attaching a joystick / gamepad / industrial controller ..

A Former User

Is there a way to attach an external device to control the movement? Paneldue is nice but looking at the head and executing movement trough paneldue is impossible. Not to mention that the movement buttons on move panel on paneldue are position against any ergonomy rule :(.

I can attach an XY thumbstick to some core m0 and talk spi/i2c/uart with the duet2eth board...

The only way to do it, that I see now, is to make a thumbstick attached to esp with a batt pack and let it telnet to the board and control it; but that requires I turn on telnet in config.g and I don't know how many resources that consume, also my free time is super scarce so I'd prefer to go with the solution that's faster and work immediately rather than start yet another project in parallel to all the ones I'm working on now

A Former User

fastest solution would be keyboard mapping in the web interface and a usb gamepad (which can be wired or wireless)?

i'm on the fence for the stable version 3 of the firmware before i jump in that

A Former User

@bearer said in attaching a joystick / gamepad / industrial controller ..:

fastest solution would be keyboard mapping in the web interface and a usb gamepad (which can be wired or wireless)?

i'm on the fence for the stable version 3 of the firmware before i jump in that

Where would you attach that gamepad ?
My computer might not be near the printer and I don't see a USB port on the duet board.

I'm running a RRF3 already but not sure how that changes anything? Is there some additional stuff related to this in RRF3 that I missed?

A Former User

Not having the computer near would be an issue yeah, although i would attach it to the Raspberry Pi.

With respect to RRF3, conditional g-code and variables

EasyTarget

@smece said in attaching a joystick / gamepad / industrial controller ..:

Is there some additional stuff related to this in RRF3 that I missed?

as @bearer noted, a Raspberry PI with 4 usb ports and a CPU that can send the relevant gcode to the Controller. That seems like the best route; no additional hardware needed.

A Former User

might not be the easiest if you don't have say the Pi or Computer connected to the Duet, for the Duet 2 (until its available with the same Pi connector as the Duet 3) the only advantage of using a Pi over something like an ESP8266/ESP32 is that you can use readily available game pads and higher level language compared to the ESP range, but C/Processing is still fairly high level - but not the hardware side of the joystick.

dc42

You might want to search this forum for "CNC pendant" because that's a related topic.

BTW the PanelDue hardware includes provision to connect a rotary encoder. If anyone is sufficiently interested, I can extend PanelDueFirmware to support it.

Danal

@smece said in attaching a joystick / gamepad / industrial controller ..:

Is there a way to attach an external device to control the movement?

The port PanelDue uses is "TTL Serial". An arduino, or ESP, or similar 3.3V device can interface to almost any input device you can think of and issue commands via this port.

If you wish to interface via the network, a simple Telnet session to the printer (wired or wireless) accepts G-Code commands. So just send "G0 X...Y...Z..." or similar. Again, an ESP can be coded up to interface to any number of devices or encoders or even simple buttons, and send those commands up a Telnet session. VERY simple if you can get past the learning curve of ESP8266 or ESP32 in general. I pick those two because getting them on a Wireless network is a matter of a couple of statements... and there are TONS of examples.

EasyTarget

I was looking at this earlier; maybe some inspiration too.
https://cncmakerzone.co.uk/make-a-grbl-cnc-pendant-with-a-bluetooth-data-link
This uses bluetooth serial for the command path, but would adapt trivially to a wired serial connection, and that would allow you to bring power in the same leash.

A Former User

lot of data, thank you all

@dc42 hah, "cnc pendant", great tip, looking
as for the encoder, would make sense but attaching encoder to my current setup is ~ same amount of work as banging a joystick on esp32 board so I would not go that direction .. as for the changes to paneldue I can suggest a "second move window" that would work like octoprint's move interface.. it makes much more sense for my fat stubs of fingers .. I'm running a 5" screen and I have issues with existing buttons even while looking at the screen

prontrface interface is even better only I'd use the "whole pads" for movement and add buttons on the side for 0.1, 1, 10, 100..

ideally all styles available so one can choose

A Former User

@bearer I do have RPI (octoprint) attached there as that's Enter5 in process of upgrade and original marlin without octoprint is imo unusable so pi is there, that's actually not a bad idea as there's probbly already a gamepad plugin for octoprint will check .. I was not sure if pi will stay attached to this printer but looks like they DWC still isn't close to replacing it so.. we'll see

A Former User

@EasyTarget sorry mate but rpi4 is not entering my home in forceable future ... I have enough devices that require active cooling here... I mostly use orangepi devices (i have 100+ of them here, running different tests with them, have only maybe 10 rpi3b+ and 5 other rpi's ... oranges are waaaaaaay better .. and I'm on the path to start using rocks too)

A Former User

@Danal said in attaching a joystick / gamepad / industrial controller ..:

The port PanelDue uses is "TTL Serial". An arduino, or ESP, or similar 3.3V device can interface to almost any input device you can think of and issue commands via this port.

Yes, PD connects to Duet trough serial port, that's ok, but that's not a bus, it is 1:1 so in order to attach another serial device I'd have to remove the PD and that's not really the idea. I want another device besides paneldue, not instead of it. Only if PD have some external serial port on it that I have not seen (I don't have original PD, I got this one as a gift from a friend it's some integrated 5" lcd + controller on one board)

If you wish to interface via the network, a simple Telnet session to the printer (wired or wireless) accepts G-Code commands.

Yes, that I already tried and works, question was if anyone (@dc42 maybe) knows if allowing telnet uses up valuable resources or not. I have ton of esp8266 and esp32 modules here so it's an easy project but it's something that takes at least a weekend to make and with 2 small kids and bunch of projects.. I tend to see if there's something I can just "buy that works" rather than "make new from scratch"

Danal

@smece said in attaching a joystick / gamepad / industrial controller ..:

I'd have to remove the PD

The panel need not be removed.

It is perfectly OK, hardware wise, to "Y" connect to the RX pin (on the Duet) to two TX sources. The pendant/game device can transmit during quiet moments, when the Panel is not transmitting. In order to do the best possible job of that, the pendant/game should also be have its own RX pin (or a secondary RX pin) "Y" to the lash up described above, and listen before transmitting. This will not be perfect; there is always the possibility of both devices transmitting at the exact same instant (exact being defined as one character time)... however losing a single message is not a big deal in this usage scenario.

In short: Hook them both up. It will work amazingly well.

dc42

@Danal said in attaching a joystick / gamepad / industrial controller ..:

It is perfectly OK, hardware wise, to "Y" connect to the RX pin (on the Duet) to two TX sources. The pendant/game device can transmit during quiet moments, when the Panel is not transmitting. In order to do the best possible job of that, the pendant/game should also be have its own RX pin (or a secondary RX pin) "Y" to the lash up described above, and listen before transmitting. This will not be perfect; there is always the possibility of both devices transmitting at the exact same instant (exact being defined as one character time)... however losing a single message is not a big deal in this usage scenario.

Alternatively, route the PanelDue data through the pendant/game device, which can buffer up commands from PanelDue while the pendant/game device is transmitting.

A Former User

I checked out the pendant talk and it's mostly what I'm thinking except no ready made .. now since I'm reeeeeealy fed up with this bed constantly droping (after you add 4mm glass on top of Ender5 bed it drops like a rock when you disable drivers) and need to add that relay mod asap, I'll use the same project to draw up a simple esp board to add 2 buttons few leds and a joystick .. have all the parts lying around .. a small nokia 3310 battery with charger on board and I'm golden

JamesM

@smece An easy way to stop the bed from dropping is to change the lead screws from 8mm lead/pitch to 2mm lead pitch...makes quite a difference. I put them on the corexy I built which is a 6mm cast aluminum bed on it and I can sit a filament spool on it while moving the printer and the bed doesn't move. Only thing you'll have to find is new leadscrew nuts that will work if they are shaped anything like the ones on my Ender 3. I'm sure they are out there, I just never looked.

EDIT: looks like it uses a standard round one so shouldn't be a big deal.

A Former User

yes, standard round one, I measured pitch on this one and it's 2mm but looks like it's 2start (or even 4start) I didn't notice that .. I should have 2mm pitch single start, few of them, just not sure if they are straight and if they are long enough.. I was actually considering switching to ballscrew 1605 but can't find the darn thing, I have few lying around here somewhere but that would be even worse

jlipavsky79

@dc42 hey man, love everything you do for your community and have a question, ok... so I've seen all about the cnc pendants and the paneldue screen with encoder and such but I have a huge 4x8 avid cnc with a duet3 controlboard with a pi4 4gb wired via ribbon cable, I've seen alot of the wireless pendants with usb receiver, ( https://usa-m.banggood.com/Machifit-Wireless-Electronic-CNC-Handwheel-MACH3-6-Axis-Pulse-Pendant-MPG-for-CNC-Engraving-Machine-p-1365963.html?utm_source=googleshopping&utm_source=googleshopping&utm_medium=cpc_organic&utm_medium=cpc_bgs&gmcCountry=US&utm_content=minha&utm_content=frank&utm_campaign=minha-usg-mb&utm_campaign=frank-ssc-us-all-1108&currency=USD&cur_warehouse=CN&createTmp=1&ad_id=395572890419 ) I feel that the potential there is great!!! But.... I'm a mechanical engineer, not a software guy... what are your feelings?

Phaedrux

@jlipavsky79 Might want to check out these more recent threads.

https://forum.duet3d.com/topic/16547/yap-yet-another-pendant?_=1604644105826
https://forum.duet3d.com/topic/11389/cnc-style-pendant