Hi all! Our new EX Centroid controller supports a wireless pendant. This thing rocks. This is how it works here:
We will be selling these at launch, but if you want one to try out ahead of time you can buy them direct from Centroid (they’re the exact same one we will be selling)
We have customized the software so it works well with your Avid CNC machine.
Just exploring…
I was reading the pendant manual, and I see that each of the macro buttons have their own macro spaces, but I was wondering if the rest of the buttons were user modifiable as well?
My thought was this is a 6 axis pendant, and my machine only has 4 axis, so maybe i could replace the code for Axis 5 and 6 and I’d have the MPG, jog +/- ,“=0” and the 5 position switch as inputs times 2 for whatever I wanted to add?
Is that possible?
No. This pendant works at a pretty low level to the controller. It’s very close to the motion controller itself, that’s why it’s so responsive.
This isn’t like the Mach ones that kinda emulate a keyboard.
You can only edit the macros for the four buttons. There is no other access to any of the keys or switches, save for Cycle Start and Cycle Stop. You can use Cycle start in macros to confirm things, and Cycle Stop to end a macro.
To do what you really want to do you want this:
With this you can build any type of physical control that you want. I have one on my machine right now and it’s pretty sweet. I have physical Cycle Start, Stop and Tool Check buttons.
You can wire up all kinds of stuff and link it to macros if you want, or a pretty big list of built in functions.
I figured that was probably the way it was. No big deal, just trying to see if I could hijack some spare switches 
That panel control board is cool. If you were building some kind of custom machine that was in a box. I supose on a CNC router you could make some kind of panel on an arm and do all kinds of crazy stuff.
I think I’'ll stick with the pendant though, thats nice and portable
Little update to anyone that is interested in external controls:
https://centroidcnc.com/centroid_diy/acorn_operator_control.html
In addition to the pendant and the BOB there is support for XKeys and Shuttle Express
