disable dangerous keyboard jogging!

Thanks again Phil.

I'm not married to PB, Axis, or any other GUI at this point.  I may wind up cooking up my own GUI, based on qtvcp or qtpyvcp... in which case the QTPlasmaC scheme will likely be valuable/

A issue with touchscreens is that not everybody is able to use them safely. Give my wife a touch screen device such as a phone or ipad and by just putting a finger near the screen everything goes bananas!!

Trouble is it is a random problem and does not happen every time even on the same device.

Machine tools need to be safe.  My drives are on a separate power supply and are turned off at boot.  Once the control panel is loaded I then start the motor supply, and to date have never had a problem with this way of working.

I suppose having a separate control panel as the Hass and other commercial machines is another option but is expensive.
 Not everybody has unlimited funds available.

Using a mouse only to control the machine is inconvenient  and  as long as you are aware of any dangers a keypad or keyboard can be used safely.

But each individual needs to find the best solution for themselves.

John

 

How about changing jogging keyboard shortcut to ctrl + arrow? That might eliminate a lot of unwanted jogging.

zmrdko wrote:

How about changing jogging keyboard shortcut to ctrl + arrow? That might eliminate a lot of unwanted jogging.
 

That would be a good start, but it would likely annoy users who want - and are used to - keyboard control of the machine.

Someone building a little 500w router with Nema 17 steppers and 60ipm rapids might be seriously dismayed if they needed a dedicated control panel just to test the thing out.

At the other extreme, someone retrofitting a 20hp lathe with 1000ipm rapids and $10k+ worth of tooling in the turret might be appalled at the thought of a stray keyboard (or touchscreen) click scrapping a part or crashing the machine.  They want dedicated controls, clearly marked, and requiring a very intentional press/click/twist to engage.

My preference would be to have an easily accessed setting to enable/disable keyboard controls, perhaps on a by-function basis.  Those users who have a desire for full keyboard control can leave things as-is, and those of us who want to eliminate all keyboard jogging & machine functions can do so without needing to dig through multiple python files and decrypt/edit the keybinding scheme.

I suspect the problem is that because LCNC can accept external commands from GUI programs (via python or whatever), all keyboard interaction is dependent on the GUI implementation.  As others have pointed out some GUI frameworks are better than others at describing the keybinding scheme.

I've no idea if LCNC can be modified to optionally reject keyboard commands from an external source - and if that would result in the GUI reporting errors or other unintended consequences.
 

keyboard jogging is fine, its all on how its implemented. But yeah, a good solution might be an INI option to disable keyboard shortcuts.

phillc54 wrote:

We also have fairly restrictive keyboard focus dependent on which widget has focus. e.g. if the edit widget is opened then all keystrokes go to the edit widget so that jogging is not possible while editing.

Exactly, it sounds less like a keyboard jog issue and more a gui issue. why arent all the keybinds being handled when the entry takes focus?

not just the < > arrows but the v ^ pgup and pgdown

I have a question: Is it possible to move the axes with the keyboard. I ask because I can't do it. From what I have seen in some videos, it is designed specifically for use with a touchscreen or to click on the axis movement icons.

You meaning jogging ?
Yeah it's standard out of the box.
Have a read of the docs, no need to repeat the info here.
I rely on my 7i73 pendant, I know when I stop jogging on the pendant the machine will respond in kind.
I just use the touch screen and keyboard to load files and change modes.

COFHAL wrote:

I have a question: Is it possible to move the axes with the keyboard. I ask because I can't do it. From what I have seen in some videos, it is designed specifically for use with a touchscreen or to click on the axis movement icons.

It depends on the GUI.  Most - but not all - have some sort of keyboard jogging enabled.

What GUI are you using?
 

Probe Basic.