The attached file contains a screen set (Probe.set) and other files that support use of a digital probe, plus a pop-up keyboard designed for use with a touch screen.

The screen set is based on the default Mach3 screen.  I took out the tool section on the first screen and replaced it with several buttons to support using a probe.  Other inclusions are pre-set spindle speed buttons and an MDI line on the first screen.  I made a few other minor modifications. 

I recently installed a touch screen monitor (from ELO) to display Mach3 on my mill, held by an adjustable arm (http://www.homemetalshopclub.org/news/11/presentation_monitor_arm.pdf).  It worked out of the box with all the screen sets I tried.  I loved it!  The only problem I ran in to was that I sometimes needed to use a keyboard to input data.  I thought about installing a keyboard, a mini keyboard, a numeric keypad, and a wireless micro keyboard.  All of these would work, but seemed inelegant.  I tried Mach 3s built in calculator (Operator - AutoCalculator). I installed Click-N-Type (http://cnt.lakefolks.com/), a pop-up keyboard, and this worked OK but was a bit kludgy.  I  tried the Plugin Virtual Keyboard (http://www.kd-dietz.com/klausphp/pages/eng/machscreen/description/ms_description.html), but again, it didn't do some of the things I wanted to do. I decided to write an application that had all the functionality I wanted.  I started trying to develop a keypad within Mach3.  This proved difficult, if not impossible.  I moved to a standalone program written in a language called Visual DialogScript, and eventually built just what I wanted.

Installation of the files is simple - just unzip the files and sub directories into your main Mach3 folder.  From Mach3, select View - Load Screens and point to Probe.set.  That's it!

Instruction for configuration of the keypad are included in the TouchKeypadReadMe.txt file.  If you want to use it with anything other than the screen set I built, it'll take some configuration of the TouchKeypad.ini file.  The configuration is described in comments inside the .ini file.

- 10k

Hello,
It does not work. The keyboard message is "Mach3 is not onscreen and maximized".

Anton

Sorry you're having a problem.  The message is generated when the program thinks that Mach3 is not running maximized on the screen. That's necessary since the keypad generates absolute x,y screen coordinates to interact with Mach3.  If the screen is not where it thinks it is, it won't work correctly. 

The way that it checks is that it looks at the upper left corner of the screen and gets the name of the window that's there.  It compares it to "Mach3 CNC".  The message is generated when there's not an exact match.

It works on a computer with an 800 x 600 resolution, and also on another computer with a 1680 x 1050 resolution.  If you can provide additional insight or this gives you an idea why it's not working, I'll take a look at it.

-10K 

Here's a newer version of the screen set.  I now show the midpoint after two probes, and I fixed a bug where the feed rate was not being reset.  I added a go to x0, Y0 button to the keypad.

Since my original post here, I posted my drawings on how to build a digitizing probe:
http://www.homemetalshopclub.org/news/12/newsletter1202.pdf#page=7&view=fitH

I use another probe to set the zero on the mill tool.  It's a piece of circuit board with a wire soldered to it.  When the tool touches the circuit board, it makes the circuit.  It works fine.

I have not gotten much feedback on this screenset, but I see that it's been downloaded nearly 100 times.  Is anyone using it?

-10k

I have been playing around with this great pop up..  I am having a little trouble getting it to work though.  I made a temp screen set to try its function.  I set the MDI to 0,0 location and have played with the INI file setting anywhere from MDILEFT = 5 MDITOP =5 to 5,100 respectively.  When I run the touch pad and press for example x4 then enter, there is not any command input into the MDI.  The MDI field does change colors and the cursor starts to blink with the "previous" command dialog box shows up above without any commands.  I did go into the DSC file to make sure that I was looking in the right folder for the INI file..

Any help would be great..

Thanks

Davis Edson

That's some very nice work you have done there 10k!  I just looked at the presentation for the monitor mount and the news letter. Very nice!   Hate I missed this earlier.

Thanks for sharing!

Brett  

Never Mind Your the best... I realized that I was holding the mouse pad on my laptop.  The key is to watch the cursor while testing on a computer and see where it lands after you push enter.  Then you will get close and adjust the
Next I am going to work on changing the code for easier setting movement in the Mdi without needing to push G01 first, and make the keyboard larger.  I'm modifying a older SCMI planer to have a 7" touch screen.