Is there any way to alter the speed setting that are mapped onto the joypad?
I am manually cutting a bunch of long angled strips of xps foam with a hotwire attached to the spindle. High speed is a little too fast for my max cutting temp and low speed is a little too slow for my lowest temperature. I could run it as G-code but its kind of a hassle to load a program for each cut because all the lengths are different and the joy pad is easy to stop and start where I want. Would be sooooo great just to dial in the joypad speed with a number somewhere. Any way to hack that?
Hey Greg,
you could learn g-code and manually enter the commands into the manual data interface (mdi)
You just need a âG1 X* F*â command which means: Linear move of X axis for the X* distance at F* feedrate (replace * by meaningful values in inches rsp. in ipm) Feedrate can be adjusted by three after-decimal-point digits in inches mode. You would position the cutter on the begin of the workpiece and prepend the command by G91 (incremental distance mode) so that the controller interprets the value to X as a distance to run from where you are.
References
Welcome to the forum!
Yeah I can do that, and I know G-code, but that is what Iâm trying to avoid. Hundreds of cuts all different lengths and I need the abilitiy to start and stop on the fly. If I have to stop and load a program or type code for each cut its going to suck.
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Hey Greg,
creating a toolpath and loading it into machine, yes. But simply typing
âG91 G1 X5 F3â
(=assuming a cut of 5 inches at 3 ipm)
I donât see what can suck there, in case you have a keyboard connected to your controller (what I strongly recommend, since a virtual keyboard on a touch screen, THAT is what really sucks).
Not really looking for a debate on my process, just was wondering if the speeds can be custom mapped to the controllers.
I do not have a Onefinity controller, but have an idea for a creative and potentially successful temporary fixâŚ
It looks like only X and Y travel are required, so could you create a custom machine (I thought I remembered seeing that it is possible to do this), and modify the motor parameters to âtrickâ the axes to going slower (not sure how the controller handles this or what is available to modify). You could save it as âFoam cuttingâ, then just load it when needed?
Not sure if any of that is possible 
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Hey Greg,
I assumed you just move X. Do you need to move any of the other axes too to make such cuts?
Was wondering fi there was a way to trick the motors into responding at a percentage of the speed. Its a good thought
Just x, but most of the time I am on the opposite side of the table holding the work down and sliding it forward, so with the wireless controller in my hand I have access to the cut without losing register on the part Iâm holding⌠I just ran the numbers and I have 10,080 separate pieces to cut from 14 different master shapes that all have precise angles. they fit together to create the topology across a 12 foot sphere. Any time I can save not running around entering code re-fixturing cuts is going to help.
Hey Greg,
Maybe Iâm assuming too much about myself. For me, using a computer keyboard became the easiest thing I do in my daily life already a long time ago, both for personal and professional reasons, and I often do it for 15 hours at a time. But I write by using two-handed touch typing, have excellent keyboards, use an ergonomic keyboard layout and write as fast as many persons speak. Maybe thatâs why I think my suggestion is the simplest solution.
But maybe it is the best solution to find and to change the values in the code of the onefinity-firmware, or better, to add to the user interface a way for the operator to be able to change these values. But I donât use this controller, so itâs not worth it for me.
Okay, okay. On the Onefinity Controller, you open a terminal window (either hold down âCtrlâ and then click âTâ and then âCâ (type âexitâ to exit again)) or you log in with a ssh (user: bbmc, password: onefinity), and then do:
sudo -i
cd /usr/local/lib/python3.5/dist-packages/bbctrl-1.0.9-py3.5.egg/bbctrl/
nano Jog.py
There, you find:
def changed(self):
scale = 1.0
if self.speed == 1: scale = 1.0 / 128.0
if self.speed == 2: scale = 1.0 / 32.0
if self.speed == 3: scale = 1.0 / 4.0
The âLow speedâ is speed 2.
Inside nano, after you have made your modifications as desired, you do <Ctrl>-O, <Enter>, <Ctrl>-X, and then back on CLI you type
reboot
EnJoy 
!
PS: I donât like nano, but it is installed.
Further reading
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Nice, this is great! Def going to try it out.
Its not a matter of typing vs controller, more an issue that âI am the fixture jigâ standing behind the machine holding down a warped piece of scrap that I dont want to change the pressure on by going back over to the screen. I will probably enter in code for the longer strips but I end up with all this scrap that I dont want to individually fixture.
Hey Greg,
I understand. Thanks for showing what you do!
Happy to, its a crazy build for sure. This is 1/6 scale study model. The final will be 14 feet tall after all the fiberglass and cement work.
I bought the Onefinity just to do the framework, but figured I could hack it to do the foam also.
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so close⌠but it gives me a no permission error when I try to save changes
what did I do wrong?
did you enter the âsudo -iâ command first,if successful the prompt would have changed from a $ to a #
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I did the first time but had something typed wrong in the directory, and on my second attempt I forgot that part⌠duh. That was probably it. Thanks
so I was going to find out by experimenting but is it (1.0 / 4.0) meaning 1 is 100 percent and you are dividing it by 4 or are you replacing the 1 increment with 4?
Hey Greg,
this is a division. To try out the behaviour I changed the 32.0 first to 512, rebooted, tested (green lower button on gamepad), and then I changed the value to 1, rebooted, tested again by moving one of the axes with the gamepad. The behaviour after pressing the green button was in the first case that the speed was 1/4th of the âultra slowâ speed, with the latter value it was as fast as the âfull speedâ button. So if you said the âlow speedâ is too low, you could decrease the 32.0 to a value below it in order to increase the speed.
Instead of increasing the speed that the green button activates (speed 2 in the code), you can of course also decrease the speed the red button activates (speed 3).
By the way, when typing in long paths like /usr/local/lib/python3.5/dist-packages/bbctrl-1.0.9-py3.5.egg/bbctrl/, you can make use of the auto-complete function of bash by typing only /usr/ and the next letter l, and then the Tab key twice, then it shows you possible completions, and you again simply type the next letter, and this way repeatedly until the path is complete.
To read the full bash manual, type the command man bash (âor click here).
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That was it, thanks so much. I changed the 2 scale to 1.0 / 15 and it hit my speed perfectly. super thin kerf with just a hair of deflection in the wire.
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Thanks, that is faster than getting full string right every time:)
2 set at 1.0 / 15.0 feels like about a F 600 in millimeters. so I guess the default is something like F 50 in inches
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Hey Greg,
when set to metric, without modification, âfull speedâ is 10 m/min, âhigh speedâ is 2.5 m/min, , âslow speedâ is 0.31 m/min, and âultra slowâ is 0.08 m/min. Setting the value in the division to 512 made 0.02 m/min.
What do you think of changing the threadâs title to âFine-tuning Gamepad Jog Speedsâ or âFine-tuning hack of Gamepad Jog Speedsâ?
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