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
Here is some information about the U-Hid device.....I copied it from their website.
www.u-hid.comWhat 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.