Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: Keith on May 24, 2006, 02:28:04 PM
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Is there a way ,using a keyboard emulator, to make the jog continuous/incremental button a switch function? Only possible with a macro? OEM switch closure?-Keith
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If you are using an emulator you can do this by setting the Hotkey of the Button in screen4 to the keystroke that is coming in from the emulator...
is that any help?
Brian
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Ah ha. Sounds like I should be hanging out at screen 4. Thanks Brian,Keith
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Ok,I investigated initially with confidence and that dwindled quickly. Do you mean 'page 4' of 'ports and pins'? I saw 'hotkey assignment' in 'page 3' (not 4) but could not for the life of me find a 'jog mode' catagory.-Keith
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I have something similar to what I think you are asking but for my MPG. I have an emulator and have buttons to change between X Y and Z, I also have a buttons to change between keyboard Jog control and MPG jog control and finally as I hardly ever use the keyboard to Jog I have buttons set up to change the MPG from Velocity mode to step mode. What you need to do (if they are not already there) is go into screen designer and add buttons for the function you want and on the page you want, you can place them off screen so they are not visible if you wish. Once you have these buttons placed you then double click on them (this is still in screen designer) and assign them to the OEM code for the function you require and also set up a hotkey for them. Then after that is done all you need to do is use keygrabber to assign the functions to your buttons by assigning the hotkeys.
Hope you understand what I mean as I am not great at explaining things. below are pics of my touch screen and my panel showing the buttons.
Oh and you will find a list of the OEM codes for buttons, LEDs and DROs in the customisation Wiki and also the Mach manual.
Hood
(http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/hoodsmachiningpages/ProgramRunPage1.jpg)
(http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/hoodsmachiningpages/BOSSpanel.jpg)
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Awesome.Thanks Hood. Nice control panel.-Keith
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PS-I notice you have a 'zero' button(machine zero?right?). Is this a button already existing on one of the standards pages in Mach3? Have always been on the look out for that.-Keith
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The Zero button I have is X0 Y0 Z0, the machine zero is the Ref (reference) button which is also home as I use the limits as home switches.
Hood
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Hood,
What are you using for a keyboard emulator ?
Was it difficult to set up ?
Where did you get the panel buttons ?
Any information on setting up a keyboard emulator would be
very helpful. In the documentation for, I think Mach2, it is mentioned
but sharing your practical experience would be great.
Thanks
Al
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Hood,
What are you using for a keyboard emulator ?
I am using the i-pac, you will find it here http://www.ultimarc.com/ipac1.html. I seem to remember someone saying the USB versions dont work as well for Mach so best to get the PS2 version to be sure.
Was it difficult to set up ?
Very easy to set up, all I had to do was use the program that was written for this purpose by a Mach user (Les ???. sorry cant remember full name ) you will find it in the Mach folder, its called KeyGrabber. What you do is just press a button and a box will pop up asking for some hotkeys, you enter whatever the keystroke is for the action you want the button to perform and continue to the next button and repeat. eg Alt R is for Start.
Another thing is to right click on the Mach Icon you use to start Mach and choose properties, then change the target to point to the location of keygrabber.exe. When you do that every time you start Mach by the icon keygrabber will start up.
I am sure there is a good write up of all of this in the Mach manuals by John Prentice, if not then it is probably on the wiki.
Where did you get the panel buttons ?
I bought the buttons from eBay, any momentary buttons will do.
Hood
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Thanks Hood,
That gives me a good starting direction.
Al
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Its a nemicon Manual Pulse Generator. I bought a couple when a guy on the Mach Yahoo group was doing a bulk buy for MPGs. I think you can buy similar from www.rogersmachine.net
Hood