Web Goblin cnc has begun

[Web Goblin]

Andrew,
sorry I misunderstood you as well. No I didnt fit one to the driver either. I remember speaking to one of the manufacturers techies and he said that it wasnt needed.

Ian

[Web Goblin]

I had decided that I was fedup with using the keyboard to jog the machine around and started to look at the idea of using joystick controls for the X, Y and Z axis. The USBCNC control board I am using does not have any inputs for joysticks so I looked at a USB keyboard interface and I found this one. Which fitted nicely inside a spare enclosure I had. I emailed the supplier and outlined the requirements I needed and he customised the interface for me. Including postage it was around £32.





The box lid drilled out and one of the joysticks wired.




Both joysticks fitted to the lid.




The nearly completed controller apart from the labels. Need to change the size of them to fit the left side of the joystick without overhanging the side of the box.




There is no software to load, the USB port recognised the controller easily and it works perfectly alongside USBCNC V4.
Now I have joystick control for all axis of my machine. Much easier than the keyboard. Also this gives me the option of portability as I can have the control box in hand when positioning the machine.

Regards

Ian

[luke11cnc]

that's a bit clever Ian

nice job

James

[Jonathan]

Now you just want it wireless!

[Web Goblin]

Wireless? Now thats an idea. You do realise that I will probably spend most of tonight trying to figure out if I can make it happen!

[Jonathan]

Looks like it's either difficult or expensive:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Belkin-4-P...item3a6d135003

This should work with a bit of effort:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Arduino-Wi...item2563f68e18

Edit: It's rather slow though...
Edit 2: Slightly cheaper but still silly money:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Belkin-Hig...item19ccbb94d5

Now we know why people just use wireless Xbox 360 controllers.

[Web Goblin]

I would also need to get a power supply for the box as well preferably a rechargeable one. For the moment I will stick with the cabled version but in the future whos knows?

Ian

[Web Goblin]

As the old saying goes "If it works, then modify it to make it better".
I had a play with the usb keyboard interface I am using to get joystick control for my machine. The thing I was missing was feedrate control for jogging so decided to add some.
The initial jog speed is 10% of full speed after the machine is homed which is a bit slow. I have added buttons to map the keys for 50% and 100% speed override to give me much faster jogging speed. I also changed the orientation of the controls to make it easier to hold and use. ( No wireless though )





You can view a short video of it in action here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSb7vJyVlIY

Regards

Ian

[AdCNC]

Looking good Ian, BTW i forgot about your pm ill reply to it later ;-)

[Jonathan]

The acceleration settings you have used look much too low to me. What have you set it to? Should be aiming for at least (roughly) 1m/s^2.