I've decided that my new router will have a pendant for ease of setting up work, etc. I have no experience of using one, but it seems like a good idea. My impression is that these often have push-buttons for operation. Reliable, robust, maybe, but it seems like a pretty clunky user interface. I would like single-handed operation, and avoid things like coarse/fine switching. I'm thinking that wheels/rollers, one for X and one for Y, with maybe weighted action and speed-sensitive response, could work well. Obviously, I'm thinking of building my own. I reckon I can sort out whatever electronics might be needed, and if I can't make something with a CNC router and 3D printer plus other machines available, I'm not really trying. Happy to consider an embedded micro-controller to add logic if it helps.

So, if you could design your own pendant, ignoring minor issues like whether it has to interface to Mach3, LinuxCNC, or whatever, what would it look like? Apart from basic x/y movement, what would it control? Wired/wireless? Looking for ideas here, and I'd think about how to build afterwards.