I've bought a couple of MPG Wheels & encoders over the years, but none of them had the same, nice, feel as Fanuc or Heidenhain wheels.
What makes a good one? Enough mass that when you spin it, it will keep going for a turn or so, with enough damping that it will stop. Soft detents so you can feel each click, but they don't interfere with spinning. Nice finish. It probably doesn't need a scale on it - as it changes with the jog increment.
I don't need a complete pendant - i'm going to build that!
My plan for the pendant, inspired by this post on Instructables:
https://www.instructables.com/id/Mach4-Pendant/I'm not keen on the touch screen - I'd like buttons I can feel & operate without looking at them!
My plan (which may or may not work!) is to use the Lua Serial plugin to talk through a wireless USB Extender, to an Arduino on board the pendant.
I'll write a PLC script which will establish 2 way comms with the pendant - sending axis positions and reading the MPG & buttons. If that doesn't work, an arduino at both ends with X-Bee comms and feed the MPG + Buttons into the BoB as if it were connected directly.
I'm not keen on the keystroke injection method most seem to use - it's dirty!
First step though is a nice MPG Wheel!
Thanks in advance,
Si