VistaCNC P4-SE pendant stopped working

One thing I do not fully understand:
You write : pendant "goes back to the LinuxCNC screen". Do you mean that is written on the LCD? If yes, why and where from come these letters? Do you configure the pendants cpu somehow to be in a linuxcnc mode???
Mike

No eBay APP ID and/or Cert ID defined in Kunena configurationHi Mike,
Yes, there is an LCD on the pendant, along with a polycarbonate membrane keyboard, pulse encoder, etc. You can see a picture here:
www.vistacnc.com/a01_index_home/pic_a01/p4s_side.jpg

It actually is quite a nicely thought out pendant, which is why I like it. Not too much information to overload you, etc.

Johnny:
God I love this forum! In some of the most innocuous comments one can find new information. One of the reasons why I try to point out everything I've done and what my machine is like is that you never know when someone might stumble on an idea... In this case, you inadvertently told me something that I hadn't thought about before....

When I replaced my RJ45 connector, I used a pure plastic one. I actually never really knew that there was a grounded one, but your reference to grounding in the EEBox could only mean one thing (because I know the ground isn't carried through one of the 8 pins)... the connector. After a little searching, I learned about the shielded connectors. Great find, thank you! I would still swear that I *never* saw any foil or drain on the cable, but I must have missed it when I installed the new connector...

There is another point here that is a possible cause of problems. Remember that reference to a bulkhead connector? That is there because my EEBox is inside the cabinet. Well, first, the jumper between the connector and the EEBox has plastic connectors (so obviously not passing a shield), but the connector itself is almost certainly not contacting a metal shield on the wire.

I've ordered some shielded connectors, I'll have to buy a 6" jumper with shielded wires and determine if the bulkhead connector is going to be problematic for me. Great finds! I know you didn't point me directly to all of that, but the discussion definitely did.

[update]
Whew... The bulkhead connector *does* have the ability to pass the shield along... I have to say that I've been pretty happy with this design... The following is what I used ("CNLINKO RJ45 IP67" is the ebay search term for readers who come along long after the link expires):

Mike_Eitel wrote: One thing I do not fully understand:
You write : pendant "goes back to the LinuxCNC screen". Do you mean that is written on the LCD? If yes, why and where from come these letters? Do you configure the pendants cpu somehow to be in a linuxcnc mode???
Mike

When the PC is powered up but before LinuxCNC is started the LCD first says "VistaCNC V120" then switches to "LINUXCNC". Once you start LinuxCNC the display changes to E-Stop. When you click in the AXIS E-Stop button or press F1 the display Changes to Machine Power OFF. Then when you press F2 or click on the power button the LCD show the axis location etc.

If you shutdown LinuxCNC the display goes back to LINUXCNC.

Yes, there is firmware that makes the pendant work with LinuxCNC.

When my pendant bricks, disconnects or whatever it sometime goes back to the LINUXCNC display or display complete garbage that are not even letters or numbers.

To elaborate a bit... The "LinuxCNC" screen is basically the default screen when the pendant is waiting patiently to be activated. Obviously that is after power up but, in my case, it is also if there is a hiccup in the communications between the LinuxCNC application and the pendant.

After you purchase a pendant from VistaCNC (the manufacturer), you use a loader to install the correct firmware for the CNC system you are using. Mach, LinuxCNC, and another (BeagleBone?) all have different pendant firmware.

The second step is to run a makefile on your computer. Among other things, it installs some files in a usr directory and also an executable in the LinuxCNC config directory. It also places a prototype HAL file which, frankly, was a somewhat weak starting point for me but still appreciated.

That pretty much sums up the pendant. It actually is pretty nice. I've not seen an XHC one, but I think I like the balance between the cleanliness of the VistaCNC and its capabilities. I don't actually want a 4x24 character display. I do have to say that the jury is still out on the membrane keyboard versus rotary knobs though. And the fact that I'm having problems getting the pendant to work is a real drag. There again, though, the jury is out as to whether this was self inflicted or if the pendant is overly sensitive.

OK, for me your explanations points 90% to a restart of pendant cpu. I do not belive that the pc part goes to a reset or loop or similar. Minor possibility would be that you stall the sw in pc or give a constant reset condition there. Is there a hal signal to initiate the pendant and have you halscoped all pendant signals.
Mike

Yes, those seem to be reasonable conclusions.... LinuxCNC is obviously multi-threaded so it is difficult to say whether or not I've hung a thread that is dedicated to the pendant. I guess it is all kind of academic though as, in the end, the final result is that "it doesn't work." But, I can tell you that there are no meaningful error messages that I see on the console (from which I start LinuxCNC).

HAL signals are an excellent idea. I'll have to investigate that (which is a nice way of saying, "No... I haven't looked at that"
Alan