Hardware controller for jogging

[mrandt]

Yet another idea:

People who manually jog the machine a lot may find using the keyboard is not optimal. Additionally, we could add support for an external hardware controller.

Option 1: Support for Joystick

• should have USB and analogue axis
• many cheap hardware options available
• machine shall move slow if lever is pushed just a bit and faster the more you push it (axis reading often is from -128 to +128)
• would make for a very precise and intuitive jogging

Option 2: Support for USB Jog Wheel

• USB jog wheels for CNC, e.g. this one http://www.amazon.de/Contour-ShuttleXpr ... B0032Y0OH0
• this allow easy per-axis-jogging - use buttons to select axis and jog wheel to move slow or fast - depending on how fast you turn the wheel
• I've seen these work nicely on Shapeoko CNC routers

What do you think? Is it worth the effort to implement hardware support?

Regards
Malte

[WayOutWest]

I have one of these: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00009KH63

... which integrates a jog wheel as a rotating "collar" around the ball.

I'm currently setting it up for manual control of the XYZR motion: trackball for XY, collar for R, and right side two buttons for Z up/down.

I find that it's worth the expense to have an entirely separate mouse dedicated to jogging ... then there's no need for any kind of UI to switch "modes". This is for human-assisted placement.