Hi guys,

Will be great to get some feedback, ideas and suggestions on what to add before I freeze the current code.

To give you a little background, the board started as an add-on to the back of my Digital Load Meter as the Load Meter board has the USB connection footprint. I needed a remote Stop button to be about 15 feet away next to my workstation rather than keep standing next to the machine. But once I decided to integrate the iPad, this gave this project its own board and USB powered so no need to connect it to the back of the VFD Load Meter.

This is my take on the ever so popular pendant for PathPilot. Rather than trying to negotiate Bluetooth with Linux, a dedicated controller with Bluetooth that talks to LinuxCNC over USB is extremely reliable.

I also added a separate RF transceiver as that will be used for any immediate action buttons including the battery operated Stop/Hold seen in the video. This RF transceiver can also be used as a low-cost link/bridge between other panels / buttons / solutions to LinuxCNC HAL or Keyboard.

Initially, the project started as Keyboard shortcuts, so the USB connection was being used as HID keyboard only. This worked directly with PathPilot with no changes at all. However, this method only allowed the standard X/Y/Z Keyboard Jog (fast) and the Start/Hold/Stop/Coolant commands. I added more keyboard shortcuts.

Then the Jog Shuttle driver was tested to emulate the Jog Shuttle and that worked perfectly, the board acted as HID consumer device and used the same bytes format as the Shuttle.

But nothing beats getting feedback and data from PathPilot so i wrote a HAL component for my controller board and that made a huge difference. At this stage, I only added the 4 DROs & the Tool in spindle. Few other pins are available from HAL and can be added but as it is right now is fully usable when my head inside the enclosure.

So far on the To do list:
- Remove the Jog Shuttle page. Was a good test but not much usable with the other direct buttons being easier and precise rather than rotating fingers on the screen.
- Add Step value and indicate which mode is active (continuous or Increment). No direct HAL pin for this but can be added. I think maybe just the Cont/Inc indication would be enough.
- An option to show machine coordinates briefly (maybe).
- See what other values of interest to be useful for the Lathe.
- iPhone screens? Maybe? The iPad Mini is perfect, and used iPads can be found easily and cheaply. I use it laying on the table as shown on the video. Having a dedicated Mini for the workshop makes sense.
- Add math to the DROs. At least the /2. Either via dedicated button or within the DRO itself.
- Homing All.

Here is the video; first two min are the iPad app presentation then the video showing its fully working on my 770 with PP 2.0.1 follows. Enjoy.

https://youtu.be/zskDeF3tY_8