Has anyone else noticed that the virtual controller only runs for 3 hours now? It used to be 6. I understand that 6 hours takes up a lot of server space but 3 is just too short. It really needs to be 4 or 5 hours. I’ve had it time out on me in the middle of programming and lost some work. I don’t want to start a support ticket just to tell them I’m unhappy but they certainly need to know.
Hi Eric,
Feedback is always appreciated, here is fine, we also have a form on our main website (Contact Tormach) that you could fill out as well.
Specifically on the Virtual PathPilot changes on https://hub.pathpilot.com, you are correct, we updated them to last 3 hours instead of 6 hours max. This was done in combination with a number of other changes (including increasing the raw processing power of the instances running the Virtual Controllers) that we hope have made those Virtual Controllers much more usable and less laggy (but of course, more processing power means most cost on the instances).
At the time we made this change, we did check our usage statistics, and found nearly all our Hub users were well under the 3 hour threshold, but seeing as you aren’t, would you mind sharing me your use case that took you up to the 3 hour limit?
Is it like a single conversational edit that just takes that long to get right?
Are you simming a long running g-code program?
While I can’t make any promises, understanding how folks are using Hub and getting that feedback can certainly lead towards an increase in the max runtime for the instances.
Thanks for responding. I definitely noticed that the lag is very much reduced from before so that is great. I figured that your user statistics contributed to the change. That makes sense.
I mostly use it to build and debug a program. Often it is a conversational edit session that can go a while but building the program can take a long time as well. I often have interruptions in my day that don’t allow me to block out all that time at once but other times it is the back and forth of running the program on the machine and coming back to tweak it that runs me to the time limit. The latter case has happened twice in the last 2 weeks. I don’t run long duration sims so that’s not my use.
I do run long-running simulations. I’m finding the three hours to be frustrating because I end up wanting to do a couple iterations and boom I’ve missed out.
Is there any way to run PP locally in a VM? Any docker image I can install? 
I agree that 3Hrs is too short sometimes. I also have an issue with it disconnecting me from the virtual machine when the VM is out of focus. This out-of-focus time is generally working in fusion or something related to the job so disconnecting seems like too much. I’m sure these measures are to prevent misuse and abuse but maybe there are ways to help those of us who use it to improve our experience.
Scott,
The disconnection timer is a measure to prevent us from needing to pay for the full 3 hours of server time when nothing is being done with Hub. We do everything we can to keep Hub a free service but there are costs associated with it’s use so in some cases inconveniences must be accepted.
Thank you,
Norman
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I understand, and that does make sense. @Dan_Keen had asked about running a virtual machine locally do you have any thoughts on that? It seems that installing PathPilot on a VM wouldn’t be an issue, but I wonder how the “simulation” part would work. I suspect Tormach probably wouldn’t want to provide the Sim for local use, although it would offload some of Tormach’s server time requirements.
Totally understand and I love Hub. It’s a great resource, so thank you for providing it. Just hoping to offload some of that cost to myself
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We don’t currently have any way to run Hub locally. It’s been considered a few times but there are questions to solve before it becoming an option and there has never been enough of a demand for it to float to the top of the project pile.
Thank you,
Norman
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Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help make it a reality
Norman, I’m also willing to help test from a user point of view if that helps.
Thanks
Scott