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I decided to remake my pendant since I am using Mach3 to control my machine now. Just getting started, but I am using an Arduino Mega and adding a nice 3.2" Graphic LCD to display some information from Mach3.
I am using a combination of Mach3’s modbus protocol and brains to get info to the GLCD and interface the buttons. It all works very well, now it is just a matter of figuring out how I want the enclosure to be. Here is a shot of the GLCD displaying info from Mach3. I am currently displaying X, Y, Z and A axis positions, Jog increment, Feedrate Override percentage, Feedrate and Reset status. I have more room on the screen, but still figuring out what else I want on the screen, if anything.
THIS, is a great thing. Post a link to that protocal - I assume it is some kind of serial connection? I have a great script to reliably read rpms in to add to your “feed.”
I decided to switch to a 5" Graphic LCD for the new pendant with a 16 button keypad and 2 joysticks (each joystick also has a center button). I am switching to an Arduino Due for the brains of the pendant to get a little more speed to control the bigger screen and all of the inputs as well as the communication with Mach3. Still working on the screen layout, but here it is so far:
More work on the pendant…
I think I have gone overboard on inputs and I may scale things back a bit.
Here is the pendant when it is powered on and then when I turn on Mach3 (the pendant automatically connects when Mach3 runs).
As you can see, I have a 16 button keypad and 2 small joysticks (each with a center button) connected as inputs. I have also programmed the touchscreen to allow selecting an axis, changing Jog Mode, cycling through the Jog Increment steps, zeroing selected axis, zeroing all and go to zero.
I need to add the spindle speed on the screen as I plan to move to a spindle with vfd.
I actually have more inputs then I know what to do with. I am open to suggestions
Made a few changes to the pendant…I replaced the digital input keypad with an analog keypad with clear button covers so I can print labels for them. I can easily change what each button does and print a new label. I have added the ability to add user written macros to the buttons as well.
I made an enclosure for my new pendant out of some thin (0.5" x 2") aluminum extrusion. The faceplate was a test in 1/8" hardboard, I plan to make the final one out of either aluminum or black ABS…I have both, but I am leaning towards the ABS. I think the black will look better with the aluminum framing.
I was considering on making a pendant for the X-carve. Just been too busy looking for a new place to live and trying to get my other tools working. Great work here. Thanks for sharing the progress.
The hardest part for UGS was getting the commands from the pendant into the program…I ended sending commands through the command entry field. I don’t use easel, so I really don’t know.
