[narrobb]

Obviously, even if the machine is hardwired, any WIFI router also hardwired would cover all wired machines. Though your point about 'other' machines made me add a note to the ToDo list for future development; be able to switch to different machines from the same App. Right now, its designed for one linuxCNC based machine. In fact, installing the Server side HAL component on two machines is not advised as the iPad auto-detects the server IP/port and then it will connect (at startup) randomly to one of these machines. Server sends a "Lets Dance" UDP packet pointing to its port number across the network once every 5 seconds if no connection is established and the server is waiting for a connection.

Having fewer updates means less code, and less code is less chance for bugs to crawl, or something to go wrong. Considering that the "cutting" phase is the critical phase here, so minimizing any disturbance to this phase is the game. Defining the main purpose for a potential product is critical. Achieve the main purpose and then stop. Was trying to gauge how important seeing data on a CNC Pendant after the job started. Not sure if there is any "Wire-less" CNC Pendant in the market which gives the ability to see data as the common are Wired Pendants which means you are next to the machine anyway. Its nice to have a wireless-keyboard sitting on your lab in front of your big screen TV to checkout YouTube videos or browse the net on that screen, but would you want a plastic cup holder molded into the keyboard! Nice idea, but the first time you spell coffee or drinks on yourself or the couch you will end up saying some stuff about the designer's mother.

Hopefully will get a video up soon, I am loving the “change DRO” feature (and the math part); As I am cutting more plastic, and I am using my poor man's' probe I showed you guys, which does not work on plastic, so I am using a 1-2-3 block, which means I need to adjust the current DRO to account for the 1". Now, all done via the App.

My perspective is probably different from others but I'll try:

I'm unsure why efficiency matters since as you mentioned most controllers appear to have more than adequate horsepower to send the updates and control the Tormach. If you are running HSMAdvisor or similar stuff on the iPad I suppose the updates might affect responsiveness. The additional WiFi traffic would not seem a significant drag on network bandwidth. If I were to use your iPad pendant it would be on its own network since the other workshop machines are hardwired and the workshop is too far from the house to use my home WiFi network. Obviously the situation of others may differ.

The only time I look at the X/Y DRO is while drilling or tapping and even updating every 5 seconds would be more than adequate for that desire.

I do sometimes watch the Z-axis DRO because I often use spiral tool paths and eagerly await a stable Z DRO indicating that I'm finally at the bottom of the pocket.

I don't recall if you display the DTG DRO but I find that one is always useless.

It is nice to have an indication that the pendant is still within WiFi range and that it is working; DRO updates serve both purposes.
If you have things working with frequent updates a good question to consider is "What are the advantages of fewer updates?". Like many other techies, I *LOVE* flashing lights and constantly updating displays!