Thread: Console the Key Emulator Method

Thanks Rod I will look at all the options before I decide. The pendant I was considering is from CandCNC and I am also keen for their low cost THC but the website says they will not ship only one OS so I wes hoping to bundle the two. I believe their new pendant was to release Jan 15.
Chris, not sure what you mean but there are four buttons on top as well as the trigger, and I was hoping to use some of these. It would be great for instance if normal joystick movement controlled X & Y and the trigger acted as ctrl or shift and when used with forward and back controlled Z. This way I would still have speed and direction on all axes. The other buttons on the base would ideally be zeroZ, zeroX, zeroY, cycle start/ stop etc.
Will try Keygrabber and Machscreen as soon as I can and mess about with a custom screen.
I really like the look of the CNC Woodworker screen so I may download and modify it.
Thanks,
Tim.

Had a good play around with Keygrabber, Machscreen and my joystick over the last few days and managed to assign almost all the buttons I wanted with the hotkey method, except for reset.
Is there a trick to this button? first I can't select the original to see its properties, so I made a new button assigned function, hotkey etc, assigned the button to the hotkey, didn't work on the joystick, but the button works on the screen. Thinking I've stuffed it up somewhere, I go back into Machscreen and find now I cannot select the button I just made (can't delete it either) so I make another etc etc, still the same thing.
So now I have three (no four counting the original one)reset buttons on my screen all working on the screen, none on the joystick and I can't select them to delete them.

Please speak to me O wise ones,

Tim

Screen4 has a few quirks. Make sure you set your monitor resolution to higher than the screen set you are using otherwise it does some really strange things. You should be able to re-assign hotkeys and delete buttons from the screen. Don't forget to turn off images so you can get to the buttom.
I'm fairly sure this will fix your problem and you will be able to delete the extra buttons you created and re-assign a hotkey for reset.
You have done well to get this far as most are timid of playing with screens.

Hi Rod thanks for the input, I messed about with it some more this weekend, but still no joy. The program I used to edit the screen is called MachScreen and I downloaded it from a link someone put up in this thread. I found a file called Screen4.xml in Mach3, but could not open it. MachScreen doesn't seem to have the option to turn off the background. I recall when I installed the program, there was an option to make it the default screen editor which it said could only be undone by reinstalling Mach3, so I may install the latest version, and try to use Screen4.
Is it normal that you need to have Keygrabber running with Mach to use the configuration you create and save with it?
I love having all the axes and buttons on the joystick working, but now I find myself craning to see the screen. I feel a full blown console coming on
Thanks heaps,

Tim.

Hi Tim,
No I don't think you need keygrabber running in mach3 to make your custom buttons work. All keygrabber is doing is tellig you what signal to use in your custom screen.

I use both a console and the Xbox360 wireless for windows. Different things for different situations. For my mill I have a full enclosure so while setting up I need to stick my head inside the cabinet - hard to use a console under those conditions so the wirelss controller is perfect.

Hi Rod,
Had a fair tinker on the weekend and re-installed Mach3 but with no different results. I still must have Keygrabber running for the joystick to work (this seems like I have missed a final step and the configuration hasn't been written to Mach or something) and I still can't open screen4.
Is the screen editing program stored in the Mach directory, and what type of file is it?
Don't want to bother you too much with my little problem, everything is still usable except I can't assign the reset button to one on the joystick.
Perhaps this is a question for the Mach forum?
Thanks,

Tim.

Hi Tim,
I have doubts now and you might have to have keygrabber running in Mach3 for it to work the joystick. It was six years ago when I was playing with this feature so my memory is a bit grey.
The file is Screen4.exe and should be in the mach3 directory. If not you can download it from this page.
If you start tearing your hair out send your screen set to me with instructions and I'll have a play later on tonight.

Thanks for the very generous offer. I have just downloaded screen4 from the link you supplied and will transfer it to my shed computer this weekend. Hopefully I will have a win then. If not, I will start ordering parts for a proper console, and may call on your wisdom with its installation.

Last Sunday arv I was perhaps 10 minutes from finishing a 3 1/2 hour finishing toolpath on a 3D Harley logo in a nice slab of Sally Wattle when we had a blackout

Tim.

Excellent results with screen 4. Finally got the reset button grafted onto one of my joystick buttons, and got rid of the extra buttons I'd created trying to do this with the MachScreen program. Screen4 seems to have much more usefull features and is more intuitive than the other. Now I feel much better about creating my own custom screen set.
Still not sure if I am using Keygrabber correctly but I will put this to the Mach forum.

Thanks,

Tim.

Great to hear

Tim,
You may want to try this.

Thanks Rod,

Sounds good but I can't find it. Searched both the forum and the Mach site, any idea where it's hiding?

Thanks,

Tim.

Your going to hate yourself for asking (don't worry I miss the obvious all the time).

At the bottom of the first post on that link is a file called "JoyPad Plugin 2.0.rar"
Instructions for installing it are in that post.

Dowh there I go again rushin and not readin the fine print.
Will report back when I get a chance to try it, few other things eating spare time at the moment.
Thanks,
Tim.