Searching for a pendant for LinuxCNC, I've tried a numeric keypad, a ShuttleXpress (like the one Tormach sells), and then a VistaCNC pendant. Before starting, I only had experience with the numeric keypad. The ShuttleXpress was a nice step up, and the VistaCNC pendant another step up. Given the cost I was hesitant to try either over the keypad, but took a chance.

Out of the box, the keypad works on LinuxCNC. The ShuttleXpress took some time to setup, and the Machinekit branch of LinuxCNC is probably the best place to go to get a good configuration. The VistaCNC took some tinkering because of the instructions it came with were for Mach3. Basically, if the pendant does not say LinuxCNC when plugged into USB, flash the first firmware (an easy task only after you figure it out) and install a few files from their website.

I settled on the VistaCNC P4-SE because of the enhanced EStop, something that I didn't see with the other USB based pendants.

While researching, I couldn't find much information comparing the options, so I made the attached video to demonstrate these three pendants. While I use LinuxCNC, the information is probably close for Mach3 and PathPilot (based on LinuxCNC). Hope it helps.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hqrooh92vNY