I personally dont like HotKeys, couple of reasons, first is you can inadvertantly press a key on the keyboard and something will happen. Second is  it means you need to have the function on the screen you are at for a hotkey to work where an OEM Trigger will work on any page.

The analogue inputs are 10 BIT which which is 10000000000 in Binary, the Brain needs decimal for its formula so in decimal that is 1024. So 1024 is full scale so if you divide by the % of feedrate you wish to have as Max it will give you the denominator. Example if I wanted 300% as Max FRO then I would do 1024/300= 3.4133333333333333333333.
 a in the formula represents the full  1024 (10bits) so you divide it by 3.413 and you will get full scale at 300. The 0.1 added to the formula is because for some reason the Brain has difficulty going to zero if you wind the pot too fast, with the 0.1 added it always sees a final reading which effectively is 0 as far as FRO is concerned.

Hood

Thanks for the info Hood! It is much clearer now. I wonder, however, if there is an organized manual where it all is explained. And where can I learn to write my own Brains - I don't like copying without understanding.

Daniel

There was one on the PoKeys site written by gimble but it seems to have been dropped for some reason. Cant remember exactly what was in it but I am sure it gave info on setting up the pokeys with Mach..
 There is a video on making Brains, available from the support tab above. Not sure how much detail it goes into as afraid I have never watched it

Hood

I've already watched the video. It's good to give you an idea about Brains, but not for really making something complex.

Do you have all the Hotkeys removed from all your screens?

You said before that the MPG wasn't working well for you. Has it been fixed yet?

Daniel

I have always just found messing around with things helps me learn them more than watching videos or reading manuals, probably just the way my own brain works

I have most of the hotkeys removed from my screensets but the Bridgeport still uses a keyboard emulator, it was one of the first machines I did and once I get the Beaver mill finished I may redo the Bridgeport with servos so if I do I will be rewiring things and will probably use a Pokeys for digital I/O

Dont think there has been any change inthe MPG, I just have it connected direct to the SmoothStepper now.
Hood

Saw this, and thought I would chime in about the current state of the Pokeys.

MPG: Due to the scan time of the hardware of the Pokeys, you can have an MPG, but you cant turn it fast, the pulses will "outrun" the buffer in the hardware before the next scan can come around.  What that reveloutionary speed actualy is, you will have to experiment and see at what point Mach stops following and then turn slower.

Brians and Analog:  In the new Plugin installer (that includes LCD support), their is a "Help" button on the Plugin Dialog, that goes through all this, but I will summerize here.

When in Brians pick the "Serial Non-Plugin Enabled" (that is the old style original serial modbus).
The modbus registers that the Analog inputs 1-4 are mapped to are:  124, 125, 126, 127,  BUT, if you decide to use the Analog out for spindle speed control you loose 124
(or Analog 1) because it the register that becomes the output for the analog out.

so in a nut shell to bring in an Analog Input (lets say your not using the analog out so you have all 4). Your rung in Brians would look like this, first rung is Analog in 1, 2 is the second etc.:

Modbus 124 ->(no op, or formula here) ->DRO
Modbus 125 ->(no op, or formula here) ->DRO
Modbus 126 ->(no op, or formula here) ->DRO
Modbus 127 ->(no op, or formula here) ->DRO

scott

Hey Scott,

Thank you for clearing it up! So the MPG is never going to be "fast" with the Pokeys...

I don't yet have a Pokeys device. I am just considering which route to go - Pokeys or Modbus (or a game controller??? don't really like this idea, since it requires the Keygraber to be launched each time). Are there any other options for making external control?

Daniel

do the pokeys for all Key stuff,

and use your Para ports, or motion board, or Modbus device for your MPG

scott

... So the MPG is never going to be "fast" with the Pokeys... .....

Super speed MPG update is in work now....

regards

Boris

Look forward to that Boris, it will make the PoKeys complete for a pendant

Hood