect tape holes and eliminate false-positives in noisy camera images. Users should reset their feeder vision pipelines to the default to get this change, then re-apply any pipeline changes if still necessary.
  • Auto Setup for ReferenceStripFeeder is now a lot smarter, more accurate, and is able to catch common setup issues.
  • Fixed issue where strips with 2mm part pitch could result in the reference holes being detected flipped depending on where on the two parts the user clicked.
  • Fixed issue where part pitch was calculated in the units of the camera, not necessarily millimeters.
  • User is notified if they selected parts in the wrong order for the orientation of the strip.
  • Tightened the max distance from a component center to the feed hole centers to accurately reflect the spacing as defined in the EIA-481 standard and thus reduce false-positives for adjacent strips.
  • Multiple, full lines of strip holes are detected and grouped appropriately, and only the correct line of holes are used for the selected parts/strip (some spacing is still required between adjacent strips, but it is much reduced and more reliable).

  Implemented in PR openpnp#628

  Thanks to @richard-sim for these improvements!

2017-08-19

• New Scripting Event: Job.Placement.Complete

  New Scripting Event fired when a placement is complete, i.e. a part has been placed.

  See https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp/wiki/Scripting#jobplacementcomplete for usage.

2017-08-16

• ReferenceStripFeeder Converted to CvPipeline

  The vision operations for ReferenceStripFeeder have been converted from hard coded algorithms to use the CvPipeline system, as bottom vision and fiducial finding do. This makes it possible for you to easily customize the pipeline used for feeder vision to better match the conditions on your system.

  Implemented in PR openpnp#610

  Many thanks to @richard-sim for taking on this complex and important conversion!

2017-08-15

• Board Jog Crash Protection

  A new tab called Safety has been added, with a checkbox that allows you to enable/disable board crash protection. This feature will throw an error if you try to jog a nozzle into a board.

  Implemented in PR openpnp#598

  Thank you to @machinekoder for this helpful improvement!

• Kicad Importer Improved Part Creation

  A new checkbox in the Kicad importer allows you to specify that only the value should be used when creating part names.

  Implemented in PR openpnp#620

  Thank you to @KarlZeilhofer for this new feature!

2017-07-30

• Additional Keyboard Shortcut Support

  Several new keyboard shortcuts have been added in an effort to support external control of OpenPnP. The new hot keys allow you to start, step and stop jobs, adjust jog increments and several other useful functions. For full details see the user manual:

  https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp/wiki/User-Manual#keyboard-shortcuts

  Implemented in PR openpnp#609

  Thank you to @yaddatrance for this helpful improvement!

• CvPipeline Editor Result Pinning

  Pipeline editor now supports pinning a stage's output so you can see how changes in other stages affect the pinned one. Select any stage and then click the Pin icon in the results panel to pin that stage. Selecting any other stage will let you edit that stage while seeing the results of the one you pinned. Click the pin icon again to turn it off.

  Implemented in PR openpnp#612

  Thank you to @richard-sim for this awesome improvement!

• CvPipeline Editor Null Value Fix

  Fixes issue #597 which caused the pipeline editor to sometimes set values to null when changing stages. This bug often caused corrupt stage data and made it impossible to save stages.

  Fixed in PR openpnp#611

  Many thanks to @richard-sim for tracking down and fixing this bug!

2017-07-15

• Code Cleanup: Potential Breaking Change

  As part of a scheduled code cleanup several old configuration settings have been removed. If you have upgraded within the past few months you should not see any change, but if your configuration is very old it may fail to load with this version. If you get an error starting OpenPnP after upgrading to this version, please look for and remove the following lines from your machine.xml:

  • glue-dispense-job-processor
  • vacuum-request-command See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsZ5dy7n1Ag
  • vacuum-report-regex See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsZ5dy7n1Ag
  • In board files: glue attribute.

  If you have any trouble with this please post to the mailing list for help.

2017-07-02

• Improved Nozzle Changer Speed Support

  With thanks to @lilltroll77 we now have improved nozzle changer speed control. The speed controls added recently had a limitation where different speeds would be used for different parts of the movement. You can now define three speeds that are used between the four movements and they are applied during those transitions whether it is for load or unload.

  Note that since the configuration has changed slightly for this feature, you should check your speed settings before running a nozzle change with this new version. Settings should be migrated over automatically, but it is prudent to check them before using.

  More information about this change is available at: openpnp#584

• Fiducial Vision Converted to CvPipeline

  The fiducial vision system has been converted to use the CvPipeline system as per openpnp#329.

  This allows users to easily edit the vision pipeline for fiducials, making it easy to customize for different board and lighting scenarios. Pipeline editing works the same as in bottom vision; you can edit the pipeline on a part by part basis or at a global default.

  The default pipeline included with OpenPnP is an exact duplicate of the code that used to be used internally - it has just been converted to pipeline form to make it editable.

  If you notice a degradation in fiducial performance, please post a message to the mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/openpnp

2017-06-30

• Power On, No Home Behavior

  Now when you hit the power on button the home button becomes highlighted to indicate you should home the machine. Previously the power button would change color which was confusing.

• SimulatedUpCamera Rewrite

  The SimulatedUpCamera has been rewritten to work much better. It is now included in the default configuration so that you can test out bottom vision before you have a machine. It's also been made testable, so there is now test coverage for basic bottom vision operations.

2017-06-28

• CvPipeline Properties (Breaking Change)

  In an effort to make it easier for developers to integrate custom functionality in CvPipelines, the pipeline now has a map of properties that can be set be callers. This allows callers of a pipeline to feed values in for the pipeline to use. This can be things like cameras, feeders, parts, nozzles, etc.

  This functionality replaces the previously added setFeeder and setNozzle calls. These calls were too specific to certain pipelines and did not represent a good development direction for the pipeline as it would eventually become cluttered with variables that did not make sense for the pipeline as a whole.

  Breaking Change: All existing stages have been migrated to the property system. If you have custom stages that used getNozzle or getFeeder you will need to make minor updates to switch these to use properties instead.

  • getNozzle() becomes (Nozzle) getProperty("nozzle")
  • getFeeder() becomes (Feeder) getProperty("feeder")

  Finally, this change is the first step into supporting variables in CvPipeline. Eventually you will be able to reference properties and other objects when setting parameters in stages.

• AdvancedLoosePartFeeder

  ReferenceLoosePartFeeder has received a big upgrade thanks to @dzach. The new AdvancedLoosePartFeeder is able to be trained to recognize the orientation of loose parts, allowing perfect placement of loose bins of both polarized and unpolartized parts. This provides a complete feeding solution with no feeders at all!

  A lot of work and discussion has gone into this feature. For more details see: openpnp#573 (comment) https://groups.google.com/forum/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer#!msg/openpnp/zqeeh6mGqtk/Ix9MgDbvCAAJ

  It is expected that the default pipelines will need to be tuned and updated as we get more experience with this new system. Please post your feedback about this feeder to the mailing list.

  Thank you @dzach!

2017-06-17

• Nozzle Tip Changer Speed Settings

  Nozzle Tip Changer now has independent speed settings for each movement. The speeds are a multiplier, similar to how it's used in other parts of the system. The value is multiplied by the system speed slider to determine the final speed. A 1.0 is "full speed".

2017-05-18

• New Scripting Events

  Two new Scripting events have been added: Job.Starting and Job.Finished. These are called as the job is starting and after it completes. They are intended to aid in using conveyer systems to automatically load and unload PCBs.

  See https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp/wiki/Scripting#jobstarting for more info.

2017-05-15

• New tray feeder added: RotaryTrayFeeder

  This tray feeder takes 3 points (first component, first row last component, last row last component) to measure the component grid and is rotation agnostic. Feedback and experience reports are welcome.

2017-05-07

• Configuration Wizard Performance Improvement

  Due to a bug in a third party library that is used extensively in the configuration wizards in OpenPnP, performance on opening the wizards was often very poor for many users. This was most obvious when clicking through your various feeders, where some users were experiencing up to a 10 second delay in opening the wizard.

  Unfortunately, the library has been abandoned so even though there is a fix available, it will likely never be released. Instead, we are now "monkey patching" the fix at runtime and this solves the problem.

  Thanks to @SadMan on IRC for putting me on the path to the fix.

2017-05-06

• New Bottom Vision Scripting Events

  Two new scripting events have been added to assist with bottom vision lighting. They are Vision.PartAlignment.Before and Vision.PartAlignment.After.

  See https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp/wiki/Scripting#visionpartalignmentbefore for more information.

2017-04-16

• Script Directory Ignore

  You can now add an empty .ignore file to any directory under the scripts directory to have that directory be ignored when populating the Scripts menu. This is in support of a feature by @cri-s to improve usability on production machines.

  More information at openpnp#521.

• Home Status

  The "Power On" button now turns yellow when you first enable the machine, and does not turn green until the machine is homed. This helps you notice that you have not yet homed the machine. Thanks to @ldpgh for this helpful feature!

  More information at openpnp#379.

• Python Script Examples Added

  @ldpgh has added some helpful Python examples to the suite of built in Scripting examples.

  More information at openpnp#520.

2017-04-14

• Navigation View Removed

  The Navigation View has been removed as part of a cleanup effort. This feature was unfinished and is unlikely to ever be finished in this iteration of the UI. Removing it improves startup time, removes a dependency on JavaFX and solves some bugs.

  If you were using this feature and will miss it, please make it known on the mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/openpnp.

2017-04-13

• BREAKING CHANGE: Outdated Drivers Removed

  Several outdated drivers have been removed. These are: GrblDriver, MarlinDriver, SprinterDriver, and TinygDriver. All of these drivers have been replaced with the much better supported GcodeDriver. If you are currently using one of these drivers this version WILL BREAK your configuration. If you need help migrating, please post a question to the mailing list at:

  http://groups.google.com/group/openpnp

  More information about this change and the reasoning for it is available at:

  openpnp#415

2017-04-09

• Filter Rotated Rects CvStage

  A new pipeline stage called FilterRects has been added by @dzach. It allows you to filter rotated rects based on given width, length and aspect ratio limits. This can be very helpful for making sure a recognized part is within acceptable size limits.

2017-04-06

• Tool Selection for Cameras

  Thanks to @BendRocks an old feature has been brought back to life. You can now select head mounted cameras from the Machine Controls tool dropdown box. This causes the DROs to show the coordinates of the camera and allows you to jog from the camera's perspective instead of just the nozzle's. This also makes it possible (although not yet implemented) to do the same kind of thing for paste dispensers when that feature is revived.

  Work for this feature was performed in: openpnp#507

2017-04-01

• Auto Panelization

  Thanks to @BendRocks we now have a robust panelization solution in OpenPnP! Panels allow you to quickly set up multiple copies of a board in an array and allow you to have panel fiducials in addition to board fiducials. There is also a quick X out feature that makes it easy to mark boards in the array that are damaged and should not be placed.

  This feature is a work in progress. There are some known issues and some limitations but it has matured enough that it's ready for people to start trying it out.

  Full documentation for this feature is coming soon and will be available at: https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp/wiki/Panelization

  For more information about this feature, please see the following links: openpnp#128 openpnp#456 https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/openpnp/_ni0LK8LR8g/5u-0-P-1EwAJ;context-place=forum/openpnp

2017-03-31

• Job Placement Status

  With many thanks to @iAmRoland we now have a great status display of placements as a job is run. Their description from the pull request describes the feature nicely:

  Once the start button is pressed, it will mark all pending placements with a yellow color. When it's processing a placement it will display a blue color on the ID cell. Once it's done with all placements with the same ID, it then marks that cell with a green color. If no placement is going to be done then the cell is left white.

  @iAmRoland even included a nice GIF that shows how it looks: https://camo.githubusercontent.com/954ded479f650507bece8c199c7b73233708097e/687474703a2f2f692e696d6775722e636f6d2f6d6c4130716d6b2e6a7067

  This work was performed in PR openpnp#493 and partially addresses the feature described in issue openpnp#205 and openpnp#280.

2017-03-26

• Auto Update Fixed, Version Number Improvements

  An error that was causing the auto updater to not work has been fixed. In the process, the OpenPnP version numbering scheme has been changed and improved. Version numbers were previously just an inscrutable Git hash. They are now in the format of 2017-03-26_18-56-32.0be8a03, with the part before the period representing the date of the build and the part after the period representing the Git hash. This makes it easy to identify when the code was built and how old it is, and the Git hash can be used to identify a specific commit.

• Glue Feature Removed

  The Glue Dispense feature has been deprecated and removed. This feature was not being used and it was causing maintainability problems. If there is interest in the feature in the future it will be rewritten. More information about this decision is available at https://groups.google.com/forum/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer#!msg/openpnp/1-CSpnoPQGY/k6qUT9VZAQAJ

2017-03-21

• Submit Diagnostics

  You can now submit a very detailed diagnostics package about OpenPnP right from OpenPnP itself! In the Help menu just click Submit Diagnostics and follow the instructions. The result will be a link to a Gist on Github that contains information and images from OpenPnP. You can share the link on the mailing list or elsewhere to assist people in helping with any issue you might be having.

2017-03-16

• Named CSV Importer Improvements

  Thanks to @Misfittech the Named CSV Importer can now handle Altium R14 files and now has the option to set part heights when available. It also supports the ability to import data that contains values in mils.

• Logging Improvements

  With many thanks to @pfried the Log tab and the logging system have seen several improvements:

  • Log panel is now searchable.
  • Select and copy lines from the log.
  • Enable/disable system output.
  • Option to auto-scroll, or not.

  More information about this feature can be found at: openpnp#288

2017-03-05

• Force Upper Case in Gcode Driver Console

  There is now an option, on by default, that forces commands sent from the Gcode console to upper case. Previously upper case was forced without option, but now you can turn it off if you like.

2017-03-04

• Position Camera and Continue

  Thanks to @BendRocks for two new buttons in the Job and Placements panel. The buttons which look like the Position Camera button with a right arrow added allows you to position the camera and then select either the next board or placement. This allows you to very easily and quickly move through a job and see that all of your placements are configured correctly.

• Console Output in Log Panel

  Thanks to @pfried, console output (System.out, System.err) is now included in the Log panel at the Info and Error levels respectively. One major benefit of this is that scripting output will now be visible in the Log panel.

2017-02-27

• ReferenceDragFeeder Configuration Actuator Positioning

  Fixes a bug in the ReferenceDragFeeder configuration panel that kept the actuator positioning buttons from showing up. Now when you set an actuator name the position nozzle buttons on these fields will turn into position actuator buttons as they did previously.

• GcodeDriver Sub-Driver Delete UI

  You can now delete sub-drivers from the UI by selecting one and clicking the red X button in the toolbar above.

2017-02-24

• HTTP Actuator

  A new boolean actuator that calls a predefined URL for ON and OFF events. It was developed for controlling pneumatic feeders that are controlled via a Raspberry Pi with IO shield but maybe there are totally different applications as well.

• GCode Backlash Compensation

  The GCode Driver now features a few additional parameters to address backlash. This allows approaching target locations always from a specific direction on X/Y axes. Optionally the final approach can be executed with reduced speed. Details: https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp/wiki/GcodeDriver#user-content-backlash-compensation

• GCode Console

  The GCode Driver now features a new tab to manually send GCode commands in a console.

• GCode Non-Squareness Compensation

  The GCode Driver now also works with machines that are not perfectly square. Details about how to measure and compensate this Non-Squareness Compensation can be found here: https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp/wiki/GcodeDriver#user-content-non-squareness-compensation

2017-02-12

• Generalized Vacuum Sensing (BREAKING CHANGE)

  Vacuum sensing was previously a GcodeDriver only feature. With the recent Actuator Improvements it became possible to extend this feature to all drivers. The vacuum sense feature now uses an Actuator to read values from the pressure sensor, instead of a specialized GcodeDriver command.

  Configuration is still similar. Instead of defining a VACUUM_REQUEST_COMMAND and VACUUM_REPORT_REGEX you just create an Actuator that uses the same values and set the Actuator name on your nozzle.

  Due to this configuration change, this is a breaking change. Your vacuum sense will not work until you make the manual changes. You can watch a short video tutorial showing how to make the required changes at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsZ5dy7n1Ag

2017-02-05

• Actuator Improvements

  • Actuators can now read String values in a generic fashion. This makes it possible to integrate a variety of sensors into your system and use the output in any way you like, particularly with scripting. The GcodeDriver has been updated to work with this new functionality. For more information see:

  https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp/wiki/GcodeDriver#actuator_read_regex

  https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp/wiki/GcodeDriver:-Command-Reference#actuator_read_command

  • The Actuators panel in Jog Controls now offers more options for controlling and testing actuators. You can send true/false boolean values, send double values and read a response from each actuator.

2017-01-27

• Icon Improvements

  With many thanks to @dzach we now have some much improved icons in many parts of OpenPnP. @dzach spent several days working on and refining icons to show their intent better, and to improve usability to persons with color blindness. As a result, several of the icons that used to require you to think for a moment to remember what they were are redesigned to be very clear and easy to understand.

  References: openpnp#429 openpnp#426 openpnp#421

  Thank you @dzach!

2017-01-15

• ReferenceSlotAutoFeeder

  A new feeder called ReferenceSlotAutoFeeder has been added which provides the capability of a movable auto feeder.

  ReferenceSlotAutoFeeder allows you to define any number of feeder slots on your machine and each one can contain a feeder. By changing the feeder in a slot you move it's settings from slot to slot without having to reconfigure it's position, part or other settings.

  The primary purpose of this feeder is for machines that have auto feeders that can be readily moved from position to position.

  More information at https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp/wiki/ReferenceSlotAutoFeeder.

  Work was done in openpnp#399.

2017-01-09

• QR Code Based X Out Example Script

  A new example script called QrCodeXout.js is now included with OpenPnP. It will scan each board in a job for a QR code and if one is found the board will be disabled. This is an easy way to mark bad boards in a panel before starting a job.

  The purpose of the example script is to show how to use the QR code reader to do a complex task. It can easily be modified to search for other markings or other types of codes.

2017-01-06

• ScriptRun CvPipeline Stage

  A new CvPipeline stage has been added called ScriptRun. This stage take a file and runs it as a script with one of the supported built in script engines. This makes it very easy for people to add their own vision logic to a pipeline without having to write a stage.

  The script is supplied globals of pipeline and stage.

  An example script is shown below. It sets all of the pixels of the input image to the color green.

   pipeline.workingImage.setTo(new Packages.org.opencv.core.Scalar(0, 255, 0));
  

  By saving the above to a file with the extension .js and selecting it in the stage the script will run each time the stage is evaluated.

2016-12-30

• OpenCvCamera Capture Properties

  You can now set a number of capture properties on the OpenCvCamera. Not all properties are supported on every system or every camera. This feature is experimental and is primarily intended to allow users to experiment with exposure and format control.

  To set properties open the configuration for the camera, select the Camera Specific tab and look for the Properties section at the bottom.

  More information is available at: openpnp#328

2016-12-29

• Auto Feeder Improvements

  ReferenceAutoFeeder can now use actuators in boolean or double mode and the configuration panel has been updated to support each.

  ReferenceAutoFeeder also now supports a post pick actuator, which is helpful to support feeders that require two movements for a single feed operation. This is common in the Yamaha CL feeders that are becoming popular. The feed actuator is used to retract the guard and the post pick actuator is used to advance the tape after a pick.

  Existing feeders should not require any changes to support these new features. The defaults have been maintained.

• Post Pick Supported in Feeder Panel

  The post pick operation is now called from the Feeders tab when you run a Pick operation. This is useful when testing feeders that use this feature. Prior to this addition the post pick operation was only called when a job was running.

• Help Menu

  There is now a new Help menu that has quick links to important documentation and a new option to let you check for updates to OpenPnP. This option is only enabled if you installed OpenPnP with the installer. It will not be available if you built it from source.

• Camera Improvements

  ReferenceCamera is now much smarter about handling problems with invalid images and it should no longer cause high CPU usage when a camera configuration is incorrect. In addition, when it receives a null image it will retry up to 10 times before failing. This is helpful for cameras that sometimes return bad images; common with the ELP series of USB cameras.

• DipTrace Native Import

  With many thanks to @BendRocks, we now have native DipTrace import support. Find the new importer under the File -> Import menu.

2016-12-20

• User Interface Improvements

  This change introduces a new layout and some changes to the main user interface. The purpose of this change is to improve use of screen real estate for the things that people spend the most time interacting with.

  The main change is that the screen is now split vertically instead of horizontally. Cameras have been moved to the upper left and jog controls to the lower left. The tabs and tables have been moved to the right side of the screen and are now stacked rather than side by side.

  The primary benefit of this change is that it takes better advantage of the trend towards wider screens. Previously, users with wide (but short) screens had very limited space to work in due to the fixed sizes of several components. With the screen now split vertically it is now possible to use the full height of the screen to see jobs, placements and configuration information.

  Other minor changes are:

  • You can now collapse the jog controls to get them out of the way if you prefer to use the keyboard shortcuts or camera jogging.
  • DROs have been moved from the Machine Controls section to the bottom right of the status bar. For too long the DROs have taken up a huge amount of screen space for something that is really not that useful. You can still switch between relative and absolute mode by clicking on them.

  Here are some screenshots to show the major differences. The first shows the interface before the changes, the next shows the new user interface with jog controls expanded and the third shows the new interface with jog controls collapsed.

  

  

  

  Finally, I would like to send a special Thank You to @FinalPhoenix, who has generously volunteered to help with improving OpenPnP's user interface and overall user experience!

  Many of these changes were suggested by @FinalPhoenix and with her help I hope to make OpenPnP far more enjoyable and easy to use than it has ever been.

2016-12-19

• Introduction of Navigation Panel

  The Navigation Panel is a new feature that shows a 2D rendered view of your machine and job and allows quick navigation around the various components. You can quickly jog to any location on the machine and you can see a live view of your cameras, nozzles, feeders, boards and placements. Additionally, it makes it very easy to quickly find these objects in the tables below by simply clicking on one of them in the panel.

  This feature is still under heavy development. There are some known bugs and limitations:

  • When an item is selected, the selection border rendering sometimes gets artifacts from the drag jog line.
  • Board bottoms are not rendered correctly.

  For more information about this feature, see openpnp#99.

  Some things to try are:

  • Load a job to see a visual representation of the boards and placements.
  • Use your mouse wheel to zoom in and out.
  • Mouse over objects to see their names.
  • Click on various objects to select them and to instantly navigate to them in the tables below.
  • Click and drag to jog the camera around.
  • Click on the camera to turn it transparent so you can see what is under it.

2016-12-18

• Add and Remove Cameras, Nozzles, Nozzle Tips, and Actuators in the Machine Setup tab.

  You can now add and remove cameras, nozzles and actuators in the Machine Setup tab. To add, click on the heading for the thing you want to create and click the Add button above. To remove, click on the one you want to remove and then click on the Remove button above.

• Cameras Tab Removed

  The Cameras tab has been removed and all of it's functionality moved to Machine Setup. This is part of a long running change to move all setup tasks into Machine Setup, and this is the final one.

  More information at: openpnp#103

2016-12-11

• Camera Drag Jogging

  You can now click and drag in the camera view to move the camera. When you click and begin to drag, a white line is shown from the current center of the camera to where the camera will go when you release the button. This is in addition to the existing Shift-Click to jog system already in place. It is intended to eventually replace that system.

• Navigation View Updates

  Navigation View is a feature that has been in development for some time but has been disabled in the code. It presents a 2D rendered view of the machine from the top down and allows you to quickly move around the machine and get information about objects such as boards, placements, feeders, etc. This feature is still under development and not ready for prime time, but it's become interesting enough that some people may want to try it out. To enable it you need to add -DenableNav=true to your command line.

  Once enabled, there will be a new tab with the Cameras call Navigation. Try loading a job to see what the view shows. You should see boards, placements, feeders, cameras and a red dot for your nozzles. You can zoom in and out with the mouse wheel, mouse over objects to get information, click and drag to jog the machine, and click cameras to turn them transparent. Cameras move and update in real time.

  This feature is going to grow quite a bit in the coming months. This is just a preview.

• Event Bus (Developers)

  A simple event bus has been added at Configuration.getBus(). This is currently being tested with the Navigation View above and is intended to further decouple the UI. This new addition is being tested for further use. For more information, see:

  https://github.com/google/guava/wiki/EventBusExplained

2016-11-26

• Scripting Events

  Scripting Events is a new feature that will be getting a lot of use in the future. This allows scripts to be run when certain things happen in OpenPnP. The scripts are referenced by name and can be of any supported scripting extension. They are found in the scripts/Events directory.

  The feature is used by calling Scripting.on(String eventName, Map<String, Object> globals).

  As part of this feature, Scripting was moved into Configuration rather than MainFrame, so that it can be used outside of the UI.

  For more information, see https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp/wiki/Scripting#scripting-events.

• Camera.BeforeCapture and Camera.AfterCapture Scripting Events

  The first use of the new feature described above is two events that can be used to control lighting and other complex camera operations. Camera.BeforeCapture is fired before an image is captured and Camera.AfterCapture is fired after the capture is complete.

  By using the scripting events in combination with named Actuators you can control any device on your machine.

  For more information, see https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp/wiki/Scripting#camerabeforecapture and https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp/wiki/Scripting#cameraaftercapture

• Removed Deprecated LtiCivilCamera and VfwCamera

  LtiCivilCamera and VfwCamera were camera implementations for Mac and Windows. These required native libraries that were out of date and, as far as I know, no longer used. These have been removed in an effort to remove dead code from the project.

  If you were depending on these, please try switching to OpencvCamera or WebcamCamera. See https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/openpnp/JnOMjZWi9C8 for more information.

2016-11-17

Note: Breaking Change

The Pick and Place Vacuum Sensing feature was originally released with different configuration variable names. If you installed this version which was released yesterday then your configuration will fail to load when you install this version. To fix it, edit your machine.xml and remove the lines that include vacuum-level-min and vacuum-level-max.

Changes

• Pick and Place Vacuum Sensing

  You can now set a "part on" and "part off" vacuum level on your nozzle tips. The values will be checked during the pick and place operations. Currently only supported in GcodeDriver. See https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp/wiki/GcodeDriver#vacuum_report_regex and https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp/wiki/GcodeDriver%3A-Command-Reference#vacuum_request_command for more information.

  Thank you to Matt Brocklehurst for this feature.

• Camera View Zoom

  You can now zoom into the camera view using the mouse wheel. The zoom level does not affect what the software sees when taking a picture, it only affects what you see. This can be used to make it easier to pinpoint locations when doing setup work.

• Feeder Post Pick Event

  Feeders now support a post pick event which allows for actuation after the pick is complete. This feature is primarily for custom feeders and it is not currently used in the default feeders.

  Thank you to Matt Brocklehurst for this feature.

• GcodeDriver Controller Error Detection

  GcodeDriver can now detect error responses from the controller using the COMMAND_ERROR_REGEX. See https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp/wiki/GcodeDriver#command_error_regex for more details.

  Thank you to Matt Brocklehurst for this feature.

2016-10-28

• Nozzle Tip Changer Fourth Move Added

  A fourth move option has been added to the nozzle tip changer to support LitePlacer like hardware configurations. By default the fourth move is cloned from the previous second move upon configuration load, so the change should not result in any new moves for existing configurations.

  openpnp#354

• Logging Changes

  OpenPnP now uses TinyLog for logging instead of SLF and Log4J. TinyLog is much simpler to configure and far less complex to work with. It has quite a few less features, but based on feedback in openpnp#333 this was preferred.

  • Logging now defaults to the INFO level.
  • The level can be changed from the Log tab and it will be saved.
  • Log level can be changed on the fly without restarting OpenPnP.
  • Rotating log files are still created. The naming has changed slightly. The files now rotate after each startup instead of daily.

• Camera View Reticle Now Tracks Tool Rotation

  Prior to this change, the camera view reticle / crosshair always tracked the rotation of the camera. Since most cameras don't rotate, this didn't make much sense. The view now tracks the rotation of the currently selected tool, which is almost always the nozzle.

  openpnp#347

• Strip Feeder Improvements

  • Strip feeder now moves to the correct pick location before the first feed, i.e. when the feed count is 0. This is just a bit of user friendliness that does not really change any functionality. openpnp#352
  • Strip feeder auto setup no longer captures or overwrites the Z value. openpnp#353

2016-10-17

• GcodeDriver CamTransform

  GcodeDriver now supports cam based Z axes like those used on the OpenBuilds reference design, the RobotDigg head and several other common head designs.

  To use the new transform, see the example configuration below.

   <axis name="z" type="Z" home-coordinate="0.0">
      <head-mountable-ids class="java.util.HashSet">
         <string>69edd567-df6c-495a-9b30-2fcbf5c9742f</string>
         <string>169edd567-df6c-495a-9b30-2fcbf5c9742f</string>
      </head-mountable-ids>
      <transform class="org.openpnp.machine.reference.driver.GcodeDriver$CamTransform" cam-radius="24.0" cam-wheel-radius="9.5" cam-wheel-gap="2.0">
         <negated-head-mountable-id>169edd567-df6c-495a-9b30-2fcbf5c9742f</negated-head-mountable-id>
      </transform>
   </axis>
  

  In particular, you must define your Z axis head-mountable-ids to your two nozzles, and you must set the negated-head-mountable-id to the secondary nozzle. The parameters for defining the cam are:

  • cam-radius: The radius of the cam itself.
  • cam-wheel-radius: The radius of the bearings or wheels at the end of the cams that actually push the axis down.
  • cam-wheel-gap: The gap, if any, between the cam wheels and the top of the axis which they push down.

2016-09-07

• Success and Error Sounds, Signaler Interface

  OpenPnP can now play sounds when a job finishes or fails due to error. This feature also introduces a Signaler interface which will be used in the future to allow for external hardware to be triggered for the same events.

  For more information on this new feature, see: https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp/wiki/Signalers

  Thank you to @pfried for contributing this feature!

2016-08-27

• GcodeDriver Gcode Configuration UI

  You can now configure all Gcode commands and RegExs via the driver configuration wizard found in Machine Setup -> Driver -> GcodeDriver. The wizard has two tabs: Serial and Gcode. In the Gcode tab you can choose the tool you want to configure and the command for that tool. By choosing the Default tool you configure the default set of commands which are used for fallbacks when tool specific commands are not found.

• GcodeDriver Commands Now In CDATA

  GcodeDriver commands are switched to use CDATA now, instead of escaped XML. This makes it easier to include complex regexs that may include XML characters. In general, you don't have to change anything. OpenPnP will update your config the first time you run it. The resulting commands look like:

   <command type="CONNECT_COMMAND">
   	<text><![CDATA[G21]]></text>
       <text><![CDATA[G90]]></text>
       <text><![CDATA[M82]]></text>
   </command>
  

  Only the data between the [] is considered part of the command.

• GcodeDriver Position Reporting

  GcodeDriver will now read position reports from the controller. This can be used to provide feedback during moves or for controllers that may move externally to OpenPnP. This is a very new feature and is expected to require some iteration before it's perfect. If you run into issues with it, please report them.

  To add position reporting, define a new regex in the format of:

   <command type="POSITION_REPORT_REGEX">
   	<text><![CDATA[<Idle,MPos:(?<x>-?\d+\.\d+),(?<y>-?\d+\.\d+),(?<z>-?\d+\.\d+),(?<rotation>-?\d+\.\d+)>]]></text>
   </command>
  

  Note that the regex contains named groups. The named groups are used to identify the coordinates of each axis you have defined. You should name the groups with the same names in your axes section. In the command above the groups / axes are named x, y, z and rotation.

2016-08-08

• GcodeDriver Tool Specific Commands

  GcodeDriver now has the ability to send different commands based on the the tool that that the command is being sent for. This means that you can have different commands for each object on the head such as Nozzles, Cameras, Actuators, etc. Most importantly, you can now have separate pick and place commands for each Nozzle.

  When you first start OpenPnP with this version it will automatically update your configuration and move the existing commands into a default command set. After closing OpenPnP, please inspect your machine.xml to see the changes.

  To specify a specific tool for a command, the following syntax is used:

    <command head-mountable-id="269edd567-df6c-495a-9b30-2fcbf5c9742f" type="PICK_COMMAND">
       <text>M808</text>
       <text>M800</text>
    </command>
    <command head-mountable-id="69edd567-df6c-495a-9b30-2fcbf5c9742f" type="PICK_COMMAND">
       <text>M808</text>
       <text>M802--</text>
    </command>
  

  Note that the PICK_COMMAND is specified twice. One for each nozzle. The head-mountable-id specifies which nozzle the command is for.

  OpenPnP will first search for a command that matches the specified tool, and if it cannot find one for the tool then it will default to the command defined without a head-mountable-id.

  The commands that support tool specific codes are:

  • MOVE_TO_COMMAND
  • PICK_COMMAND
  • PLACE_COMMAND
  • ACTUATE_BOOLEAN_COMMAND
  • ACTUATE_DOUBLE_COMMAND

2016-06-22

• Python Scripting Support

  Python support is now included by default, instead of requiring an external install.

• GcodeDriver Pump On, Pump Off

  GcodeDriver now has pump-on-command and pump-off-command commands which will trigger intelligently depending on whether there are any nozzles currently picking.

2016-06-21

• GcodeDriver Axis Mapping

  The GcodeDriver now has a system for mapping axes to object on the head, along with a system for transforming coordinates on each axis. This allows more complex head setups than the basic single nozzle, four axis setup. In particular, this system allows for the case where a single Z motor powers two Z axes either in a cam, belt or rack and pinion configuration by specifying a single Z axis with two nozzles mapped to it, along with an appropriate transform. See https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp/wiki/GcodeDriver#axis-mapping for more information.

2016-06-20

• Scripting Engine

  OpenPnP now has the ability to run user provided scripts that have full access to the OpenPnP API and GUI. This makes it easy to add new utilities and functionality to your installtion of OpenPnP without having to modify the code.

  For more information, see: https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp/wiki/Scripting

2016-06-19

• ONVIF Camera Support

  Thanks to @richard-sim we now have support for IP cameras using the ONVIF standard. This standard is used by many IP cameras, especially in the realm of security cameras. This brings cheap IP camera support to OpenPnP and opens up the options for cameras much wider than before.

2016-06-16

• Log Tab

  There is a new main window tab called Log that shows logging output. This makes it easier for you to see the output of various commands in OpenPnP. It has options to limit the length of the log shown, and the log level. This is the first version of the feature and does not include all of the features that are planned. More information is available at: openpnp#288

2016-06-03

• GcodeDriver Move To Complete Regex

  You can now include in your GcodeDriver configuration to specify a regex that the move-to command will wait for before completing. This is used for motion controllers that return the command confirmation before movement is complete - TinyG in particular. See https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp/wiki/GcodeDriver#move-to-complete-regex for more information.

2016-05-25

• OpenBuilds Driver Rotation Improvements

  The OpenBuilds Driver now treats the rotary axes as rotary axes, instead of linear ones. This means that it will choose to turn the opposite direction if that is the faster way to reach a given position. In other words, if you are trying to move from 355 degrees to 10 degrees it will counterclockwise 15 degrees, passing through 360 degrees instead of clockwise 345 degrees passing through 180 degrees.

  This greatly improves performance related to the recent change to treat all rotation moves as solo.

2016-05-16

• Nozzle Park

  openpnp#76

  • There is now a per head park location. You can set the location in Machine Setup -> Heads.

  • The Zero buttons in the jog controls panel have been replaced with Park buttons. Each will move the selected nozzle to the park location.

  • The Job Processor will now optionally park the nozzle after a job completes, instead of re-homing. You can turn this option on in Machine Setup -> Job Processors.

2016-05-15

• Multi-Select on Parts and Packages Panels

  You can now select multiple entries in the Parts and Packages panels for deletion.

2016-05-14

• Job Processor Refactor

  openpnp#265

  This is a major rewrite of the JobProcessor, which is the code the handles the actual running of jobs. The purpose of this rewrite is to address many issues that have cropped up over the years in the JobProcessor, primarily around error handling and retry. The following changes are included:

  • Feed Retry: You can specify a retry count (default 3) in the feeder configuration and if a feed operation fails on a given feeder the operation will retry that many times before disabling the feeder and advancing to the next available one. If no more feeders are available for the part the feed operation fails and the user is notified. openpnp#206

  • Job Error Recovery: If any part of a job fails the user is now presented a dialog offering the options Retry, Skip, Pause to resolve it. No more "The job will be paused" leaving the system broken. Retry will attempt to re-run the previous task. Skip will skip processing the current placement. Pause pauses the job and hides the dialog so that the user can make configuration changes to attempt to resolve the error. The job may be continued with the Run or Step button.

  • Home After Job Complete: When a job completes normally the machine will return to home. openpnp#76

  • Pre and Post Job Machine Cleanup: Before a job starts and after it either finishes or is aborted, if any nozzles are holding a part the part will be discarded. openpnp#102

  Note to developers: The code and API for this feature is considered alpha quality and is expected to change. I am not happy with the code quality of the feature, but I am very happy with the functionality, so I am releasing it. I intend to revisit this and make significant changes to both the code and the API.

• Solder Paste Dispense Temporarily Disabled

  Due to the Job Processor Refactor above, Solder Paste Dispense is temporarily disabled. Please see openpnp#271 for more information.

2016-05-12

• Show Camera Names in All Camera View

  When the "All Cameras" view is selected, the name of each camera will be shown in in a little box in the bottom left of the view. This makes it easier to know what you are looking at when you have multiple cameras in action.

• FPS Limit Option in OpenCvCamera

  You can now set an FPS limit in the OpenCvCamera wizard. The default is 24. This is helpful to limit CPU usage on a machine with high resolution cameras.

• Removed Bottom Vision API from VisionProvider

  Before the Bottom Vision feature was complete it had been stubbed into the VisionProvider API. Since Bottom Vision is it's own first level object now this is no longer needed, so it has been removed. Existing implementations should move to either ReferenceBottomVision or to their own specific implementation of PartAlignment.

• Camera Crop

  openpnp#171

  You can now set a crop width and height on your camera. The crop is applied from the center, so setting a crop of 200x200 will make the output from the camera only the center 200x200 pixels. This is useful for when you have a high resolution camera but only care about a small portion of it. Cropping decreases the amount of data that is required to be processed and cuts down CPU and memory usage.

2016-04-27

• Speed Values Normalized

  Anywhere in the UI referring to a speed is now expressed as a percentage. This includes the new speed limit slider, parts speed and drag feeder speed.

• Global Speed Limit

  There is now a slider in the jog controls that controls the overall speed of the machine from 0 - 100%. The speed is applied to all other speeds in the system. Specifically, if you have a part specific speed the speed applied to that part will be the global speed times the part speed.

2016-04-24

• Bottom Vision!

  This is the first release of the Bottom Vision feature. This is a feature that has been in development for quite a long time and along the way has picked up a number of small but important features to go along with it.

  More information about Bottom Vision can be found at: https://github.com/openpnp/openpnp/wiki/Bottom-Vision

2016-04-23

• Moved the jog controls from their dialog to the main window.

  The jog controls are now always available and have been modified to take up less vertical space. The large START / STOP button has been replaced with a smaller "Power" button in the jog controls and the jog increment slider has been changed to vertical instead of horizontal and also integrated into the jog controls.

  The end result is that the jog controls now take up about the same amount of space as the big START button + increment slider used to except now they are visible all the time.

• Changed Nozzle.pick() to Nozzle.pick(Part) and added Nozzle.getPart()

  This change allows the Nozzle to be aware of what Part it has picked and also allows callers to find out the same. This is used in SimulatedUpCamera to render the Part, will be used in the Nav View to render parts, is used in controlling movement speed based on Part speed and will be used in future improvements to the part discard bin.

• Part speed is now enforced in Nozzle.moveTo instead of randomly all over the program.

  This is possible due to the Nozzle.pick(Part) change above and improves the overall code quality related to part speed.

• Add a Discard Location to machine.

  Discard location can be configured in Machine Settings -> Machine. The Discard location is used as a dumping area for parts when an error occurs.

• Add Discard button to Special Commands window.

  Allows you to manually discard any part that is currently picked on the selected nozzle.

• Add Pick button to Parts panel.

  The Pick button allows you to pick the selected part from the first available feeder.

• Remove Pick and Place buttons from Special Commands window.

  This functionality was misnamed in that it did not actually pick or place a part, it was just used to turn vacuum on and off. Pick functionality is now handled by the Pick buttons on the Parts and Feeders panels and Place functionality is handled by the Discard button.