Interface

I would love to know your setup and if it is your first interface unit.

I am super upset with the unit, and still struggling to get it to work consistently.
I was hoping by now there was a NON capacitive touch version. Perhaps a version with buttons?
Maybe a conversion kit?
I am heavily debating on reviewing the schematic to even make a buttoned version.

No matter what I do, the capacitive buttons are super glitchy, and not consistent.

THoughts?

 

I agree with OP that it is a great addition to complement a setup!

For me I do like that it has capacitive buttons, I have a small work area(bench mill) and since it is continuous jog it is nice to be able to tap for small adjustments that I don't believe would work as well with detent type buttons.

But I have also experienced erratic behavior at times, curious are you just touching the interface and nothing else at the time? Does it always act up or does it ever act normal at other times?

 

I hear you there. We went through this exercise before.
I did self tests in other areas of the house. (CNC is in the garage).
I did a grounding party, tie earth, to chassis, to cnc, to power supply, etc, etc.
It is an openbuilds kit, blackbox, with Meanwell PS. Should be good.

I am in the process of betting to the bottom of it.
I will put a scope on power lines, the I2C etc to see if there is noise.
I may also look deeper into the TTP229-B on the touch-PCB.

I am also looking at just using an Arduino (or equiv) to interface the "Interface".

We will see.

 

I tend to agree. It is very handy to have a little handheld that runs the whole operation. Sweet deal!
Reminds me of 3D printers, or similar.

Erratic Behavior:
I have tried all kinds of tests, and sadly the only consistency is that it is, inconsistent.
I try to very lightly touch, and sometimes most times it works (get the beep/buzz), but some times doesn't.
If I press very hard, the behavior seems to change, however still erratic.
I have moved it inside, outside, day, night, with lights on (off) and in the end cant seem to figure it out.
Often, I find myself moving my finger around the "pad" area to find where it stays consistent and actually "pushes" and is often on an edge (especially the border between OK and X+.
Answering your question directly, typically when using the Interface, I am only touching it.
However, If I take a meter and measure resistance to ground, the RETURN on the Interface, Earth Ground, CNC Chassis are all the same potential.
During winter, when my hands were quite cold it seemed to be worse.

Trying to quantify failure:
If I had to quantify it,
Out of 10 attempts to hit the screen "soft key" buttons, they work 10 of 10. I have never had them glitch or be erratic.
If I attempt to use the X/Y/Z jog buttons, about 5 of 10 times it will double beep, or flutter very quickly beep and just sort of hang until I release and re-press somewhere that *might* work.
Lastly, on about 1 of 20 times the X/Y/Z will sort of "lock" or "glitch" into place and will not stop no matter what is done. This means I get a STUCK jog, towards whatever direction was last pressed. A few bits have been broken, and lets just say I am super familiar with my emergency stop now. Once emergency stopped (using a switch) the Interface notices, but is still "glitched" so no button will work. The only way to clear it, is remove power (or hit reset).

Self Test:
Often, I will start with the self-test, and work through it allowing me to test each button. Seems to work fine and feels like different behavior.
Originally, I thought it was a firmware, software-filtering issue that was either over (or under) setting the sensitivity of the touch.
Also thought (or hoped) there was an updated filtering (or voting) scheme to give consistent output.
Flashing firmware did not result in any changes.

Moving Forward:
I am looking now to run some more tests, and going to put a scope on my power lines, the I2C lines for the touch-PCB and try to get to the bottom of it.
I will say thanks to OpenBuilds, because when this issue originally started they did send me another unit. After receipt of that unit, with the same issue I thought it was me. -So the grounding party, making all lights LED, and checking for any noise (electronic) sources.
After all that work, the behavior was the same... and I sort of just live with it.

Hoping to get a resolution and happy to chat.

Cheers!

 

Not sure if any of this is relevant to your issue but sounds similar and I am trying to find a consistent pattern and tests to perform. It has done it since day one and thought it was my install/environment but starting to think otherwise.

Not sure if this is expected behavior but if I am touching anything metal of the mill it will usually not respond but not always, I can be leaning up lightly on through clothing and it can react the same. I looked into it some a while back and isolated it to a bench test with a PSU, Blackbox, stepper motor(different one from the mill) and interface. If I was touching the stepper motor I could easily duplicate the issue. Self test check out ok.

It has since progressed to acting more erratic and getting to be more of a concern, I too have upped my safety and added a emergency stop and have had to use it on several occasions when it get stuck in a jog mode(even when not touching those). It will intermittently respond as I touch the buttons and flash random leds and can get stuck with those lit. I was learning the mill and speeds and feeds and would try adjusting while running and learned quickly that was not a good decision. I also learned not to pause while running and cancelling a job is a crapshoot.

I have a PC connected through it to control with it and found it was less of an issue the interface when it is connected. An odd thing is when in an unhappy state I can hit reset on the interface and will reboot and be in the same state even have the same stuck leds lit?? I reset the blackbox and all is good so now not sure if it could somehow be the blackbox??

This could be related to my stepper motor mounting and why is has progressed. It is a converted Sieg mill that I designed up the conversion and 3D printed the parts. I milled with aluminum and replaced them over time and thinking they were isolated when mounted on plastic and that maybe why it has progressed as they were weaned off plastic and now mounted with metal parts.

 

US. 60Hz power, 120VAC.
If by 3rd party VFD, you mean variable frequency drive -right?
Nothing like that. Not even exotic garage equipment, lifts, welders, motors, or anything 3 phase.

Regarding Firmware, great point.
I just checked and am at 1.52. So I will be upgrading and checking again!

I have basically the LEAD CNC, 1515, with the blackbox kit and a Dewalt 1.5 HP router.

 

I will do some tests, to see if touching metal makes a difference.
I did find it interesting that the entire setup was not all grounded throghout, w/ a metal chassis, etc.
Lets keep the chat going.

 

I want to second the problems with the Interface. All my electric components are from OpenBuilds, blackbox, power supply, and Interface, and I am not happy with the Interface. The problem with the capacitive buttons goes much further than simply glitching and all the other error modes already described above. There is a much more fundamental issue. When one wants to jog the gantry one has to look at the gantry to see where it is. At the same time, one has to touch one of the capacitive buttons. In order to do that, one first has to look at the Interface to be able to hover a finger or thumb over the button so that one is in the right spot but not yet activating it. Then one has to switch the gaze to the gantry and then one can lower the finger to activate the button. That is very inconvenient and error-prone. A tactile button, wheel or joystick would be a lot better. One can lightly touch such controls without activating them. That means one does not constantly have to switch gaze from the gantry to the input device and back to jog the machine.

A version of the Interface with tactile buttons would be much welcome. Only the X,Y, Z jog buttons would need to be tactile. The other buttons could remain capacitive.

Some suggestions/ideas to perhaps fix or improve some issues:

- Would better shielding of the cable that connects the Interface to the blackbox improve the interference issues?
- Offer a wireless connection (bluetooth). If the interference is mainly picked up by the connection wire then this should fix it.
- Coiled wire option for the connection between Interface and blackbox. This cable has to be fairly long so that one can walk around the machine with the Interface in hand. When my Interface sits on the magnetic mount it is close to the blackbox. This means that a whole bunch of cable lies on the floor. A coiled wire would take up that slack. This would make cable management easier. I have no idea if this would make the interference issue worse or better.

 

** I 1000% agree with this.
I would love to get a tactile version of that top PCB that would simply screw onto the OP.

This is all "open" stuff right? Meaning we can get a hold of the interface/messaging/code that moves inbetween the Touch PCB and the actuall OP itself?