High quality hand wheel? Buttons?

[badhabit]

Hi,

I'm designing a new controlpanel for my CNC mill and i'd like to use some good components and not just the cheapest of ebay. Are there any recommendations for e.g a handwheel in high quality with proper haptic feedback etc?

What about buttons? I''ve considered using custom membranes because it would look nice and there are good options, but i don't know if its better with a "real button" in the day to day use. I think i'd prefer real buttons, but what are your opinions on this and are there any recommendations here aswell?

Thanks!

/Thomas

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[Jim Dawson]

For encoder hand wheels these are really quite good, with reasonable feedback.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/19374718576...Cclp%3A2334524

As far as push buttons and switches, real ones are the best. I normally buy from Automation Direct. https://www.automationdirect.com/adc...-z-_indicators They have consistently high quality industrial grade products. I would avoid membrane switches for day to day use.

I also like to minimize the number of physical switches and push buttons, but rather have on-screen switches for all functions except the E-stop, reset, and power on buttons. On-screen buttons can be operated by touch screen or a mouse click. My preference is a mouse click, I really don't like touch screens.

[Al_The_Man]

Handwheels are generally simple ~100p/rev incremental encoders. You require one to match your input, generally they are 5v RS485 output standard.
I always used the Telemecanique style PB's, They don't make the model any more, but I see they are cloned now from China and much cheaper!

[badhabit]

For encoder hand wheels these are really quite good, with reasonable feedback.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/19374718576...Cclp%3A2334524

As far as push buttons and switches, real ones are the best. I normally buy from Automation Direct. https://www.automationdirect.com/adc...-z-_indicators They have consistently high quality industrial grade products. I would avoid membrane switches for day to day use.

I also like to minimize the number of physical switches and push buttons, but rather have on-screen switches for all functions except the E-stop, reset, and power on buttons. On-screen buttons can be operated by touch screen or a mouse click. My preference is a mouse click, I really don't like touch screens.

Thanks for the suggestions and links! I'll look into that... I'm also going for minimum amount of buttons, however, some things (besides e-stop) need to be physical IMO. Like feed overrides, start/stop etc...

Regarding the membrane-stuff, i have the same feeling that for a "once in a while" they are ok... but working continuesly with them would be annoying... Do anyone know what type the Heidenhain use? e.g. https://www.fdz-shop.de/user_html/14.../g/3030116.jpg I've never seen a Heidenhain in real life, but it looks like some sort of silicone keypad, i wonder if they can be customized like membranes?

Handwheels are generally simple ~100p/rev incremental encoders. You require one to match your input, generally they are 5v RS485 output standard.
I always used the Telemecanique style PB's, They don't make the model any more, but I see they are cloned now from China and much cheaper!

Yeah, i'm going to connect it to a Beckhoff ethercat module to connect to LinuxCNC via EtherCAT, so i'll choose the correct module when i know the encoders requirements:-)

Regarding the chinese clones: I actually used a couple of chinese clones in a previous project, but i ran into problems with the e-stops. I had a bunch in series and the contactor resistance was almost 10x higher than on a proper "Telemecaniques"-original. Also the vibrations in the machine made the resistance fluctuate like crazy....So it worked with one or two in series, but with 4-5 it started tripping the e-stop randomly... The solution was to buy replacement contacts for the e-stops from Scheider(i think they bought Telemecanique?) and all problems went away...just a tip :-)

/Thomas