Re: Hand held pendant

I bought one of those quadrature encoder to step and direction adapters from
www.usdgital.com I got the P-84-4 which is the size of a finger nail. It
plugs into an HEDS type encoder and provides step and direction output. They
sell for $16. I put one on a motor that had a 200 CPR encoder and connected
the step and direction output to a stepper motor driver. It worked slick. I
simply turned the encoder one direction or the other and the stepper motor
followed .
I turned it at various speeds and it followed. Just like a real low cost
servo system with HIC ( Human Interface Control) :)

I also tried a 2000 CPR however it was too fast for the the stepper. So I
could see using one of those $14 encoders from Brigard's for another kind of
manual control of a cnc system. It looks like a 400DPI mouse may even work.
My self, I have had several controllers that I designed that used a manaul
pendant. Other than for flycutting they're not that handy.

Dan