Hey all, I had some mechanical keyboard parts laying around from an older project and found that I was able to make a custom 9 key pendant for gSender, controlling my Altmill on Linux.
Basically this is an Arduino pro micro clone that is attached to 9 CherryMX Blue switches - the Arduino firmware just pretends to be a USB keyboard (using keyboard.h) and when the various buttons are pressed, they just output the defaultgSender keyboard commands for XYZ jogs and speed selectors . All of this is bundled in a 3d printed case and keycaps that show the moves. Time aside, I would guess this was about $10 of parts.
Very happy with it, though there is a little delay/lag, but I believe that’s just gSender or the slow computer I have it running on, as manually clicking jogs in gSender has the same delay.
I did some more searching on Amazon - first, the link I gave above is for a USB based keypad and not bluetooth (don’t know where I got that from). Anyway, looking at a bunch of these keypads, the reviews are mostly very bad. The one I linked to has no reviews at all so be warned.
All of a sudden the DIY build option doesn’t sound so bad …
That was my impression as well and hopefully the shortcuts you can assign in gsender will be sufficient. I’m also getting the gControl panel computer and might not need a full sized keyboard.
Thanks. Method 1 is what I’m hoping to accomplish and think that 16 buttons will be enough. But without my Altmill, I still don’t know what my workflow will look like. Method 2 looks nice too. I happen to have several old android tablets lying around. We don’t use them because the charging connector doesn’t work well. Might still try them out to see how well this method works. Have a few android phone as well.
@Chucky_ott I did the same thing. I had an older 7" android tablet and got the paid version of touchportal. That allows me unlimited gui buttons. I’ve recently changed the main screen to include buttons for my rotary axis. It’s great because I can have the tablet right on the table so that I can see the movement of the router while jogging it.
You can map all buttons to shortcuts. For example, I’ve used the perimeter 8 to jog in all directions, then holding center button (as an additional button in the shortcut) all 8 then have a secondary function without any switching.
Just picked one up. They have wireless ones too. I know what you mean about Best Buy. I was accosted by sales reps 4 times between the front door and the keyboard section.
