Adding handwheels to MACH2 or MACH3

Hi Group,

Did a quick search on this topic but conld not see anything obvious. Say I want to transform my CNC Mill into a conventional mill with handwheels instead of keyboard commands. You may be asking why on Earth would I want to do such a thing? That is like transforming a Ferrari into a bicycle, right? But I think for quickie motions here and there, handwheels are unbeatable. If I am correct, I am thinking somebody already did this.

I am thinking about adding 3 high resolution shaft encoders so that every time a pulse is registered, the stepper moves some amount. Has this been done? If so, where is it documented? Thanks!

I do not personally have any experience with them, but people are using them with Mach and you can find info by doing a search on terms such as:

CNC pendant

or

CNC MPG (Manual Pulse Generator)

I am using an MPG to drive Mach 3 manually. I only have one, with a switch to control which axis is active, but there's no reason why you couldn't have 3. The quadrature signal from the MPG needs two inputs, so you start to run short if you're only using one parallel port. Various pendants use USB or modbus to get round this.

Much easier than the keyboard and good for probing and edge finding.

I have used it for cutting when I can't be bothered to generate the g-code. It's not quite the same as real manual - you can set Mach3 to the "velocity" setting where the axis speed is linked to the speed you twiddle - but the graduations on the handwheel then have no relation to the distance moved. Or you can set it to follow the graduations, but then you can turn faster than the feed rate and when you stop the movement keeps going to catch up.

Very cool indeed! So let me complicate things by adding another data point. I have MACH3 running my PCNC 1100. This MACh3 version, however, is the one that was created for Tormach. Hence, I do not have access to the configuration menus as in the conventional MACH3. There is a way to add plugins, however. I imagine this is now a matter of whether Tormach supports this feature or not, right? I think I will contact them to see what they say. They are always very helpful.

Thanks for sharing your experience with me and steer me in the right direction!