Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: Rademacher on May 09, 2009, 11:30:35 PM
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Here's a pendant design I have been working on for a couple of weeks.....finally got it finished today. I used a device called "U-Hid" to interface the pendant to Mach....it really works slick. The device emulates a keyboard......Windows(mach3) does not know the difference, it believes you are pressing key on the keyboard ;D
Here is some information about the U-Hid device.....I copied it from their website. www.u-hid.com
What is a HID?
HID stands for Human Interface Device. This is a term used to describe certain types of PC peripheral, usually connected via USB.
Windows and Mac OS support a number of "native" HID devices using in-built drivers. The U-HID board appears as the following HID devices on the PC:
Keyboard
Gamepad (including analog and digital controls)
Mouse
LED outputs
The way in which the board emulates natively-supported devices means it requires no special drivers or host software, with the exception of LED output control.
The board has 50 connections which can be configured to any of these HID device types providing a truly universal interface. For example, you can connect pushbuttons to generate keyboard keystrokes, trackballs to act as a mouse, pedals to act as analog game controller joysticks, or hundreds of other device types. The PC will see all the devices as something it recognises, so all standard applications will work.
The menu headings on the left give more details of each type of device.
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WOW, it is very, very nice, great looking pendant, look very professional.
Will take a look at the link you provided.
I am working on a pendant with a pokeys, which is similar to your device as it simulate keyboard.
Would like to know where did you get the project box.
Great, Jeff
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Hey Rademacher,
That DOES look nice. Getting ready to put one together myself.
You have a joystick AND a MPG ?
Please post another pic when you get the lables on.
(or is it a secret and you have them memorized) lol
Really cool...Thanks,
RC
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Jeff, Thanks, appreciate the comment. The box is a Rose enclosure - www.rose-bopla.com , I got this one from Ebay for $6 bucks :)
RC, if you look real close, you will see the switches are engraved. The white plate is just plastic....it's just temporary. Once I am happy with the layout, I will cut a new plate from aluminum. I plan to powder coat it first (black) then engrave through the powdercoat. It should then be more readable.
I wanted to try both the MPG and Joystick....may drop one in the future. Seems the joystick is better for covering long distance and the MPG is better for fine alignment.
Wayne
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The pendant is for this machine.....it is a Mechmate, built from plans available on the Mechmate website. I can run my smaller machines from a keyboard, but because of it's size, this one really needs a means to contol it from the spill board.
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Looks great :)
Hood
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Very nice machine there...Job well done !
Do you have analog pots for the FRO and SRO ?
The MechMate seems to be a fine machine with a substantial following.
I like the basic design.
Thanks,
RC
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RC, I do have analog pots for both the FRO and SRO. Both are recognized windows, but I have yet to figureout how to get Mach3 to see/use them. I am searching the forums for help....but nothing yet. I am open to ideas if you can help ;) I wonder if I will need to develop a plugin to truly harness the power of the U-Hid device.
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What about the MPG, have you got that working in Mach? Seems to me you would need a plugin for analogue, devices such as the PoKeys do.
Hood
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The MPG is connected to the second parallel port like normal. Requires extra wires along with the USB connection.....not the best but it works.
The joystick works fine, I am using the Art's joystick plugin. I was hoping the joystick plugin would see the feedrate pot as the throttle on a normal joystick, (thought I read that somewhere) but I doesn't seem to work.
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Ah ok. the PoKeys that I use has issues with the MPG so at this time I connect via the SmoothStepper.
Hood
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I am glad to see that I am not the only one with issues with PoKeys and MPGs. The subject of feedrate override seems to be under-covered in the forum and the wiki. It is easy to get the signals to Mach but difficult to get Mach to do anything with them. I have defaulted to a pair of buttons for FRO increase and FRO decrease. Hard to do anything else without Modbus or a brain that I lack(literally and figuratively).
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The subject of feedrate override seems to be under-covered in the forum and the wiki. It is easy to get the signals to Mach but difficult to get Mach to do anything with them. I have defaulted to a pair of buttons for FRO increase and FRO decrease. Hard to do anything else without Modbus or a brain that I lack(literally and figuratively).
I did a desription of how I did my pendant with the PoKeys including FRO and SRO pots, it shows the Brains so should be easy enough for you to see how.
You will find it here http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,11817.0.html and down a bit in the same thread I have attached the Brains I used.
Hood