OPCON and USB-BOB

[Sword]

Yeah, CNC joystick with force feedback punishing operator's hands if he crashes the machine

Uwe

When the force feedback kicks in .....

[Sword]

With the possibility of using this in the form of a pendant and perhaps taking it to another machine from time to time, is there possibly a way to "Refresh" or "Disconnect/Reconnect" it to CNC12? Currently, you need to restart CNC12. Just a thought, since I've started CNC12 a few times and forgot to plug OPCON in first, after using it on another machine.

[centroid467]

OPCON does automatically reconnect to CNC12. However, you must start CNC12 with the OPCON plugged in. I'll talk to the programmers about getting rid of that requirement in the future.

Currently, the way I can see to make this work for you is to:
1. Pick a machine to start up first and plug the OPCON into it.
2. Start it up and wait for CNC12 to be ready.
3. Make note of which USB port it was in and unplug OPCON.
4. Transfer to next machine and start it up.
5. Rinse, wash, and repeat for each machine.

Please let me know if that works as expected.

[BM_Machining]

I'm so excited about the USB-BOB! I've wanted something like this since I first bought my Acorn!

I would definitely not be upset at being a beta tester... lol

[cnckeith]

I'm so excited about the USB-BOB! I've wanted something like this since I first bought my Acorn!

I would definitely not be upset at being a beta tester... lol

ok great, post a link to a photo album of your machine and let us know what you would do with the usb-bob

[BM_Machining]

I'm so excited about the USB-BOB! I've wanted something like this since I first bought my Acorn!

I would definitely not be upset at being a beta tester... lol

ok great, post a link to a photo album of your machine and let us know what you would do with the usb-bob

Gladly, here's a link to my machine in the Facebook group. I have a handfull of posts in there and I'm well versed on wiring: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/4vnFiWRFWhxy18ke/

Ultimately, I want to build a custom push button control panel with as many functions as I can fit. As a work around, I've been using joystick encoders and arduino macro pads to allow this, but they have left a lot to be desired as far as resemblance to a professional machine. Spent weeks trying to get an incremental encoder to translate over into 1x per click with an Arduino micro when I was building my controls, but eventually scrapped that because it was too unpredictable. It would be incredible to be able to get everything set up like I originally imagined control wise and no longer have to use keyboard bindings.

[cnckeith]

I'm so excited about the USB-BOB! I've wanted something like this since I first bought my Acorn!

I would definitely not be upset at being a beta tester... lol

ok great, post a link to a photo album of your machine and let us know what you would do with the usb-bob

Gladly, here's a link to my machine in the Facebook group. I have a handfull of posts in there and I'm well versed on wiring: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/4vnFiWRFWhxy18ke/

Ultimately, I want to build a custom push button control panel with as many functions as I can fit. As a work around, I've been using joystick encoders and arduino macro pads to allow this, but they have left a lot to be desired as far as resemblance to a professional machine. Spent weeks trying to get an incremental encoder to translate over into 1x per click with an Arduino micro when I was building my controls, but eventually scrapped that because it was too unpredictable. It would be incredible to be able to get everything set up like I originally imagined control wise and no longer have to use keyboard bindings.

right on, nice little machine. where are you located?
dm me your email.

[centroid467]

Ultimately, I want to build a custom push button control panel with as many functions as I can fit. As a work around, I've been using joystick encoders and arduino macro pads to allow this, but they have left a lot to be desired as far as resemblance to a professional machine. Spent weeks trying to get an incremental encoder to translate over into 1x per click with an Arduino micro when I was building my controls, but eventually scrapped that because it was too unpredictable. It would be incredible to be able to get everything set up like I originally imagined control wise and no longer have to use keyboard bindings.

What kind of functions are you looking for? USBBOB will give you 12 PLC configurable inputs for various kinds of switch; 12 outputs to control indicators associated with the switches; 3 incremental encoders for feedrate, spindle, and rapid feedrate overrides; and 3 more ports for handwheel encoders.

It sounds like you made a valiant effort with the Arduino Micro but as you found out, they really are not the best for reading encoders. Any of the ATMega328 or 32U4 based Arduinos will struggle with that and you'd really only be able to get one to work reliably. Arduino stuff wants to use interrupts to read encoders and the 8 bit devices really only have two external interrupts. You might have better results with an ARM based Arduino.

Of course, you would bypass all of that work by using USBBOB

[BM_Machining]

Ultimately, I want to build a custom push button control panel with as many functions as I can fit. As a work around, I've been using joystick encoders and arduino macro pads to allow this, but they have left a lot to be desired as far as resemblance to a professional machine. Spent weeks trying to get an incremental encoder to translate over into 1x per click with an Arduino micro when I was building my controls, but eventually scrapped that because it was too unpredictable. It would be incredible to be able to get everything set up like I originally imagined control wise and no longer have to use keyboard bindings.

What kind of functions are you looking for? USBBOB will give you 12 PLC configurable inputs for various kinds of switch; 12 outputs to control indicators associated with the switches; 3 incremental encoders for feedrate, spindle, and rapid feedrate overrides; and 3 more ports for handwheel encoders.

It sounds like you made a valiant effort with the Arduino Micro but as you found out, they really are not the best for reading encoders. Any of the ATMega328 or 32U4 based Arduinos will struggle with that and you'd really only be able to get one to work reliably. Arduino stuff wants to use interrupts to read encoders and the 8 bit devices really only have two external interrupts. You might have better results with an ARM based Arduino.

Of course, you would bypass all of that work by using USBBOB

That seems like it will be more than enough for what I want to do. I want to make a panel similar to those you see on professional machines. Mpg, start, stop, feed hold, axis select, feed, spindle, rapid, various shortcuts and macros, etc. There are only so many things that can be emulated with a joystick input.

[cnckeith]

some news for you'all

We have a couple of USB-BOBs on the bench they work!

I've ordered another batch with some minor tweaks to send out to beta tester that batch of boards should be here in 3-4 weeks so a little wait

then after that we will go out for a large run of PC boards and build up the kits for sale for the first production batch!

here is updated pinout using photo of the actual board.