I have been using the BlackBox Controller and the OB control software and love it. I am running OB Control on a Acer Iconia W700p Windows Tablet - works great. However, I use the touch screen to jog the machine, etc..... I have Fat Fingers and the other day I went to jog X+ 100mm and due to my fat fingers and using the touch screen I moved the Z axis down 100mm crashing my 60 degree vbit into the work piece and ruining it. I am not sure who develops the OB Control but it would be nice if there could be a user defined option to not allow Z to move 100mm or some way to move the Z buttons away from the X+ axis button. I know software development is not easy and everyone has an opinion, etc. Don't take it as me being critical of the software - I love it!
Always keeping these things in mind, but man, like you know, can't please everyone (; in particular you can't cater to every screen size either I've got an open standing invitation with a Boilerplate provided for suggestions - see OpenBuilds CONTROL Software - if you want to take a knack at it, that post highlights the reasons it is the way it is and some requirements
Is it possible modify the software so that 100mm travel distance can't be used on the Z-Axis? I broke a few bits because of the 100mm travel distance.
Negative, there are machines with longer Z travels I dont quite get how that accident happens (well except for the original posters Touchscreen related accident - on an 11" tablet those buttons are going to looks small). Just be mindful of the mode you are in before clicking Z - Removing 100mms alone wont help, a wrong click in 10mm or 1mm can still break an endmill too... - Check before issuing any move, any move you make has the potential to cause damage, so don't work blindly. Its a dangerous machine, keep your wits about you - Keep one hand near the [ESC] key - its a soft estop, so when you make a blunder just stop it in time - Using Keyboard jogging in particular, you can't mess it up (; page-up and page-down is well out of the way of the Cursors (Cursors = XY, PgUp/Dn = Z) - Why jog Z, when you can hook up a Z Probe
Speaking of, since its a tablet, try the dedicated Mobile jog interface? Fire up Chrome -> 127.0.0.1:3000/jog on the tablet (since it runs control too, you can use 127.0.0.1) The mobile page has bigger finger friendly sized buttons with margin already
Sorry to jump in on your thread. I don't have fat fingers, but I'm using a 10 inch tablet that makes my fingers feel fat!!! I have a problem when I go to load the gcode, the sub menu which allows you select local or web files is very small and I often touch the web option which in turns opens a browser. Drives me nuts!!! So Peter, is it possible in future versions to have a separate "open local gcode" button alongside an "open web based gcode" on the main gui? Just a thought! Also regarding jogging, is it possible to assign a keyboard shortcut to toggle the switch that selects incremental and continuous jogging? Loving the software along with the openbuilds blackbox, great job you're doing!
Control really is a Desktop application Those little windows tablets are cool, and we test drove them for a while here. I would do more to support them, BUT: they are underpowered too! No use making a good GUI for a tablet that conks out its little rockchip/allwinner/atom CPU on a 3000 line job. Negative, but consider plugging a mouse into the tablet if it cannot be replaced with a PC (which you will soon probably want to for lack of performance) That we can do, please log an issue on github.com/openbuilds/OpenBuilds-CONTROL/issues to get it on the (long) todo list
