FluidNC-Pendant

Work originated from https://github.com/gjkrediet/Fluid-controller

The original design by gjkrediet was intended for bluetooth, this design is for Wi-Fi version of the FluidNC. Pendant communicates with the controller through Websocket protocol on TCP port 81.

PCB

PCB was redesigned to hold all components to be soldered into it except the battery and power switch. GRBL files are included for online order as well as schematics.

Front of the PCB with soldered components

Back of the PCB

JST 2.0 soldered to the power switch and JST that comes with TTGO

Battery is fixed behind PCB with a Kapton tape

3D printed case

Lid was slightly modified to hold new PCB and power switch. Depending on which tactile switches were used - 3D printed buttons can be vertically scaled/reduced in the slicer.

Firmware

Development was migrated from Arduino IDE into the PlatformIO to have stricter control over library versioning.

Installation instructions:

1. Clone git repo: git clone https://github.com/AC8L/FluidNC-Pendant.git
2. Copy/rename sample_Config.h to Config.h
3. Enter your WiFi SSID information and FluidNC hostname/port in Config.h
4. Wait until Visual Studio Code pulls down all depending libraries
5. Overwrite content of .pio/libdeps/esp32dev/TFT_eSPI/User_Setup.h with the content of User_Setup.h.TFT_eSPI
6. Overwrite the content of .pio/libdeps/esp32dev/TFT_eSPI/User_Setup_Select.h with the content of User_Setup_select.h.TFT_eSPI
7. Now firmware will compile and you should be able to program the TTGO T Display.

Operations

This section should probably be the largest section of this document but let at least get started.

Red button

• When FluidNC is in ALARM mode, pressing RED button sends UNLOCK command
• Long pressing the RED button puts pendant into the sleep mode
• When in sleep mode, pressing RED button wakes pendant up

Optical rotator

• By default it is in the mode of adjusting the jog speed
• When pressed - it enters the Menu mode. Menu options can be selected on the screen by scrolling the rotator and finally choosing by a click
• Homing can be done from Menu and changing brightness, turning spindle on and off among other functions

Joystick

Jogs X and Y axes

Green button

• Pressing GREEN button allows to change the default parameter that rotator controls.
• For example, after pressing the green button by rotating the rotator we can select the Z access to be controlled by rotator. Then we make a selection by pressing the GREEN button again and use rotator to bring the Z axis up and down.

Yellow Button

Sends abort commands to the CNC