Hand feed XYZ cube

[depronman]

I believe Andy Pugh on the LinuxCNC forum fitted 2 MPGs on the apron of his original lathe conversion but IIRC he says he never used them. As noted, you need a controller that can handle several encoder inputs AND the means to process them. The various Mesa Electronics cards that are used widely in LinuxCNC can provide that expansion but they would significantly increase the budget beyond the cost of a few Chinese MPGs, not to mention the trial of configuring them.

This may be like retaining handwheels on a conversion - seems like a good idea at the time but turns out not to be so valuable in practice - speaking as someone who retained handwheels on my first machine. A wireless MPG is soooo much better on various fronts.

Could not agree more I have a WiFi pendant that I move between my Orac lathe and Boxford vmc190. I also have proper buttons on the control panel of both machines
I don’t miss the mechanical handles at all and the single mpg is fine for the amount of time that I operate the machine manually

It is an interesting concept though - would linuxcnc support it if sufficient inputs where available - at face value I see no reason why not

Paul


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Doddy]

Muzzer, all good points, and I’ve also got two encoder on my Mesa 7i76e /lathe, and very useful it is as well, I do use them all the time (as far as I use the lather, that is)

There are more controllers with one or two axis encoder than there are with 3 or more (these latter ones being some thing of a rarity). As far as the wireless pendants go, if these plug into your PC (rather than directly into s control card) with the machine running UCCNC or Mach, then you still have machine-in-loop and the machine is taking instantaneous demands from the handheld mpg and translating these to fragments of motion commands to the underlying controller. In which case you can manage multiple axis through the driver software. Been there, worn that tee shirt. I might just order three mpgs to demonstrate that.

Ironically, and tangential to this thread, my wired pendant (I don’t trust Wireless) appears susceptible to electrical noise now... if I walk it to my machine, the little led “tx” indicator will flicker from time to time as an unsolicited command gets sent. I’ve had it randomly turn the spindle on, and separately commands a Z-Ptobe. Maybe I need to try a wireless one! Or finish this dammed pendant.

[JAZZCNC]

Ironically, and tangential to this thread, my wired pendant (I don’t trust Wireless) appears susceptible to electrical noise now... if I walk it to my machine, the little led “tx” indicator will flicker from time to time as an unsolicited command gets sent. I’ve had it randomly turn the spindle on, and separately commands a Z-Ptobe. Maybe I need to try a wireless one! Or finish this dammed pendant.

I've just recently built a machine and fit UCR201 wireless pendant and must say I'm massively impressed with it, so much so I ordered 6 more to keep in stock.

Like you, I don't or didn't, trust wireless until I used the UCR201. At first, I was reluctant to provide it but the customer wanted a pendant and didn't want wires, so I reluctantly fit it with a Big warning of "On your head be it".

But this wasn't enough for me and I wanted to prove if it was stable or not so I set out to affectively break or trip it up. So the first test which usually blows wireless devices and most sensitive electrical devices is to fire up the TIG welder next to it.? Nope, didn't bat an eyelid. Next was the Plasma cutter and MIg welder, the same result.
The acid test was when I walked to the other end of my unit, approx 40mtr's, into my office, shut the door, and controlled the machine looking through my office window while my son was welding next to the machine with a MIG welder.

Nothing I did made this thing wobble and we even controlled the machine from outside the building. I'd recommend the UCR201 to anyone using UCCNC.

[Muzzer]

I have an XHC PHB04B-4 wireless MPG in my Centroid Acorn system and I've never had a problem with interference. The closest I've had is loss of signal due to the pendant being shielded from the receiver. At that point, the handwheel doesn't do anything which is a sort of failsafe outcome. The solution is not to pile metallic objects on top of the receiver and/or position the receiver in line of sight of the machine.

I have the control PC at my desk a couple of metres away from the machine so I can also do Fusion work and of course play music, surf etc while it's machining. The latter is something that should never be done I'm told but it works for me....

[Neale]

I also use a similar wireless MPG with similar performance - never had interference issues. I like the ability to use its magnets to put it where I like for one-handed operation, and I can use it while looking at the tool-workpiece distance, including moving between axis switch/step size switch/MPG knob. My concern with the three-knob device is how easy it would be to accidentally knock the wrong knob, especially as you will presumably still need a step size switch at least. My current machine came with some clever-looking pendant-like device that was almost usable when stuck to its Velcro pad on the control panel but was too light to put down and use one-handed. I quickly reconfigured to use my trusty wireless device. OK, familiarity counts for a lot but I would like to hear how people get on with this device. I can't twiddle two dials at once with any accuracy so would only do that for rough positioning anyway - and on my CNC machines I normally use the MDI input for that - so it's not immediately clear what the advantage is.

Have to confess that I'm also a bit influenced by a small whoopsy last night - knocked the MPG dial by accident and drove my touch probe into the workpiece. Have to remake the stylus probe - again... The idea of three knobs that might get knocked accidentally would worry me!

[Muzzer]

Haha yes I've had a similar scare a couple of times where I've nudged the handwheel when it's been sitting on my bench or the machine table, particularly when it's been set to x100. Now I have got into the habit of setting the axis selector to off when I put it down after each move.

The main drawback of the magnets is the buildup of vicious swarf around them when you've been machining steel or cast iron. But I like to park mine on the front of the cabinet when not in use, so to me the magnets are overall a useful feature.