Dualshock Remote Pendant for CNCjs on Raspberry Pi

• Installation Instructions
• Auto Start and Restart
• Update Notes

I purchased an offline controller for my woodpecker cnc board and was quickly disapointed that I could not use CNCjs while it was connected. It also lacked controls for zeroing out the work surface and was tiny. I found cncjs-pendant-js, which had almost all the commmands I wanted and some open buttons.

This fork is a modified version of cncjs-pendant-ps3 with some updated library versions and added commands for zeroing out the axes, and a structure to add custom commands to the PSX modified commands.

For about the same price as the offline controller I think the dualshock 3 is a much more comfortable and capable pendant option. I added the R2 modified commands for zeroing out the axes and going to the home position to the previously empty R2 modified button commands.

I am really starting to like the controller layout from cncjs-pendant-ps3 and after adding commands to zero out the axes to the unused R2 modified commands I can now do everything I need with the controller.

PS3 CNC Control Button Map Google Drawing

Installation Instructions

CNCjs currently runs best on node version 8, these instructions assume you have NPM and NVM installed along with CNCjs on your Raspberry Pi.

Get started installing the pendant by setting the version of node and installing some required packages for bluetooth and building packages locally.

Install Node v8 and dualshock-controller and cncjs-pendant-ps3 node apps locally

# Prepare the Raspbery Pi
nvm install 8
nvm use 8
apt install build-essential git bluetooth libbluetooth3 libusb-dev
npm install node-gyp node-pre-gyp

# Clone build and link dual-shock-controller and cncjs-pendant-ps3

git clone https://github.com/garthvh/node-dualshock-controller.git
cd node-dualshock-controller
npm install
npm link 
cd
git clone https://github.com/garthvh/cncjs-pendant-ps3.git
cd cncjs-pendant-ps3
npm link dualshock-controller
npm install -g --unsafe-perm

You should now be able to connect your controller using

cncjs-pendant-ps3 -p "/dev/ttyUSB0"

Auto Start and Restart

For my Raspberry Pi CNCjs machine controller I use PM2 to start the processes I need on boot, and to restart them when they crash. This is expecially important for the pendant because it throws an error when the controller goes to sleep and the bluetooth disconnects. Using PM2 the pendant software is always ready to connect the controller and get to work.

Install Production Process Manager [PM2]

# Install Production Process Manager [PM2]
npm install pm2 -g

# Setup PM2 Startup Script
pm2 startup
#[PM2] You have to run this command as root. Execute the following command once:
sudo su -c "env PATH=$PATH:/home/pi/.nvm/versions/node/v8.1.6/bin pm2 startup debian -u pi --hp /home/pi"

# Start Dualshock Remote Pendant for CNCjs (conected to serial device @/dev/ttyUSB0) with PM2
pm2 start $(which cncjs-pendant-ps3) -- -p "/dev/ttyUSB0"

# Set current running apps to startup
pm2 save

# Get list of PM2 processes
pm2 list

Update Notes

I had to make a number of updates to get the cncjs-pendant-ps3 and dualshock-controller node packages working properly on a raspberry pi running raspbian buster lite 2019-07-10.

• Add R2 modified button commands to index.js for zeroing out the work area
• Comment out extras function that throws node-hid error
• Clone, build and link node-dualshock-controller package version 1.1.2 using node-hid 0.7.9

Because of these changes I had to fork the two git repositories and am no longer able to install directly from NPM.

Todo

• Add json configuration option for 3 PSX modified cooling buttons.
• Other potential commands: jog cancel, status