MPG's and joystick

[radnoh]

I'm retrofitting a control to a lathe (MPU11 and DC3IO) and would like to be able to use the machine like a manual lathe as well as CNC. I'd like to attach a box to the lathe and fit 2 (1x X-axis, 1x Z-axis) Manual pulse generators (MPG's) and a latching joystick to it. The idea being that I can use the MPG's as you would the normal handwheels on a manual lathe and then use the Joystick for powerfeed.

Is it possible to fit this set up to my AJAX control and how?

Is it possible to use the feed over ride control on the pendant to control the feed rate when using the joystick?

[cncsnw]

All the things you want to do are possible with CNC10, and should be possible with CNC11 and MPU11. Scott can verify.

[diycncscott]

Hello Radnoh,

cncsnw is correct, what you want can be achieved using the Centroid CNC11 software and MPU11 hardware.

[radnoh]

Great!

I assume I connect the MPG's to the encoder inputs but where do I connect the joystick?

[james188]

You need to connect the joystick switch outputs to inputs on the PLC, then add PLC code to your PLC program to make these inputs jog the axis.

[Captain Midnight]

Are there directions on how to do this? An example would be helpfull.

[diycncscott]

Hi Captain,

Are you trying to connect and analog joystick or a digital joystick?

Big difference between the two. If it's an analog joystick you will
need to purchase an analog I/O board. Digital you can just wire each
axis and direction into a spare PLC input(s).

[Captain Midnight]

They are anolog. What is an analog I/O board? How do I wire it in?