Thanks for the alert, Agentsmith. Its been so long since I used that, that I confess it had slipped my mind
But, the reason why I "fogot" about it, is all the complexity of keyboard jogging in general. It's like playing a game of Twister with one hand, while you're trying to not chip your tool insert, because that is where you'd be looking
Although the dual key combo Alt+ key or CTRL+key or SHIFT+ key sounds like a great system for jog control, it is not great to use in real life. It is entirely too complex, IMO. This drives users to unnecessarily invest in an expensive handwheel for jogging.
For one thing, the system response to a quick jab of the keys is all too often, no response at all. This is no good. I want to be able to tap a single key and watch the machine move, just as fast as I can tap the key.
IMO, the necessity of choosing X, Y or Z axis to jog in is another strike against user friendliness. The Bandit controller had a keypad the same as your numberpad on your keyboard. When in jog mode, "4" and "6" were X axis, "8" and "2" were Y axis and "5" and "0" were Z axis. The divide key was used for a Hi or Lo jog toggle state.
This is extremely handy to get around with. It becomes second nature, and you don't have to even think about getting your hand in some kind of a contortion to do a jog move, only to find out that you were on the wrong axis, etc.
Its nuts, as far as I am concerned, to abandon the Bandit keyboard jog, for those who like keyboard jogging. If you (in a plural sense) have never used one, you would not know, perhaps, how handy it is.
I like the concept of the variable jog length in Camsoft Alt+key, in order to be able to get into jog increments of less than .001", but that would be about it.
Hi jog mode, in Bandit, is simply an initial movement of .1" in whatever axis direction is being pressed. If you hold the key down for longer than 1/2 second, then smooth continuous motion begins in that axis at high jog rate (or Rapid, whatever you like).
Lo jog behaves the same way, but the initial increment is .001" and then a sustained press gives way to smooth Lo jog movement in that axis.
It is beautiful in its simplicity. I'd either like to be able to write my own jog logic to do this from the keyboard in Camsoft, or they can integrate it directly (fat chance
) into the executable. But, currently, there is no joy for me in jogging at all.
Maybe I should just write another Galil program for jogging. I could, but I'd have no way of getting keyboard input into the card anyways, without spending hundreds of dollars on unnecessay I/O and pushbuttons to do exactly the same thing as the keyboard should be doing.