[mdreitzusa]

i found this digital rotary stepper control
http://www.electronics123.com/s.nl/i...=8&category=36
is this the same basic thing as a jog wheel.from the documents it looks like it would easy to modify to work with any control board.digital hand wheels would make running my machines a lot easier with my arthritis.

[fkaCarel]

The circuit on the link is a stand alone (small) stepper driver. The rotary switch can be bought separately. I have here one in my hand: Bourns, ECW1J-B24-AC0024. As it outputs AB pulses it should'nt be hard to implement. The real challenge is the circuit to enable hand wheel signals/disable PC signals vice versa, and eventually multiplex it over the axes. For the price off the switches I would'nt even bother with multiplexing, but use one for every axle.

Carel

[mdreitzusa]

in the documents for the board it uses a pic as an interpitor for the ECW1J.i was woundering about using an optical encoder for finer control and have the pic output step/dir pulses.if the encoder was matched to the microstep setting, then the hand wheel would turn 1:1 with the motor.if it works it would be a digital replacement for the manual hand wheels.

[fkaCarel]

The nice thing about the ECW is that it "clicks", like it's expensive brothers and it is sort of ready for the job, except the resolution. I was planning to overcome this by selectable multiplying. An optical encoder just "spins". You could mount it on a unconnected stepper to get the "click".

Carel

[mdreitzusa]

thats a good idea thanks.
and it will give me something to do with the little teac motors that are to small for anything else.

[mdreitzusa]

i tried the stepper idea but its hard to feel the steps on my little steppers.so i think i'm going to just use incriment marks on the wheel face.


i just found this keyboard that looks perfict for a cnc control panel.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/input/77ba/
you can put the keys any place you want and assign there function.