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Anyone changing over to Mach4 and still using an old wired Pendant, who has solved the problem of the Mach3 brain file.
So far managed some simple jobs in Lua (M codes etc), but where to start for this, Can I just put the code into a "Lua Panel" attached to my Screens .SET file.
Thank you in advance.
Pendants on Mach4 are a tricky one! There is (was) only one 'approved' pendant which was expensive & didn't do what I wanted - so I set about building one!
I'm using a CSMIO/IP-M controller and didn't have enough spare inputs to connect even the MPG Wheel. CS Labs suggest you buy their MPG addon - but it was still unclear whether this would function on Mach4.
I decided to use Serial to connect it as there's not a large volume of data & it's not time critical, then write Lua scripts to intercept the Serial, interpret then move the axis accordingly. I also used Serial to send the DRO and button states back to the pendant. The end result works very well (I used it this morning!). Details below:
https://www.machsupport.com/forum/in...?topic=43095.0
The hardest part was getting the 'shady' Chinese screen to work properly. At the time there was no availability of more Arduino friendly Capacitive Touch Screens, like the one from Adafruit. If I were making another one - I'd use one of these.
In your case, I would hack the Arduino code to package up the states of your switches & mpg and send them to Mach4. Then adjust the Lua script to act on them. Keep everything else the same.
Hi,
I use a VistaCNC P1A pedant on Mach4 and has worked well for me for five, going on six years, and it cost about $160USD as I recall.
It plugs into the PC via USB and has its own Mach4 plugin, not requiring all those precious inputs on your controller/BoB.
Given that alternative: what is the appeal about having a hard wired MPG?
Craig
Strictly speaking, not a wired pendant (See jpg), however works the same. Managed using Lua ok in the end (Quite simple when you know how). Much prefer this, to the wireless pendant that I have, didn't give the control that I need, like this does.