The target here is to update the screens of graphical and char base
displays as fast as possible, without draining the planner buffer too much.
For that measure the time it takes to draw and transfer one
(partial) screen to the display. Build a max. value from that.
Because ther can be large differences, depending on how much the display
updates are interrupted, the max value is decreased by one ms/s. This way
it can shrink again.
On the other side we keep track on how much time it takes to empty the
planner buffer.
Now we draw the next (partial) display update only then, when we do not
drain the planner buffer to much. We draw only when the time in the
buffer is two times larger than a update takes, or the buffer is empty anyway.
When we have begun to draw a screen we do not wait until the next 100ms
time slot comes. We draw the next partial screen as fast as possible, but
give the system a chance to refill the buffers a bit.
When we see, during drawing a screen, the screen contend has changed,
we stop the current draw and begin to draw the new content from the top.
lcd_update can take so much time that the block buffer gets drained if
there are only short segments. This leads to jerky printer movements for
example in circles and a bad print quality.
This change implements a simple check: Only if the block currently
executed is long enough, run lcd_update.
This also means the printer will not show actual values on the LCD nor
will it respond to buttons pressed. A option that keeps the menu
accessible is also available.
Aditionaly, slow down if a block would be so fast that adding a new
block to the buffer would take more time. In this case, the buffer would
drain until it's empty in worst case.
1) modified 3 code files
Marlin.h
Marlin_main.cpp
endstops.cpp
2) modified config files so I could test on my machine
Testing was done on an AzteegX3pro based machine.
The probe was hooked to the Z_MIN endstop.
My controller doesn't have a dedicated Z_PROBE input so I couldn't test
that functionality.
Verified that a large file (without any G38 commands) executed the same
before and after the changes.
Verified that the head moves as expected when G38.2 and G38.3 commands
are issued. Single & multiple axis moves were tested along with + and -
directions.
Code was added to the main ISR. In normal operation only one extra IF
statement is evaluated. I didn't notice any performance degradation
because of the added code.
The G38 commands are expected to be issued manually by the operator
during machine setup. The G38 commands wait until the machine is idle
before proceeding. That way the other commands are minimally impacted
by the extra ISR overhead when a G38 command is in the queue.
The G38 commands are very similar to the G28 commands except 1) only the
Z_PROBE is used and movement can be in the + or - direction.
See issue 4677 for a discussion on adding G38 commands to Marlin.
Feature request: add ability to use G38.2 command (CNC)
MarlinFirmware/Marlin#4677
