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Continuing my adventure for an X-Carve Pendant. This is a very much overdue update to:
Unfortunately the wireless circuit chip that I was using has been obsoleted and I couldn’t find one that worked as well as it did. Although I have used my wireless one for about a year and it has worked very well I wanted to simplify it, allow more flexibility, eliminate the lag and reduce the cost. Even though being wireless was a cool factor, I found that it actually didn’t add a huge amount of value since I only use it sitting in front of the machine.
It includes a built in setup mode which can be used to adjust the thicknesses of your specific probes (Z only or Triquetra), enable or disable homing switch option and select between Easel, UGS and Picsender program output (since interaction between them is different).
The wired pendant will be listed at $99 + flat rate shipping in the US.
I will post more details and ordering information if anyone is still interested.
Hopefully I can finally put a video together this weekend showing it in action and describing the new features.
Here is the overview video:
I’m working to improve it’s use with UGS and PicSender but currently those programs have quirks that make it less seamless than when used with Easel. Full functionality is available in Easel which only jogging (without changing step on controller) is available in the other two.
It’s actually connected to the PC driving the X-Controller. It is essentially a sophisticated keyboard that sends complete code strings through Easel to control the machine. So although I happen to have the X-controller, it is independent of the type of driver you use.
It has some functionality with UGS which I’m trying to improve. Unfortunately when a command is issued through UGS, the software locks the command line temporarily until the machine reports back it completeed that line of code. So the more complex actions of the pendant such as probing do not currently work.
It will still act as the arrows on a keyboard when in UGS or PicSender mode.
I could create a metric version with a little time.
I believe you can comma or semi-colon separate the commands and issue the long command string once with all of the “sub” commands. UGS will send all of them to GRBL which then processes them serially. That’s essentially how the UGS macros work.
Cool thanks. I will look into it. I figured there was a way to do it but I’ve mostly been focused on Easel and being able to make on the fly adjustments so I wouldn’t have to personally program each pendant and folks could update things if they get new tools.
Thanks. I will be listing it shortly and I can share the details with you. I wanted to get the video out there and gauge the interest after folks saw it before I got too carried away. But seems there is some real interest so I will work this week on cleaning up some of the details for the sale and such and take an order for a batch of them.
I updated some of the code as @JustinBusby mentioned with the semi colons but didn’t get a change to try it tonight. Will check tomorrow.
Are there shortcuts for the macros? I could possibly have an option where some buttons were linkable to the macros for folks that only use UGS and eliminate some of the more Easel functions. Then they could edit the macros at their leisure. Something for me to put in the hopper to think about.
