My Design

My Requirements

  • Allow X & Y jogging simultaneously at the operator control
    • Joystick control or 8 push-button configuration for 2 axis jogging
  • Place controls to simplify and automate repetitive tasks for the operator
  • Control must be movable near the operator and near the touch screen control of the CNC12 PC
  • Work in conjunction with the Wireless Pendant and VCP

Jogging

As I started to design the controls and dimension the BOB, I pivoted from simple momentary switch joysticks to analog joysticks for the axis jogging controls. This required an analog to digital interface to the BOB. See the Joystick page for more information

For the Jog-Step control, I was initially trying to emulate the Wireless MPG Pendant rotary switch on the BOB Panel for familiarity between controls. I was not able to locate a momentary style rotary switch like the WMPG. I pivoted to a rotary encoder on the Arduino for the jog-step controls. This allowed a consistent ‘feel’ between all rotary knobs on the USB-BOB control interface. See the Jogging page for more in-depth information.

Push-Buttons

I selected momentary illuminated push buttons which have removable covers which can have labels easily changed. This allows me to adapt the switches quickly utilizing the Centroid Wizard and any custom macros. The covers pop off and the labels can be switched out in a few minutes.

The Buttons I selected require 12VDC for the LED illumination. This required an additional voltage input to the panel. See the Push-Button Switches page for more in-depth information.

Displays

After pivoting to the rotary encoder for the Jog-Step selection, I added an OLED display which provides MPG Jogging Status ( Endabled or Disabled ), current jog step selection, and step selection when changed. The jog-step encoder switch is used to select the new jog-step which the second Arduino Nano momentarily provides a low output to the BOB Inputs for the new step. See the OLED Display page for more in-depth information.

Future plans are to add 3 small OLEDs which will display the status of the Feed/Speed/Spindle rotary encoder switch functions. As these functions are adjustable in the Centroid Wizard, I thought it would be more adaptable to add the displays for any updates/changes downstream rather than printing a new panel. This will require additional PLC programming for the BOB, I plan on utilizing the LED outputs from the x1, x10, x100 jog step inputs since they are not being currently used in my design.

-Z Limit

I have also incorporated a -Z Limit function which limits all axis movement to x10 jog step or less when there is a joystick -Z movement. The previous x100 jog step can be resumed by pressing the Jog-Step encoder button switch to return to fast jogging with the joystick.