Historical articles and insights from my WordPress blog
This is a very short and concise announcement for everyone reading the "Machine Koder" blog posts or following me on social or professional media. Due to marriage and a name merge, my family name is changing from Rössler to Poss. So, if you receive any messages, emails, and so on fro...
Read More →Welcome to today's blog post, where we'll be exploring the exciting possibilities of using the ChatGPT API in combination with Qt and QML to create chatbots and AI assistants. OpenAI recently released the ChatGPT API, which is a large language model that provides a chat interface that...
Read More →Today I'm going to share with you the recording of my talk from QtDay 2019. It was my first time at QtDay, and I really can recommend it for everyone interested in a developer-focused conference all about Qt, QtQuick, and QML. Teaser I have learned many things about creating QtQuick a...
Read More →In this article, you will learn the differences between choosing Python or C++ as programming language when working with the Qt framework. In many aspects, the comparison between Qt/C++ vs. Qt/Python boils down to comparing C++ with Python. However, in some points, the particular diff...
Read More →Remember my blog post about speeding up your Python QML GUI development with live coding?? I figured that Python is not enough as I recently worked on a few more Qt/C++ projects. Since C++ is not easily live-codable, meaning we can't reload the entire project, another approach was ne...
Read More →In this article, you will learn the differences between PyQt and Qt for Python PySide2 so you can decide which Python Qt binding you want to use. Why two Python Qt bindings? When reading this article, you will probably be confused about why there are two Python bindings for the Qt GUI...
Read More →In this article, you will learn about the opportunities of using Blender to animate industrial robots. Blender is an open source 3D animations software, which is used by 3D artists all over the world to create 3D art and cinematics scene, including blockbuster movies. A couple of week...
Read More →In a previous article, I explained how Machinekit and ROS could be combined to build fully autonomous robots. In this article, I focus on my project of retro-fitting an industrial robot arm with Machinekit and using it with ROS. The combination of ROS and Machinekit leverages the low-...
Read More →In this blog post, you will learn how to compile a PREEMPT_RT kernel for the Up Squared (Up2) board. DISCLAIMER: This article was posted end of 2018. Things have changed since then and I decided against using the Up Squared for my project because I couldn't get the RT latency to a rea...
Read More →In this blog post, you will learn how to install ROS core on the BeagleBone Black/Green/Blue. For demonstration purposes, I will use the Machinekit Debian Stretch image as a base. If you haven't read my blog post about why Machinekit and ROS would be a great combo, I encourage you to...
Read More →When you read this article you probably have heard about either ROS or Machinekit, but very likely not thought about combining both to build fully open source robots. Machinekit is an open source motion control software project. The aim of the project is to simplify the creation of m...
Read More →Are you still hitting the Run button every time you want to verify a GUI element in your Python Qt and QML application looks as you expected? Or are you relying on your working memory to imagine the changes in your mind? Both approaches work, but you are wasting a lot of time and ener...
Read More →In the last few weeks, I have been using Python and Qt, especially PyQt extensively. During these weeks I have discovered a few ways how to shoot yourself in the foot accidentally. In this article, you will learn which things you should watch out for when working on GUIs with Qt and P...
Read More →In this article, you will learn how to use Pytest to successfully test ROS powered robots. In particular I explain how to employ pytest for testing ROS nodes. Introduction ROS, the Robot Operating System, which is actually no operating system but a middleware plus a huge number of too...
Read More →In this blog post, I will present you my latest project: The first open source hardware (OSH) parallel port cape for the BeagleBone. The goal of this project is to make Machinekit easier to use for a broader audience and to provide a turnkey control solution for CNC machines. The Oper...
Read More →This is a quick and easy guide to get from an RCN Debian Linux image for the BeagleBone (Black) to a working Machinekit installation. At the time of writing this blog post, there is no ready to use image available. However, in the future, there might be a ready to use image with every...
Read More →I have been searching for an adequate solution for this problem for a few years and recently got a good hint for closing this open loop at the Qt World Summit 2017. In fact, I have not found only one, but two new solutions for this problem. I explain all three solutions, the quick fix...
Read More →In this blog post, you will learn how to do Qt unit testing with Catch and Trompeloeil. I'll explain how to this with the qmake build system if you prefer CMake you can follow this guide. However, some of the details I describe here such as how to use Catch for testing event-driven ap...
Read More →Machinekit just won an Open Minds Award - thats the Austrian Open Source Award - in the category Open Source Software - Development! Reasons mentioned for choosing Machinekit as the winner of the award are the flexibility Machinekit controlling robots, CNC machines and 3d printers us...
Read More →In this blog post, you will learn how to run Qt Creator in emacs-mode or in layman terms how to configure GNU Emacs keybindings in Qt Creator. Why I write this blog post This mini-tutorial is a note to my future self, searching how to configure Qt Creator to behave like Emacs all over...
Read More →Rendering to a monochrome OLED display with QML In this blog post, you will learn how to write QtQuick applications for an OLED display without modifying the Linux kernel. My testing system is an SSD1306 based 128x64 monochrome OLED display connected via I2C to the CHIP single board c...
Read More →In this blog post, you will learn how to use Qt Creator for Automake and Gtkmm project. Yes, you read correctly I will explain how to create Gtk projects with Qt-Creator. But why? You may ask two things: How does it come that I work on a Gtkmm + Automake project? I currently work on...
Read More →This blog post is part 5 of the Machinetalk explained series describing the concepts and ideas behind the Machinetalk middleware. In this section, I describe the part of Machinetalk which probably needs most explanation. What I'm talking about is Machinetalk GSL - language bindings f...
Read More →This blog post is part 4 of the Machinetalk explained series describing the concepts and ideas behind the Machinetalk middleware. This part is about HAL remote, the remote interface to the Machinekit hardware abstraction layer HAL. In this blog post, I do not only describe the HAL rem...
Read More →This blog post is a continuation of my Machinetalk explained series describing the concepts and ideas behind the Machinetalk middleware. This part is about the technologies and building blocks of Machinetalk ZeroMQ, Protobuf and DNS-SD over mDNS. The previous parts are: Part 1: Intro...
Read More →This blog post is a continuation of my Machinetalk explained series describing the concepts and ideas behind the Machinetalk middleware. This part is about the requirements of the Machinetalk middleware and their fulfillment through the used technologies. To understand the concepts ou...
Read More →This blog article is about Machinetalk, the middleware for distributed systems which serves as remote API to Machinekit. This blog post is the first part of the Machinetalk explained series which describe different parts of the Machinetalk middleware. I'm writing this blog post series...
Read More →In this blog post, I present WebVCP - web-based user interfaces for Machinekit. Reasons for web UIs over native UIs I have dedicated a lot of my work in the last years ro QtQuickVcp which is a remote UI framework for Machinekit targeting desktop and mobile applications. So you may won...
Read More →On July 2nd and 3rd, I visited the Machinekit Europe meeting hosted by the Eletrolab Hackerspace in Nanterre, Paris. The hackerspace team recorded all talks and Frederic agreed to do the editing work. The first session of the meeting Machinekit Introduction by Michael and Bas, is now...
Read More →This blog post is about the continuous integration of Qt applications with the example of the QtQuickVcp project. It demonstrates how to build Qt applications and libraries for Linux and Android using Travis CI and Docker. Furthermore, I mention how to build Qt applications for Window...
Read More →This blog post is about getting started with Machinekit on the Nexthing CHIP. With a price of 9$; the CHIP is the cheapest single board computer with wifi and flash memory on the market. The low price and easy availability make the CHIP an ideal platform for low-budget motion-control...
Read More →This blog post explains how to extend the Machineface 3D printer UI with a custom UI element that interacts with HAL. For this purpose, this article explains the core concepts of HAL remote. The blog post is a continuation of Controlling TP-Link HS100/110 Smart Plugs with Machinekit....
Read More →This article is about porting the Turnigy Fabrikator Mini from HobbyKing to Machinekit. It explains the basics of porting a new 3D printer to Machinekit. For this purpose, the open hardware CRAMPS cape for the BeagleBone Black is used. The Turnigy Fabrikator Mini / TinyBoy I recently...
Read More →This article is about using the NextThing C.H.I.P. minicomputer with Machinekit. It explains how one can write GPIO drivers for Machinekit. Furthermore, it also shows how one can build Machinekit on the CHIP and how to cross compile an RT-PREEMPT kernel for the CHIP using the CHIP-SD...
Read More →This article is about controlling the TP-Link HS100/HS110 smart home automation power sockets via Machinekit HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer). The result is an HAL component which can toggle the relay state and monitor the energy consumption of a household electric device, such as a 3...
Read More →Slicing and Cura The process of creating program code (GCode), which are used as input for 3D printers, from 3D object files (STL) is called slicing, because the object is basically sliced into many very thin layers. Cura is an open source slicing software supported by Ultimaker for t...
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