Messages

1

Finished Plugins for Download / Re: USB JoyPad and game device plugin - New Version 2.0

« on: March 22, 2017, 01:18:40 PM »

Not sure if anyone has a suggestion, but I'm confused.

The joypad plugin is working because I can decode the buttons and get appropriate messages in from the script, but the DoOEMButton(311) commands are ignored. 

Within the VBEditor, if I run the script, the DoOEMButton(311) or DoOEMButton(312) actually move the Z-axis as intended. 

I worked around this for the Alt+Up/Down buttons, by reading the Jog Increment Size DRO (828 index) and the current Z-axis DRO (802 index) and inserted code to move the Z up or down by that amount.  Weird to have to work around this to achieve the result, but it's working.

I'm not sure how to work around continuous jogging to make it work though because I would need to turn the jogging off when the button is released, but the joypad script is only called when a button is pushed.

Anyone advice would be appreciated a bunch.

Best Regards
-Josh

2

Finished Plugins for Download / Re: USB JoyPad and game device plugin - New Version 2.0

« on: March 21, 2017, 12:38:11 PM »

On further reading, I realized that the "Special Commands" that are in Gray in the manual are not unsupported, rather they don't have their own dedicated function from the drop-lists. 

That said, some of them are not working for me.  I tried the example from the beginning of the thread, implementing Z-Up as:
   DoOEMButton 205
   DoOEMButton 311
   Message "Z Up"

   and for Z-Down as:

   DoOEMButton 205
   DoOEMButton 312
   Message "Z Down"

I see the text messages but I get no activity.  If however, I use something like\:
  DoOEMButton 2

or

 DoOEMButton 3

I see the screens change when the buttons are pushed...

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Regards,
-Josh

3

Finished Plugins for Download / Re: USB JoyPad and game device plugin - New Version 2.0

« on: March 21, 2017, 09:40:24 AM »

Just wanted to provide a bit of feedback on my experience with this Joypad plugin, but first I wanted to thank you guys for the effort you've put in to developing this useful tool!  

So, I purchased a two-pack of very simple retro SNES game controllers to use on two Taig desktop CNC machines.  I downloaded the joypad plugin, and overall it was relatively easy to modify the provided example script to determine which button combinations are pressed, and then to display messages, and take certain actions.

One potential issue I note is that on this style of controller, it has the "X-Y joystick" portion, the SELECT, and START buttons, the BN, BE, BS, and BW buttons, and the SL and SR bumper buttons, but there are no AL or AR buttons.  I believe this limits me from using STEP JOGGING mode in X/Y directions.  I chose this controller because it has very few buttons or joysticks because I wanted limited functionality to mimic what I have used the keyboard to do--setting up my X, Y, and Z axis values, and moving the table away from the Z-column to allow me to move work, etc...  My intention was to have the XY in the obvious location, and then to use the SL or SR with BN for Z upward, and with BW for Z downward.  I specifically picked a very limited joypad to limit the number of inputs to avoid confusion--I already have complete support from the keypad for unusual or complex activities...

I had hoped to use the SL or SR with BE and BS to toggle the jog between step and continuous, and perhaps to cycle through the step sizes.  As I look further at this, it seems that toggling the jog-mode (CTRL-J in Mach3) is not supported (nor is explicitly setting the mode to continuous or step).  I believe my only option for moving the Z up or down is through scripting GCode.

Am I misunderstanding the limits of the plugin?  If I'm not, I'm surprised by a couple of choices.  First, limiting the mapping of Z output to only work on 3-axis or greater joypads, when all have available buttons, and this very closely maps use of keyboard.  Second, is the many options that seem far less useful from a joystick, though great for a keyboard (edit gcode, shifting screens, etc...).  Third is fixing the X/Y with assumption all joypads have AL and AR buttons.

Any feedback on how best to use this plugin is greatly appreciated.

Best Regards,
Josh