Pendant Functions to have

[wcarrothers1]

Ok...

Still in the process of getting machine 2 up and running. Sorta in the "lots of wiring" phase but almost done.

Anyway with this machine I'm running some large analog Moog servos which in combination with the Kflop/Kanalog boards (from dynomotion.com) it looks like the machine performance and flexiability will be off the hook (when compaired to machine 1 / mach-parallel or Smooth steppers with Geckos.)

Was thinking about just swapping my pendant from machine 1 to machine 2 when needed but given the fact that I have some Series 600 encoders sitting around and more that the Kanalog/Kflop has nearly limit less IO. I figure I would want a separate pendant which had more functions then my orignal.

My other pendant had 3 encoders 1 for each axis. I don't think that would be pracitcal as my new incoders are a little larger and that gives less room for other function buttons. My encoder pendant enclosure has a face of 2.9" by 6.2.

I don't really mind having 1 dial on my bridgeport for jogging so will go that way for now.

So what pendant features should be present on any pendant?


Thinking:
E-stop
1 dial encoder
Selector switch (for x,y Z1 and Z2 axis)
Selector switch (for jog speed) (never had that before on my other machine due to lack of IO)

But what else to add? Perhaps:
Cycle start
Cycle Hold

Axis zero button (seems like a neet idea)

feed override (thinking I'll leave this one out for now)


But what other good ideas have been added to pendants for control?

b/

[doorknob]

Just brainstorming here, but how about a small LCD for a DRO?