Keyboard controls for carving

Easel Accessibility
21

Since your original posts back in June, has there been any progress on updated keyboard shortcuts that can be plugged into a keyboard pendant? Specifically wanting stop, pause and jog controls. Any indication when this might be available?

22

Mike,

I have been working on a solution for this.

here is a short video of where iā€™ve made it to so far.

I was wanting to put these up for sale but i think it may be too expensive to build in small qtyā€™s so I was considering putting together some plans and DIY kit that would be more reasonable.

1 Like
23

Thanks so much for that. It might get me off my butt and try something similar. Your video was fantastic.

24

Thanks Mike,

Iā€™m still working on the software side of things right now. I finished implementing some different ideas for the Joystick which allows me to move in x,y,and z and horizontally in x,y. This allows me to remove the configuration for the joystick out of the config file so i can get the config file below 1kb then iā€™ll be able to store the custom config data for the switches directly on the EEPROM so I donā€™t have to upload the config file every time i power off the sender.

I can also configure it to output custom keyboard commands. I havenā€™t spent much time trying to implement that since i only use UGS and sending the G-Codes allows much more control.

Once iā€™m done tinkering with it iā€™ll probably post another video of the completed unit.

25

Is there some reason each user couldnā€™t have the ability to remap keyboard inputs in a separate setup screen?

You could always ā€˜dike offā€™ certain keys as unmappable in order to reserve them for internal/system use.

That way each of us could, based on our need and available input device, setup the mappings that suited us.

26

Iā€™ve been thinking of using a USB programmable keypad like this:

Genovation Controlpad CP24 Keypad

and putting the keyboard shortcuts that I would use on it. A jogging feature would be nice.

27

I use one of these, you can add all the macros an stuff in the software that follows with the gear.

usb. look for a used one they can be a bargain

regards Neal

28

why can we not just add switch on the arduino board ? and inventable could juste ā€œreadā€ the 0 - 1 data in each port like it do for the limite switch, it could be easyer and cheaper
and for the value of movement it could be fixed like for homing, or modulable with a potentiometer

29

I think it would be very interesting to get shortcuts for all the actions needed to complete all the pre-carve steps. Especially since possibly a number of users (including myself) move from the pc to the Xcarve to set the home position. Eyes and hands are away from the pc at that time

  • enter = advance through steps/confirm
  • 6 shortcuts for all the directions/axes
  • pause/Stop
    And, in my opinion very important: some way to increase/decrease the jogging-step-size from 0.1 to other values. Even if it would be through the use of a few presets.
    Because this might increase the risk of selecting a wrong preset by accident and crashing the bit into the material, you could add some kind of safety measure, like having to press a second key at the same time to ā€œunlockā€ the step size shortcuts. It would be like using a shift key, if you know what I mean, but it would all have to be keys on the keypad, of course.
1 Like