The one in the video is an arduino leonado emulating a keyboard thus connected by usb, this was purely to show that the keyboard plugin can be used if required.
My question was not clear. The Arduino typically uses the USB physical connection to the computer, but it is not a native USB device. When it is plugged in, the USB buss discovers it and a driver loads which then emulates an old style serial COM port. The conversion is done on a single chip, usually from FTDI, but Atmel now makes a similar chip as found on the newest MEGA (and I think also the DUE).
It is my understanding that the Arduino can become a native USB device. I have not done this, so I know little about it, including if it requires a separate 'shield' like Ethernet.
So to ask the question another way,
does the keyboard plug-in talk to a COM port or only native USB devices (typical keyboard)?
And they do a Ethernet version.
An Ethernet version of what? The Arduino or the plug in.?
Yes the keyboard plugin does have its drawbacks, only this morning mach4 was in the background whilst I came to have a look at this board (did you and daniellyall stay up all night??)
Can't speak for anyone else, but I am a consulting engineer and my hours typically match the location in the world where the project is. I've tried getting 20 other engineers on-site to teleconference with me at 3AM their time, but so far, not much luck with that . . .
Although even that dont put me off the keyboard principle, its all down to what you can achieve in the PLC script, IE most things are safer to run in the PLC a simple function, if wxlua screen lost focus then dissable keyboard plugin etc.
I don't know much (actually nothing at all) about the keyboard plug-in, but certainly it is another avenue into MACH that does not require programming, so that's a good thing. I am not, however, a fan of USB.
I think it would be correct to say that fundamentally there are three ways to get stuff in and out of MACH4, those being a plug-in (usually only made for a specific device), plugging into an actual or pseudo screen button and launching the desired actions from the button (either by 'action macro' or scripting), or via the PLC script. BTW, 'action macro' is my own term. I don't know if there is an 'official' name for these guys, but the term 'action' is used in the button setup, so there you have it.
For those who know how to program, the PLC script is extremely flexible and powerful. The MACH team recently added a separate thread (processor thread, not forum thread) dedicated to running the PLC script, so there is almost no practical limit on what you can run in there, and there seems to be access to everything from there.
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