Jog mode

[dynamotive]

I want to be able to cycle through jog mode using one key. I don't want to have to press Ctrl-Alt-J, and I don't want to use a mouse. Is there any way to do this?

I'm coming from old controllers that had limited functionality, and thus seem much simpler to operate. The jog mode starts off in continous, so you can rapid the machine over to your setup point. You press one button, the jog mode goes to step .100, and you get closer. You press the button again, the jog mode goes to .010, and so on, until you edge find your part. To me, that makes a lot of sense, but (as far as I can tell) Mach3 requires more effort to do the same thing. I'm getting a touch screen display, and I'm hoping to come up with a screen that imitates the old controller, but I'm not even sure if I can ever get the jog mode to operate as described above. Incidentally, the standard Mach3 screens in general look like they were not designed by (or for) machinists, but by programmers who want visual evidence of all the programming effort they've put in.

[ger21]

There are other screens available here. http://www.machsupport.com/screens.php

You may be able to do it in a VB macro. You can't use the toggle to change the values, you'd have to change the DRO manually with VB code. Check the value, andjust do whatever you want next. You'll need to check both the continuous and step kog LED's to see what mode you're currently in as well.

[miniengine]

Go to Configuration/Hot Keys/follow directions

[dynamotive]

Thanks for the replies.

When I go to Hotkeys, this is what I see. I don't see anything about 'Toggle Jog Mode'. Am I missing something?

[miniengine]

My bad dynamotive. Reading to fast. I understood that you wanted to jog with one key for each axis like arrow keys are used for (x-,x+ and so on). Now I get it (finally). You want to change mode (01, 001, 1.0) with one key. I don't know about that. Sorry, Ray

[dynamotive]

I have an Anilam 1100 controller. CRT display, and membrane keyboard. If you want to jog, it's ready to go (as long as you're not running a program). You press X+ or whatever, and it jogs continuously. There's a button with a hand symbol on it. You press that, and the jog mode cycles through continuous/step 1/step .1/step .01/ step .001. That way, you can work your way down to indicating the part with the edge finder. Once you're at the edge, you enter the coordinate value, and the DRO updates. That's what I'm used to, and that's what I want.

I think my approach of trying to figure out how to simulate button presses on the DRO flyout is a lost cause. It looks like the only way to cycle through the jog step amount is with the mouse, which I don't want to have to use. I don't think there is any magic input code for those 'button presses', but if anyone knows of them, I'd like to hear about it. In my opinion, every single thing that you can do with a mouse, you should be able to do with a 'magic code'.

Per Gerry's suggestion, it looks VB code is the only way to do this. I haven't gotten to the point of actually writing any VB code yet, but my guess is that it would be something like this: press a button, and depending on the state of your 'jog mode', a certain gcode would be run. For example, if your jog mode is step 1, and you press the right arrow, G0 X 1 would be run. Does that make sense? As for continuous jogging, Gerry's suggestion of reading the DRO looks like a possibility. As long as the button is held down, G0 X (DRO + something) would be run.

Any comments, suggestions, or help would be most appreciated.

[ger21]

There's a DRO with the jog increment in it. Not sure if it actually exists on the standard screen?

Anyway, here's a little more detail on how I would try to do it.
You create a button on the screen for the macro. It sounds like you want an external button, so you assign the oncreen button a hotkey, and set up an OEM trigger with the same hotkey to run the macro.

First thing you do is check the status of the Continuos Jog LED and the Step Jog LED. If you're in continuous, then the macro will change to Step mode (Incremental?) and set the step increment DRO to 1.

Press it again, and when the macro checks the LED and sees your in Step mode, then check the DRO. When it sees it's 1, then it sets it to .1.

Repeat, and set it to .01.

Again, and set to .001

And when you see that the Step LED is on and the increment is .001, you set the mode to continuous.

You'll also need to make sure the value is something other than 1, .1, .01, .001 and set it to one of them or switch to continuous, to prevent an error condition.

Basically just a bunch of if...then statements. Not terribly difficult.

Pressing the arrow keys will just do standard jogs, depending on which mode your in.

[ger21]

There's a draft of a new Mach3 programmer's guide available here.

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/ind...topicseen.html

[Greolt]

Not sure if this is what you want but this is how I do it.

I have on-screen buttons for, "Jog Continuous / Jog Step" toggle, (two state button) as well as buttons to select a few predefined step increments.

Any on-screen buttons like these can be made to operate with an external push button via something like Pokeys or any number of other methods.

My buttons tend to be large because I use a touch screen.

Greg

EDIT: I see you wanted one button to cycle through all options. Sorry for not reading properly before posting. As Gerry said one macro with some if/then/else/if statements will do it.