FreeCAD on Raspberry Pi 3

Have some feature requests, feedback, cool stuff to share, or want to know where FreeCAD is going? This is the place.
Forum rules
Be nice to others! Read the FreeCAD code of conduct!
User avatar
bill
Posts: 376
Joined: Fri Jan 09, 2015 9:25 pm

Re: FreeCAD on Raspberry Pi 3

Post by bill »

Hi Alex!

I am an RPi fan; use them for several other applications ie, distillation control, OpenCPN/OpenPlotter platform, greenhouse control.

Is it possible for you to put a SD iso-image for download on the internet (like mega.nz or dropbox.com), somewhere.?

Thanks!
User avatar
bill
Posts: 376
Joined: Fri Jan 09, 2015 9:25 pm

Re: FreeCAD on Raspberry Pi 3

Post by bill »

-alex- wrote: Tue Mar 19, 2019 11:03 pm I would prefer to avoid active cooling in order to prevent noise and dust, but if it is realy necessary for enjoying Freecad I will do it.
RPis are quite serene! ... like the old mac days.
You might want to look into a fan controller for a few $bucks.
A RPi cooling fan running at 3v is barely audible.
User avatar
roerich_64
Veteran
Posts: 1465
Joined: Thu May 21, 2015 7:00 pm
Location: Ostfriesland

Re: FreeCAD on Raspberry Pi 3

Post by roerich_64 »

bill wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2019 11:07 am Is it possible for you to put a SD iso-image for download on the internet (like mega.nz or dropbox.com), somewhere.?
Yes, that wouldt be nice! :)

I am also a fan of RPi... RPi 3b+

BR
Walter
Die Liebe wird siegen, denn sie ist unzerstörbar :) ;)
User avatar
-alex-
Veteran
Posts: 1856
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2019 9:42 pm
Location: France

Re: FreeCAD on Raspberry Pi 3

Post by -alex- »

Hi there, thanks for your comments.
The sd card image is available on the micrometer.xyz website.
https://www.micrometer.xyz/cdn/node/1
You can download it and enjoy. If you face troubles with Freecad sketcher, have a look on previous posts of this topic.

Alex
User avatar
bill
Posts: 376
Joined: Fri Jan 09, 2015 9:25 pm

Re: FreeCAD on Raspberry Pi 3

Post by bill »

Thank You atalex; already downloaded!
User avatar
Kunda1
Veteran
Posts: 13434
Joined: Thu Jan 05, 2017 9:03 pm

Re: FreeCAD on Raspberry Pi 3

Post by Kunda1 »

-alex- wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2019 9:21 pm Hi there, thanks for your comments.
The sd card image is available on the micrometer.xyz website.
https://www.micrometer.xyz/cdn/node/1
You can download it and enjoy. If you face troubles with Freecad sketcher, have a look on previous posts of this topic.
Quick question: is there a way to vet your contribution ? from a security standpoint?
Alone you go faster. Together we go farther
Please mark thread [Solved]
Want to contribute back to FC? Checkout:
'good first issues' | Open TODOs and FIXMEs | How to Help FreeCAD | How to report Bugs
User avatar
-alex-
Veteran
Posts: 1856
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2019 9:42 pm
Location: France

Re: FreeCAD on Raspberry Pi 3

Post by -alex- »

Kunda1 wrote: Fri Mar 22, 2019 11:12 am Quick question: is there a way to vet your contribution ? from a security standpoint?
You mean about the security concerning this distribution ? Can we trust it? Right?
Well, I don't know because that's not my work, I'm just an end user, with almsot no skills in programming neither on Linux. That's the work of micrometer CNC team, only them could comunicate about that. So I'm not able to tell if the distribution is secure or not. I assume it is but....
I hope i didn't misunderstood your question.
User avatar
Stainless_Joel
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Jun 23, 2018 5:07 am
Location: Canada
Contact:

Re: FreeCAD on Raspberry Pi 3

Post by Stainless_Joel »

Yes, you are welcome to try to contact me through a local repeater if you like (i am not on CW), my call-sign is VE7NTP :
https://apc-cap.ic.gc.ca/pls/apc_anon/q ... s$.startup
Or if you were at the Seattle Maker fair in 2018, we could have discussed your projects in person.

The commercial SSL certificate we were advised to get and hobby-parts paypal invoice history provides a financial trail as well. My public GPG key should match the signed image file sig keys on other sites along with my email. I will not describe to you folks how much grief I am getting from various scams being the public contact, some weirdos have actually showed up at my door, and if someone can't access the home site to verify files it means your sub-net could be black-holed on the firewall for a very good reason.

To list modifications of custom stretch/Raspbian packages:
dpkg -l | grep -P '^hi'

To list modified package files in this setup (note the system keys are identical to Raspbian):
sudo debsums -sac

And of course, out of repo builds unable to be packaged properly are usually placed in /opt and /usr/local

The sources / kernel patches we used are documented here, and should generate the identical binaries if re-built with the same flags:
http://www.micrometer.xyz/cdn/node/27
(the build flags can be recovered from the kernel like the normal repo raspbian kernel)

We are aware of the recent github scandal regarding people forking popular projects with malware, so are completely sympathetic with people who are concerned about privacy. The OS was meant to be a temporary project setup where apt would progressively purge the old patches, but a year and half later the main repo is still missing/broken several critical apps we use for our own projects.... so it just kinda became a "lite fork" that eats up way too many weekends. The way I look at it is: the hundreds of hours the build takes, is a gift back to other hobbyists who improve the tools we use as well. I agree it is better to have signed audit-able binaries with debsums, but that would be a massive packaging undertaking that would duplicate Debian groups work. =)

Cheers,
J
User avatar
-alex-
Veteran
Posts: 1856
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2019 9:42 pm
Location: France

Re: FreeCAD on Raspberry Pi 3

Post by -alex- »

Hi there,
Those days I was thinking about all developments concerning PathWB and features, I mean features which use only G01 linear interpolation and segmentation instead of G02 or G03.
I would say this kind of strategy is pretty suitable with raspberry Pi cnc limited skills.
As you certainly know Raspberry Pi are usually not suitable with cnc works. Usual strategy is:
Raspberry -> gcode file -> gcode sender/bcnc -> Arduino based microcontroller -> cnc machine (up to 40kz I guess)
RPI 3 doesn't handle itself more than 5-10khz of pulse rate with Linux cnc and preempt rt kernel (and it is pretty tricky).
But recently some development which are achieving by pantadeusz seems pretty interesting:
https://github.com/pantadeusz/raspigcd2
With his code it seems he reachs more than 18khz pulses: https://www.zapread.com/Post/Detail/4079
Not so bad, furthermore do this way could allow to handle fast interrupts for pause or scheduled stop. His code handle only G0 and G01, so it could be suitable with some features of Freecad path WB, I mean about meshing and tessellation approach:
https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=36037
18kz is maybe not a huge pulses rate, but can be suitable I think for standard cnc works with 1/4 or 1/8 microstepping settings. You should have a look at the pantadeusz's YouTube channel.
With cnc micrometer distribution (see above posts), by using Freecad -> 3D modeling -> Path WB to create jobs -> gcode file -> Raspigcd, we could get a full/tiny/cheap cnc environment on RPI. Very suitable for educational purposes or standard cnc projects. IMHO that's pretty cool :D
For now I didn't tested the code myself yet. If I do it I will report results here. If some of you guys tests it first, please report here :)

Alex
Last edited by -alex- on Wed May 08, 2019 3:38 pm, edited 2 times in total.
triplus
Veteran
Posts: 9471
Joined: Mon Dec 12, 2011 4:45 pm

Re: FreeCAD on Raspberry Pi 3

Post by triplus »

Thanks for the info. Indeed that reads as nice progress being made. In addition RPi computers will likely get faster with each new release. 40kHz i guess is therefore a new goal set! :)
Post Reply