[RA-Bowtie]

G'day guys,


There was so much enthusiasm for PP 2 and (it seems) that those of you who already have it, are conspicuously quiet.


I'm still waiting for mine to arrive, so how about an update?


What's the interface like...is it different?


What's new, that you can see on the screen?


Conversational's?




Michael

[kstrauss]

I installed it last week but holiday events with my family have kept me from making any significant use for actually making parts. That said, I'm somewhat disappointed with the mill version; I haven't yet looked at the RapidTurn support at all. Everything that I've tried works and some of the splash screen pictures are prettier. The larger slider buttons are slightly ugly to my eye but they are easier to use on my touch screen and there are improvements to the display of long file names. Some of the bug fixes seem a little sloppy. For example, they have disabled the "Feed 100%" button until the machine is referenced (Why was this considered a bug anyway?). However, you can still adjust the feed override slider at any time.

The good news is that it installed without problems and from my very limited testing it works as well as Pathpilot 1.9.x. I'm happy about that! There are probably zillions of invisible internal improvements that will make future Tormach development easier. However, I expected significant functional enhancements in order to warrant calling it Pathpilot 2.0 and the lack of anything obvious is disappointing. I'd love to be corrected!

[RA-Bowtie]

I installed it last week but holiday events with my family have kept me from making any significant use for actually making parts. That said, I'm somewhat disappointed with the mill version; I haven't yet looked at the RapidTurn support at all. Everything that I've tried works and some of the splash screen pictures are prettier. The larger slider buttons are slightly ugly to my eye but they are easier to use on my touch screen and there are improvements to the display of long file names. Some of the bug fixes seem a little sloppy. For example, they have disabled the "Feed 100%" button until the machine is referenced (Why was this considered a bug anyway?). However, you can still adjust the feed override slider at any time.

The good news is that it installed without problems and from my very limited testing it works as well as Pathpilot 1.9.x. I'm happy about that! There are probably zillions of invisible internal improvements that will make future Tormach development easier. However, I expected significant functional enhancements in order to warrant calling it Pathpilot 2.0 and the lack of anything obvious is disappointing. I'd love to be corrected!

G'day Ken,

Maybe I'm being a bit cynical here, but I kinda wonder why we had to pay for it?

If the "front end" only has a couple of cosmetic changes, then why call it 2.0?

Michael

[Sir John]

Based on the release notes, it didn't seem like what you would expect in a major release.

[TurboStep]

G'day Ken,
Maybe I'm being a bit cynical here, but I kinda wonder why we had to pay for it?
If the "front end" only has a couple of cosmetic changes, then why call it 2.0?
Michael

A bit cynical? Well, they were your words
Usually I'm frustrated when "front ends" do change unnecessarily with no benefit to the user. I'm happy to say Tormach had better things to do. Despite appearances, this a significant change, not only to the underlying linuxcnc but also to their own code. This upgrade is also a significant investment their part and the price they're asking is just a token price, it probably just covers the cost of creating and packaging the stick.
Of course nobody is forcing you to pay the $19.95 if you don't want to. You can continue to use v1 as long as you wish, or download linuxcnc directly from linuxcnc.org.
I'm very happy with both the new and previous versions. I think they're doing a great job and deserve due credit.
Please forgive me for being just a little cynical....
Regards
Step

[RA-Bowtie]

A bit cynical? Well, they were your words
Usually I'm frustrated when "front ends" do change unnecessarily with no benefit to the user. I'm happy to say Tormach had better things to do. Despite appearances, this a significant change, not only to the underlying linuxcnc but also to their own code. This upgrade is also a significant investment their part and the price they're asking is just a token price, it probably just covers the cost of creating and packaging the stick.
Of course nobody is forcing you to pay the $19.95 if you don't want to. You can continue to use v1 as long as you wish, or download linuxcnc directly from linuxcnc.org.
I'm very happy with both the new and previous versions. I think they're doing a great job and deserve due credit.
Please forgive me for being just a little cynical....
Regards
Step

Hi Step,


I honestly don't have a problem paying for it .... I'm still waiting for mine to arrive, as it takes forever to get to Australia.

I'm cynical because it's "only" $20.00.

I pay (4 times) that for a TTS holder, including freight!

I was hoping that there would be a few more cosmetic changes .... maybe that's coming?

I have absolutely no problem with Tormach at all. I wish a few more companies here, had customer service like they do!

Honestly, they are great to do deal with.

Michael

[PCW_MESA]

I'm pretty sure this includes an OS update _and_ RTOS kernel type change. This is pretty major even if nothing visible changed.
I suspect that Tormach would want a decent shakedown after this update before adding new features

[TurboStep]

Hi Step,


I honestly don't have a problem paying for it .... I'm still waiting for mine to arrive, as it takes forever to get to Australia.

I'm cynical because it's "only" $20.00.

I pay (4 times) that for a TTS holder, including freight!

I was hoping that there would be a few more cosmetic changes .... maybe that's coming?

I have absolutely no problem with Tormach at all. I wish a few more companies here, had customer service like they do!

Honestly, they are great to do deal with.

Michael

Hi Michael
I apologize if I misunderstood the reason behind your apparent cynicism I'm sure there will be interesting things to come and I like cool features as much as anyone, but for software I'm using to control my machine I need well tested features based on a stable foundation - and that takes time.
I've exchanged a few e-mails with some of the developers and they were very helpful. As you say, not many companies would offer this kind of support, especially to someone with a 5 year old mill, and who only paid $10 for the PP CD well over 2 years ago!
Best regards
Step

[RA-Bowtie]

Hi Michael
I apologize if I misunderstood the reason behind your apparent cynicism I'm sure there will be interesting things to come and I like cool features as much as anyone, but for software I'm using to control my machine I need well tested features based on a stable foundation - and that takes time.
I've exchanged a few e-mails with some of the developers and they were very helpful. As you say, not many companies would offer this kind of support, especially to someone with a 5 year old mill, and who only paid $10 for the PP CD well over 2 years ago!
Best regards
Step

No need to apologise, after all, you gave us Roger Federer... so you can't be all that bad :-)

I just noticed that my order for PP2 is back ordered ... bummer. That means I won't see it ' until the new year.

Just my bent sense of humour, but how the hell do you run out of USB memory sticks!

Michael

[RA-Bowtie]

I'm pretty sure this includes an OS update _and_ RTOS kernel type change. This is pretty major even if nothing visible changed.
I suspect that Tormach would want a decent shakedown after this update before adding new features

I was just being selfish and hoping that there were a few bits of "eye candy" :-)

Michael

[TurboStep]

No need to apologise, after all, you gave us Roger Federer... so you can't be all that bad :-)

I just noticed that my order for PP2 is back ordered ... bummer. That means I won't see it ' until the new year.

Just my bent sense of humour, but how the hell do you run out of USB memory sticks!

Michael

We gave you Roger Federer? But I'm British!!!
Well, ok, I'm also Swiss
Maybe they're not actually out of USB sticks, perhaps they're waiting to release v2.0.1 <- THAT's the Christmas present I'm waiting for
Step

[kstrauss]

I'm pretty sure this includes an OS update _and_ RTOS kernel type change. This is pretty major even if nothing visible changed.
I suspect that Tormach would want a decent shakedown after this update before adding new features

As I wrote, I'm certain that there are numerous important changes under-the-covers and I'm thankful there appear to be no significant problems introduced with the upgrade. Keeping a proven and familiar UI is great. However, like Bowtie, I was expecting significant, visible, new features such as enhancements to the conversational capabilities or perhaps in other areas. As TurboStep alluded to, if the choice is between stability and features stability wins!

[RA-Bowtie]

We gave you Roger Federer? But I'm British!!!
Well, ok, I'm also Swiss
Maybe they're not actually out of USB sticks, perhaps they're waiting to release v2.0.1 <- THAT's the Christmas present I'm waiting for
Step

British, huh?.... ok, so you have a handicap

They wouldn't be holding back on version 2.1. I thought that V2.0 was able to do live updates, so what would be the point of holding back?

Michael

[toyshop]

Just installed it today. I haven't seen any change yet other than the larger sliders. I use a mouse and the larger sliders are nice.
I was hoping for a conversational module to mill a radius though.

Dave