Thread: Console the Key Emulator Method

Rod,
As always, I am super impressed and have been following every morsel!

Life is conspiring to keep me from finishing my 'Alpha Zoot' machine, but I will get on with it shortly. This Saturday I am taking my Widgitmaster to a charity day for the CWA (Country Women's Association) and will be making personalised door hangers all day, so have been painting the blanks ready for the day. Then I also got an order for about 150 plastic clip on name tags for a local church, so that fills in any other spare time that I might have between Rescue Squad duties and being 'retired'!

I will definitely be building a console in 'due course' and have ordered my Pokeys already. My plan is the get Alpha Zoot finished and working using a small control panel and a ShuttlePro pendant and then use the big machine to cut out the console panel. I really like the idea of an MPG just because it looks really cool ... it would be great to have a dial or two or some flashing lights or something (flashing lights and sirens - sounds like a Rescue Truck!!). Anyway, I have really enjoyed this build and thank you again for sharing it with us.

Cheers,

Alan

Thanks Alan,
The Pokeys has a lot of functionality and Poscope are upgrading it all the time so very good support. MPG's, rotary switches, and flashing lights are the go but don't forget the rear vision mirror - perhaps a reversing camera might be more appropriate.

Hi Rod

I fully endorse Alan's comments as I too have been following this project closely.

I too will be building a console modelled on this one with perhaps a couple of minor changes including an MPG, just because I have one.

I think I will go with the Pokeys as well, since it doesn't seem too complex compared to the ModIO. I started to read the ModIO manual and it worried me a bit.....fairly complex for a beginner. Mind you, since you're going to build a console based on the ModIO, I think it might be prudent for me to hold off until you've had a go at that and then decide. We'll see.

Keep up the great work.

Geoff

Thanks Geoff,
I am gald a couple of you have found it useful.

The pokeys is easy to rig up and I agree about the complexity of the Modio - I am concerned about getting that working but there is plenty of help here and I am hoping a group effort will pull it off. If I can get the Modio working then anyone can do it.

I have been running the console as a second monitor on my computer for a couple of days to check it out before commissioning it on the machine.

I got a monitor arm but the console is too heavy and it sags too much to be of any use. I had an old swivel chair and pulled it apart tonight and with some mods I can make it work as a swivelling arm for the console. More on that over the weekend if I can get some time in the workshop - orders to comply with social secretaries agenda this weekend.

I still need to write up the procedure to link the console to Mach3 and make all that work - one of those things where it looks difficult but is easy once you know how.
Peter sent me an email to say the Modio and other bits were sent today so I will have to look into the Modio next week.

Rod
Have been following your thread with great attention.
At present, my setup is fairly rudimentary, with only a few buttons (hmmm... can't ever have too many buttons to play with).
I am waiting to read your thread on the Modio thingy to see which way suits me best. Being fairly electronically challenged - but learning - slowly - I will try to work out which approach offers me the most chance of success.
Really appreciate your thrads by the way Rod - don't get too disallusioned at the low number of responders, as I reckon there are a lot like me who are waiting to see both versions before plunging in to deeper water.
keep up the great work Rod.
Cheers
Noel

Hi Noel,
Not disallusioned at all - just trying to gauge the effort I should put in as there were less than 15 views per post when I finished the console. At least I now know it has some relevance to the group.

I agree the Modio is the way to go but this type of console (key emulator) does work well and I have had one in service for quite a while now. The advantage of the key emulator is that it communicates directly with mach3 so is not tied to one machine. I have used my console on three gantry routers and two CNC mills and it works perfectly without any modification between machines. It picks up the Mach profile of the machine and a single custom screen set takes care of the switches.

There is a place for a console like this and it should not be considered inferior as there are advantages to this type over the alternatives. My fault as I should have taken time to expalin the differences earlier on.

My console has a Hagstrom key emulator but with a Pokey like this build you can hook up the bells and whistles like MPG, anaolgue outputs and inputs, etc so therefore you do not miss out on functionality over a more complex interface.

The trick is to design it so that you can plug and play with other machines. If you look at the photo of the back of the console you can see I have exited the box with 2 three point plugs so that any machine can connect to it. This can be expanded to include coolant pumps, air compressors, etc with the switches added to the front panel. As I said earlier this console was built for my BIL and I have been working to his specs and if it was for me I would have added a lot more to it. Mind you there is a limit where too much makes it difficult to operate as you can't find the switch you want quick enough. A bit like how I type - hunt and seek.

I hope this adds perspective to this part of the project. I am still working on the support arm and finishing off the box so more later this week.

How to interface the console and Pokeys to Mach3.
I cannot cover the full manuals of the Pokey and Mach3 on a forum so you should refer to those before you start connecting things. What I will do here is give an overview and then an example of how it is done. Hopefully from my ramblings here and my earlier posts about constructing the console you will understand how it goes together and what is happening.

Overview
The Pokeys board talks to your computer through a USB cable and Windows configures the Pokeys as a keyboard. The terminal connections on the Pokeys are powered through the USB so there isn’t a need to provide an external power source – simple.

In making the console you connect the wires to the momentary switches from the numbered terminals on the Pokeys board. The other side of the switch goes to ground on the Pokeys board. Pressing the momentary switches on the console your computer will behave in the same way that a keyboard key does. i.e. Press a momentary switch and the computer sees a keystroke no different to pressing the same key on the keyboard.

The Pokeys is more sophisticated that a keyboard and can send multiple keystrokes with one press of that switch. An example would be a combination of Alt and H, ie AltH.
Hopefully you already know about shortcut keys in Windows but if you don’t try this for an example. You have your Internet Browser open to read this forum so press Alt and while holding it down also press the F key. You will see the file menu open at the top of your screen. Ok you can let go of the keys now.

Mach3 has shortcut keys assigned throughout the program so by now you should be getting a picture of how this works. If you assign the Mach3 shortcut keys to the Pokeys then by pressing a momentary switch on your console you are actually sending a command to Mach3.

I have given the simplest method that gets you up and running but both Pokeys and Mach3 are capable of much more and I will touch on that later. Next post will be about configuring the Pokeys to send the shortcut keys to your computer.

Geoff,
It looks like I can do this direct to a post so I will not need to impose on you to host these instructions. Thanks for your offer.

The Pokeys comes with software so that you can assign the keystroke/s to the numbered terminals of the board. The Pokeys is configured and then the file is saved to the board itself so you do not need to run the software once it is configured. You can disconnect the Pokeys and put it on any computer and it will produce those keystrokes that you have programmed in.

If you have your Pokeys connected to your computer open the Pokey55 software and you will see the screen in the first image below. Note the 55 numbers running down the left and right of that screen. These are the terminal that you connected the wiring to your switch on the board.

Open the tools button and select I/O status and you will see the second image below. I mentioned earlier that I connected my switches randomly to Pokeys and did not bother about ordering or documenting the connection. This is because I knew this tool was available. So to find what terminal is connected to a switch just press a switch and the grid at the top will display the active terminal number.

In a perfect world you should order your switches and document them but I like to live dangerously and chances are I would spend more time trying to find my document than using the same software to troubleshoot a problem.

So let’s say the switch I just pressed was terminal 6 and the engraving on my console said that switch was for jogging X axis in a positive direction or X+.

The shortcut key in Mach3 for jogging X in a positive direction is the right arrow key on the keyboard.

In the Pokeys software assign the right arrow key to terminal 6. If you have a look at the third image you will see that is now done. I am not going to write the procedure for this as it is simple and you can follow it logically by looking at the image and by reading the manual.
Once this is done press the “Send to Device” button and it is written to the Pokeys and you are ready to test it out.

Obviously we can do a lot more than this but let’s leave it here so that you can try it and get some confidence in what you have done.

We want this to do more so let’s assign another switch to something a little more complex.

The shortcut key for the “Start Cycle” button in Mach3 is Alt-R so let’s have a go at that.
Find the switch on your panel you have engraved as “Start Cycle” and use the I/O Status tool in Pokeys55 software to identify the terminal that the switch is connected to – say terminal 19 for this example.

In the image of the screenshot below you can see I have assigned Alt and R to terminal 19. If you look at the centre of the screenshot you can see in “Direct Key Mapping” I have ticked “Alt” and selected R from the drop down list.

To confirm this look in the terminal assignment for 19 on the left column and the displays should show Alt and R as the keystroke.

Save this by pressing the “Send to Device” button and you are ready for testing.

So hopefully you have grasped the concept but I can hear the wheels turning and you are thinking these are just simple commands so what is the big deal?

Well you can do a lot more than this but this is as hard as it gets from the Pokey side of it and if you can follow my ramblings then you are now an expert. If you want to use an MPG or analogue control through the Pokeys then there is more to learn but you have already mastered the tool for interacting with your machine.

We can do a lot more than simple commands by creating a new command that doesn’t exist in the Mach3 screen set or by running a custom script that zeros a touchplate to an axis. To do this we will have to do a few tweaks in the Mach3 screens and I will cover that in the next couple of posts. The concept is the same – the command to your machine is in Mach3 and a shortcut key is assigned to that command that you duplicate in the Pokeys to activate a switch on your console.

I would like a little feedback if my ramblings can be followed or I need to write in a different style so that it can be understood.

Rod,
I am following ... I like it when someone tells me I am an Expert! It is usually along the lines of ... X is the unknown number and SPERT is a drip under pressure!
Anyway my Pokeys55 arrived from the U S of A yesterday so I have the gear, just need to finish my machine, but with an order of 150 nametags to complete, that has put my completion back a bit!

Keep up the good work and don't worry that only a few of us are zeroed in at this stage, this thread will become the console bible that will get dusted off many times for those in need.

Cheers,

Alan

Hi Rod ,

Following along in awe Rod these little pieces of green boards with solder all over them have been a mystery to me everytime I look at them they left me confused and deciding that I would leave it for another day you have really helped with that I guess like others I am waiting to see what ModIO offers so I can work out what is the better solution for me I will be adding an MPG thats for sure it will be used on a second machine as well.

Hi Foks,
I'm learning lots. Don't usually follow this forums but I think I'm hooked.

thanks
Kevin

Thanks, I'll keep plugging away then. I'll tackle Mach3 designing tonight which will demonstrate the final link between the switch and the machine doing something.

Good to see it has sparked an interest Kevin.

Hi Rod

Your descriptions of how all this works are brilliant. No need to change anything.

There is no way I would have attempted to do something like this had it not been for this tutorial. Now, I'm confident that I could come up with a good console to suit my needs.

Looking forward to the ModIO project as well.

Keep up the great work.

Geoff