CNC style Pendant

arhi

@bearer I have V3 with ATSAM4S4B, that's iirc cortex m4, but if the majority of the panel's out there are atsam3s2 than the approach is wrong

@arhi stil says "device" support, some of the bigger chips say device + mini host, so same same but different i guess. interesting there are different chips (i only looked at the bossa pictures in a forum thread, easier than going to find the actual paneldues)

dc42

@arhi said in CNC style Pendant:

@dc42 btw, can paneldue usb port behave like master to ch430/ft323/similar usb2serial device? and receive commands from there (or just passtrough to duet)?

No, it can only behave as a USB device. However, the v3 PanelDue boards have hardware connections for a rotary encoder and push button.

Danal

I am not tracking something. If we had a pendant that had USB host, with what would that interact? The USB on the Duet itself?

arhi

@Danal said in CNC style Pendant:

I am not tracking something. If we had a pendant that had USB host, with what would that interact? The USB on the Duet itself?

I asked 'cause I had an idea that if the panel can be USB host then el-cheapo usb2serial + any MCU with ADC can translate a bunch of tasters into gcode and send trough panel's "console" to duet (without them sharing serial port) ...

I am working on some stand-alone wifi pendant but it's going super slow 'cause I'm pressed with bread and butter work and looks like it will not be working with SBC "upgraded" machines + I'm really making this the way I need it so dunno how universal it will be if I ever actually make it.

arhi

@dc42 said in CNC style Pendant:

No, it can only behave as a USB device. However, the v3 PanelDue boards have hardware connections for a rotary encoder and push button.

the usb2serial idea out the window

I have V3 PRC clone that I got as a gift, no other screens at all on my duet boards, I kinda prefer to use web to the touchscreen so never bothered to order some, and that one does not come with the rotary encoder+push button connector (I assume it would be Vdd, Vss, A, B, P pins).

dc42

I've written the Arduino Nano code for the pendant-to-PanelDue-port interface. Now I need to wait for the pendant and Nano to arrive so that I can test them.

@dc42 presumably this would work with any encoder? I.e. i have at least some 400/600/1200 PPR encoders in the bin and a selection of switches to mimic the quasi-schematic published with the pendant (but I guess the pendant has detents on the encoder to help with accurate positioning)

dc42

Yes it should work with any encoder that has A and B quadrature outputs.

dc42

For anyone interested in this, the pendant I have ordered looks like this:

It costs £55 here in UK shipped from Germany, or a little less direct from China. I have the Arduino Nano code ready to use when it arrives. I'm happy to share the code before then if anyone wants it, but of course it is untested.

FelixH

@dc42 I can believe this is happening. Three questions, if you've got the time: could you share the link for that pendant? also, will it be compatible with the Duet 2 WiFi? and finally, is there going to be some kind or article where the build is described?

I have some Arduinos at home, a Duet driven CNC (Workbee) and I have now plenty of time with the corona stuff going on, so I could definitely work on that...

Greetings

@FelixH said in CNC style Pendant:

could you share the link for that pendant?

@dc42 said in CNC style Pendant:

For other Duet users, what's needed is a a board based on a small MCU to convert the signals from something like this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EU-Send-4-Axis-MPG-CNC-Machine-Controller-Handwenheel-Pendant-w-Emergency-Stop/273588909379

FelixH

@bearer oh, thanks! I missed that!

dc42

@FelixH said in CNC style Pendant:

@dc42 I can believe this is happening. Three questions, if you've got the time: could you share the link for that pendant? also, will it be compatible with the Duet 2 WiFi? and finally, is there going to be some kind or article where the build is described?

I have some Arduinos at home, a Duet driven CNC (Workbee) and I have now plenty of time with the corona stuff going on, so I could definitely work on that...

Greetings

It will use the PanelDue port, so it will be compatible with all Duets that can but don't have a PanelDue connected. When I have it working (maybe even before), I'll publish the details on github.

FelixH

Oh, I see. It is either the pendant or the display... well, that's a bummer. The display it's quite useful to start jobs and many other things... Anyway, I'll keep an eye on it

JoergS5

@FelixH If you need PanelDue also, you could consider a solution similar to SMUff https://github.com/technik-gegg/SMuFF-Ifc where an ESP32 is between and allows two devices using the interface.

FelixH

@JoergS5 that's a neat project! However, I will quote Rocket Racoon on this one... "I go for the simple things"... would it be possible to just attach a switch on the UTXD0 and URXD0 pins and flip the switch to the input device you need?. It's not like I need to use them both simultaneously, I think... I guess the answer is no, but still it would be the simplest thing to do

arhi

@FelixH said in CNC style Pendant:

would it be possible to just attach a switch on the UTXD0 and URXD0

double pole double throw switch should work without a problem for this purpose selecting one or the other device

arhi

@dc42 said in CNC style Pendant:

I've written the Arduino Nano code for the pendant-to-PanelDue-port interface

question. are you sending many short G0 while receiving impulses from the encoder or you scan at a certain frequency (e.g. 2Hz or 10Hz) and then send G0 according to what encoder did between scans? I'm making this wifi pendant for a while now and having issues deciding what I want. First version I made with buttons, then replaced buttons with a stick but now stick is behaving like buttons (you have to move stick for each movement and select increment on other button) and I don't like it. now I'm attaching analog stick so I can use 2-3 different speeds according to the angle of the stick but again, don't know if I wanna send ton of 0.1-10mm gcode's in a loop, or do 2Hz scan and send only gcode's at that frequency. You for sure have more experience with this so know what might be better solution. I guess analog stick is similar to the encoder so decisions should be similar :). Now I'm thinking about adding encoder to the stick too (I'm never going to finish this, first screen, then stick, then analog stick, now encoder... neverending story).

p.s. I didn't want to go with "ready made pendant" as they were "expensive", now looking at %$#^^@$# I crammed in to the box it's more expensive than ebay

dc42

@arhi said in CNC style Pendant:

question. are you sending many short G0 while receiving impulses from the encoder or you scan at a certain frequency (e.g. 2Hz or 10Hz) and then send G0 according to what encoder did between scans?

I've written it to accumulate movement from the encoder and send it only when the UART transmit buffer is empty. I suspect this will still be too often, and I will need to send it every X milliseconds instead, or immediately if we haven't sent a command for the last X milliseconds.