Controlling gSender with a tablet

[gwilki]

New to me controller for gSender.

For quite a while, I had been using a wireless numeric keypad to send the keyboard shortcuts to the Long Mill controller for the gSender functions and for macros that I have written. I first got the idea from @Heyward43. It worked very well, but was limited by the small number of buttons available. I tried a mini keyboard, but putting labels on the very small keys didn’t work and I couldn’t remember the key assignments without labels. (Getting older sucks.)

Recently Kyle Ely did a video as part of his CNC Academy series on options for sending keystroke shortcuts to Vectric software. They looked promising for use with gSender. Two of those options were hardware, and pricey. One was software. Since I had an old tablet gathering dust and a very limited budget, I chose the software route.

Note: The software is capable of much more than what I am using it for. All the details are on Touch-Portal.com.

Using the software involves downloading and installing on a Windows PC or a Mac the Touch Portal software from Touch-Portal.com. From what I have been able to determine, it must be running on the same PC as the one running gSender. (This may be obvious, but I tried to do otherwise anyway. It didn’t work.)

Next the touch portal app must be installed on an android or mac tablet. The free version of the software limits you to about a dozen buttons. I bought the ~$15 dollar Pro version, which gives me unlimited buttons.

I’m attaching a pic of the tablet loaded up. It’s a work in progress but you will get the general idea.

The learning curve for the software is very short. Creating buttons and the shortcuts linked to them is very easy. It’s just a matter of using the shortcuts feature in gSender to assign keyboard shortcuts to the actions in gSender, then linking those same shortcuts to buttons in touch portal. The buttons can be infinitely customized with graphics, text and colours.

I had some initial disconnect issues, but found two things eliminated them. The first was my wife’s idea. So clearly, this was the real solution. :-). It involved the order of opening the applications. Open gSender first. Connect to the Long Mill. Then open Touch Portal. Once it is opened and connected to the table, you will need to make gSender the active window.

The other disconnection problem solution came from Touch Portal’s developer. This one involves eliminating TP’s ability to connect to USB ports. To do this, go to TP’s application folder. Within it, there is an ADP folder. Delete it, close TP and re-start the PC.

I’ve been using this for a couple of weeks and have had no issues at all. I have no way to try it on a Mac and an iPad, though, so if you are using those devices, your mileage may vary.

[Spamming_Eddie]

Thank you for this topic, I might need it along the way while adding easier access to my longmill.

The machine is located at the front of my garage, while my cadcam computer is in a separate room in the back. It works, but isn’t the best solution when zeroing the machine. I get my exercise during a day, so to speak.

When it was cold as hell a few weeks back, I couldn’t heat the back office with the heat pump airco anymore, so I created a link between my Oculus Quest VR headset and the cadcam pc in the garage. It enables me to design and run the machine from the living, or virtually anywhere.

But that still doesn’t fix the exercise problem. In fact, it got worse… So thank you again, now I know it is possible.

Want!

[Bill]

That’s pretty cool, I have a remote monitor on the wall (need a larger one), a wireless keyboard that I almost never use and a wireless mouse which I always use, the keyboard comes in handy for console commands and that’s about it. I have an older ipad mini I may give it a try.

[mwarning]

Thinking about giving this a go myself with an old iPad. Are you still using this? If so, how’s it working out?

[gwilki]

@mwarning I still use it and really like it. If you go this route and have any questions, be sure to post here.

[mwarning]

Will do. I’m a designer/art director by day and will spend a few minutes this week making an icon set that can be used for Gsender. I’ll share them here if anyone else wants to use them with Touch Portal.

As I’m just starting out with Gsender (and the CNC in general), I’d be curious to know if you’ve extended your usage beyond that of the screenshot above. If you have a few minutes and want to share updated screenshots, it’ll provide me with inspiration for use cases I haven’t thought of.

I had first thought of using the Stream Deck iOS app, but alas, it requires a minimum of iOS 15 and my very old iPad Air V1 is limited to iOS 12.5. No big deal, I tested Touch Portal out this morning and it seems to run just fine. It’s a great use for an otherwise useless old tablet.

[gwilki]

@mwarning Here is my current layout. I’ll likely change it soon to accommodate the Vortex movements.

Touch portal allows for pages of buttons. I have kept them all on the same page so far, but that could change as I add procedures. Also, I could make the buttons smaller if need be.

[mwarning]

What are the thicknesses for in the middle?

[gwilki]

@mwarning They input a negative offset into the Z setting. I follow a process that I learned from Peter on CNCNutz to save my spoilboard when doing through cuts. I set Z0 on the spoilboard, then use those buttons to set a new Z value equal to the nominal thickness of the material that I am using. Those buttons represent the thicknesses of material that I use most often. Using this method, through cuts barely scratch the spoilboard. I could achieve the same results by setting the Z origin in VCarve to the material bottom, but more often than not, I am doing other functions in the same project where I want to zero off the surface. Since VCarve does not accommodate setting the Z origin against an individual process/toolpath, this accomplishes what I want.

If you are interested or want a better explanation, look on CNCNutz on Youtube.