idex_modes: Fixed the case when carriages home in the same direction (#6310)

Previous version of the code assumed that dual carriages home away
from each other, which is not true on some machines, which have the
second dual carriage homing on the first carriage. The new code
correctly identifies the relative order of the carriages now.

This fixes discrepancies between the documentation and the actual
implementation of the carriages kinematic ranges calculation.

Notes about dual_carriage homing and proximity checks changes

Fixed clearing of homing state after homing in certain modes

In case of multi-MCU homing it is possible that the carriage position
will end up outside of the allowed motion range due to latencies in data
transmission between MCUs. Selecting certain modes after homing could
result in home state clearing instead of blocking the motion of the
active carriage. This commit fixes this undesired behavior.

Signed-off-by: Dmitry Butyugin <dmbutyugin@google.com>

docs/Config_Changes.md

@@ -8,6 +8,15 @@ All dates in this document are approximate.
 
 ## Changes
 
+20230826: If `safe_distance` is set or calculated to be 0 in `[dual_carriage]`,
+the carriages proximity checks will be disabled as per documentation. A user
+may wish to configure `safe_distance` explicitly to prevent accidental crashes
+of the carriages with each other. Additionally, the homing order of the primary
+and the dual carriage is changed in some configurations (certain configurations
+when both carriages home in the same direction, see
+[[dual_carriage] configuration reference](./Config_Reference.md#dual_carriage)
+for more details).
+
 20230810: The flash-sdcard.sh script now supports both variants of the
 Bigtreetech SKR-3, STM32H743 and STM32H723. For this, the original tag
 of btt-skr-3 now has changed to be either btt-skr-3-h743 or btt-skr-3-h723.

docs/Config_Reference.md

@@ -2065,6 +2065,14 @@ in this section (CARRIAGE=0 will return activation to the primary carriage).
 Dual carriage support is typically combined with extra extruders - the
 SET_DUAL_CARRIAGE command is often called at the same time as the
 ACTIVATE_EXTRUDER command. Be sure to park the carriages during deactivation.
+Note that during G28 homing, typically the primary carriage is homed first
+followed by the carriage defined in the `[dual_carriage]` config section.
+However, the `[dual_carriage]` carriage will be homed first if both carriages
+home in a positive direction and the [dual_carriage] carriage has a
+`position_endstop` greater than the primary carriage, or if both carriages home
+in a negative direction and the `[dual_carriage]` carriage has a
+`position_endstop` less than the primary carriage.
+
 Additionally, one could use "SET_DUAL_CARRIAGE CARRIAGE=1 MODE=COPY" or
 "SET_DUAL_CARRIAGE CARRIAGE=1 MODE=MIRROR" commands to activate either copying
 or mirroring mode of the dual carriage, in which case it will follow the

klippy/kinematics/idex_modes.py

@@ -65,7 +65,13 @@ class DualCarriages:
         kin.update_limits(self.axis, target_dc.get_rail().get_range())
     def home(self, homing_state):
         kin = self.printer.lookup_object('toolhead').get_kinematics()
-        for i, dc_rail in enumerate(self.dc):
+        enumerated_dcs = list(enumerate(self.dc))
+        if (self.get_dc_order(0, 1) > 0) != \
+                self.dc[0].get_rail().get_homing_info().positive_dir:
+            # The second carriage must home first, because the carriages home in
+            # the same direction and the first carriage homes on the second one
+            enumerated_dcs.reverse()
+        for i, dc_rail in enumerated_dcs:
             self.toggle_active_dc_rail(i, override_rail=True)
             kin.home_axis(homing_state, self.axis, dc_rail.get_rail())
         # Restore the original rails ordering
@@ -78,9 +84,15 @@ class DualCarriages:
         axes_pos = [dc.get_axis_position(pos) for dc in self.dc]
         dc0_rail = self.dc[0].get_rail()
         dc1_rail = self.dc[1].get_rail()
-        range_min = dc0_rail.position_min
+        if mode != PRIMARY or self.dc[0].is_active():
-        range_max = dc0_rail.position_max
+            range_min = dc0_rail.position_min
+            range_max = dc0_rail.position_max
+        else:
+            range_min = dc1_rail.position_min
+            range_max = dc1_rail.position_max
         safe_dist = self.safe_dist
+        if not safe_dist:
+            return (range_min, range_max)
 
         if mode == COPY:
             range_min = max(range_min,
@@ -88,7 +100,7 @@ class DualCarriages:
             range_max = min(range_max,
                             axes_pos[0] - axes_pos[1] + dc1_rail.position_max)
         elif mode == MIRROR:
-            if dc0_rail.get_homing_info().positive_dir:
+            if self.get_dc_order(0, 1) > 0:
                 range_min = max(range_min,
                                 0.5 * (sum(axes_pos) + safe_dist))
                 range_max = min(range_max,
@@ -102,14 +114,39 @@ class DualCarriages:
             # mode == PRIMARY
             active_idx = 1 if self.dc[1].is_active() else 0
             inactive_idx = 1 - active_idx
-            if active_idx:
+            if self.get_dc_order(active_idx, inactive_idx) > 0:
-                range_min = dc1_rail.position_min
-                range_max = dc1_rail.position_max
-            if self.dc[active_idx].get_rail().get_homing_info().positive_dir:
                 range_min = max(range_min, axes_pos[inactive_idx] + safe_dist)
             else:
                 range_max = min(range_max, axes_pos[inactive_idx] - safe_dist)
+        if range_min > range_max:
+            # During multi-MCU homing it is possible that the carriage
+            # position will end up below position_min or above position_max
+            # if position_endstop is too close to the rail motion ends due
+            # to inherent latencies of the data transmission between MCUs.
+            # This can result in an invalid range_min > range_max range
+            # in certain modes, which may confuse the kinematics code.
+            # So, return an empty range instead, which will correctly
+            # block the carriage motion until a different mode is selected
+            # which actually permits carriage motion.
+            return (range_min, range_min)
         return (range_min, range_max)
+    def get_dc_order(self, first, second):
+        if first == second:
+            return 0
+        # Check the relative order of the first and second carriages and
+        # return -1 if the first carriage position is always smaller
+        # than the second one and 1 otherwise
+        first_rail = self.dc[first].get_rail()
+        second_rail = self.dc[second].get_rail()
+        first_homing_info = first_rail.get_homing_info()
+        second_homing_info = second_rail.get_homing_info()
+        if first_homing_info.positive_dir != second_homing_info.positive_dir:
+            # Carriages home away from each other
+            return 1 if first_homing_info.positive_dir else -1
+        # Carriages home in the same direction
+        if first_rail.position_endstop > second_rail.position_endstop:
+            return 1
+        return -1
     def activate_dc_mode(self, index, mode):
         toolhead = self.printer.lookup_object('toolhead')
         toolhead.flush_step_generation()