Penta Machines Kinetic Control UI

Requirements

  • Kinetic Control UI version 5.3.0 or newer

  • 1 free USB Port

Note

If you have multiple devices that need to connect via USB, please use a powered USB hub.

Features

Override Knobs

  • Feed

    • This dial corresponds to the Feed Rate slider with a range of 0% - 200%.

    • It controls the speed of the machine when executing feed rate moves.

  • Speed

    • This dial corresponds to the Spindle Rate slider with a range of 0% - 200%.

    • It controls the RPM of the spindle motor.

  • Velocity

    • This dial corresponds to the Max Velocity slider with a range of range 0% - 100%.

    • It controls the maximum speed of the machine when executing any axis movement.

Buttons

  • Start

    • This button is equivalent to the CYCLE/START button on the Kinectic Control UI and is used to start a gcode program or resume a gcode program that has been paused with the Hold button.

  • Hold

    • This button is equivalent to the FEED HOLD button on the Kinectic Control UI and is used to pause a running program.

  • Stop

    • This button is equivalent to the RESET button on the Kinectic Control UI and is used to stop a running program.

  • Aux

    • This button is currently not configured for functionality on Pocket NC machines. However, it is configurable within Kinetic Control UI and available for possible future functionality.

Jogging

  • Encoder Wheel

    • The wheel has 100 detents per revolution and will affect 1 jog step per detent for the selected axis and increment.

  • Axis Selection
    • Linear Axes

      • X

      • Y

      • Z

    • Rotary Axis

      • R1 (A Axis)

      • R2 (B Axis)

  • Increments

    The increments work as a divisor to the base increment.

    • X1 = \(base\)

    • X10 = \([\frac{base}{10}]\)

    • X100 = \([\frac{base}{100}]\)

  • Base Increments

    • Linear Axis - 0.01

    • Rotary Axis - 1°

Note

The base increment is configurable, you can use this to change the increment range to match your preference for your machine units. See Console Configuration for more information on configuring the behavior of your hand-held console.

Initial Setup

Kinetic Control UI v5.5.0 and newer

Starting with version 5.5.0 of the Kinetic Control UI, users no longer need to manually add configuration entries for the hand-held console to function. Simply plug the hand-held console into the USB port, and it will work automatically.

Kinetic Control UI v5.3.0 - v5.4.7

To enable the hand-held console functionality in Kinetic Control UI v5.3.0 - v5.4.7 you will need to edit the machine’s configuration INI.

Editing Your Machine Config

  1. Click on CONFIG on the top menu

  2. Scroll down to MACHINE CONFIG

  3. Click on EDIT OVERLAY in the lower right hand corner.

Adding a PENTA_FEATURES section

If you do not already have a PENTA_FEATURES section in your MACHINE CONFIG INI OVERLAY you will need to add one.

  1. Click the + under INI OVERLAY

  2. Name the section PENTA_FEATURES

Add Penta_Features

Add Penta_Features section

Adding a HANDHELD_CONSOLE configuration entry

To enable the hand-held console functionality in Kinetic UI you need to add a config entry to the PENTA_FEATURES

  1. Click on the PENTA_FEATURES section to select it

  2. Click the + under Name in the panel to the right of PENTA_FEATURES

  3. Name the entry HANDHELD_CONSOLE

  4. Enter the value of 1

  5. Click Save

Add HANDHELD_CONSOLE

Add Handheld_Console configuration entry

Console Configuration

The default behavior of the Aux button and step increments can be changed to better suit the requirements of the user.

Note

You only need to add a HANDHELD_CONSOLE section and add configuration entries if you want to change the default behavior. Using the hand-held console with the default behavior only requires Initial Setup.

Tip

Starting from version 5.5.0, Kinetic Control UI users can toggle Jog In Millimeters and Blue Button Homes Machine directly from the Additional tab in machine configuration, eliminating the need to manually add configuration entries to the machine INI.

Adding a HANDHELD_CONSOLE section

If you do not already have a HANDHELD_CONSOLE section in your MACHINE CONFIG INI OVERLAY you will need to add one.

  1. Click the + under INI OVERLAY

  2. Name the section HANDHELD_CONSOLE

Add HANDHELD_CONSOLE

Add Handheld_Console section

Valid configuration variables

  • BUTTON_2_SIGNAL

    • This entry controls the behavior of the Aux button.

  • LINEAR_JOG_INCR_BASE

    • This entry controls the jog increments for the linear axes.

  • ROTARY_JOG_INCR_BASE

    • This entry controls the jog increments for the rotary axes.

Examples

Jogging in mm increments

  1. Click on the HANDHELD_CONSOLE section to select it

  2. Click the + under Name in the panel to the right of HANDHELD_CONSOLE

  3. Name the entry LINEAR_JOG_INCR_BASE

  4. Enter the value of 0.03937

  5. Click Save

Jogging in mm increments

Jogging in mm increments

AUX Home All

  1. Click on the HANDHELD_CONSOLE section to select it

  2. Click the + under Name in the panel to the right of HANDHELD_CONSOLE

  3. Name the entry BUTTON_2_SIGNAL

  4. Enter the value of home-all-1

  5. Click Save

AUX Home All

AUX Home All

Note

Configuring Home All requires Kinetic Control UI version 5.3.1 or higher.