An Electronic Leadscrew Controller using a Pi Pico

greenail said:
Happy to collaborate on websockets/react when you guys realized hardware UI is always going to impede progress ;)
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Haven't admitted defeat yet, but I'm getting perilously close. :)
I'll be asking soon anyways, since it would be a good thing to know... Even if I get this #@%! display to look the way I want. It's not hard, it is just tedious...
 
Moving to a different display doesn't retire the programming effort, it moves it to a different display and programming environment. :)
 
Just a random thought here. Perhaps using one of the common 3D Printer UI boards might be worth considering. These are commodity items available from many sources. There are several variations. They have a display, rotary encoder/push knob, reset button and an SD cardslot for $15-20. Here's one from fysetc:

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AlanB said:
Just a random thought here. Perhaps using one of the common 3D Printer UI boards might be worth considering. These are commodity items available from many sources. There are several variations. They have a display, rotary encoder/push knob, reset button and an SD cardslot for $15-20. Here's one from fysetc:

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Pretty neat. Worth taking a look at, since it is a lot of HW for the money. Pretty compact as well.

Hopefully the above FYSETC unit is better than the unit that I got to do a different task. They were using outdated libraries, so it was hard to code for it. The new libraries wouldn't work at all. I was trying to use the module to act as a wireless SD card reader in a CPAP machine. It had an esp device, a micro sd card, and a full size male SD card interface to plug into a printer SD card slot. Just couldn't quite make it work. It would work on the bench, but not in the CPAP. I modded the SW, and HW, on the FYSETC card, but no go. Practically impossible to debug while on the CPAP machine. Gave up on it after 3 months of beating my head against the wall. Was a pity, since it should have worked... At least I bought it from AliExpress, so I wasn't out too much money. I'd have been really mad had I paid the full US retail price for it.
 
Re the FYSETC display/knob - hard to say, these are used in large numbers of 3D printers, the one thing I've heard is that cable noise is an issue if the cables are extended, and this implies the environment and pullups / drivers can be an issue. They were designed for 5 volt 8 bit systems. I don't like the knob and display being tied together physically so I'm not going to go that route, though I have a couple of them on the shelf. It was just a thought. The 32 bit printer control boards often have a compatible connector for them now, so they are working with 32 bit systems as well, but I haven't looked into how they do the level shifting.

I was looking at my collection of rotary encoders for knobs. I have a quality Grayhill unit that came from an old project, and it has a cable on it rather than pins which would be convenient for the testing. I found it on Digikey, and today it sells for over $50, Wow! Not sure I want to use that one, it is optical and 5 volt so would require level shifting and the cable is 0.050" spacing so not a breadboard drop-in. I have another mechanical type that is designed for heavy duty automotive service, but is PCB pins not in a row so not quite as convenient for a breadboard. There are lots of cheap ones on the net with pins in a single row that are convenient for breadboarding, so perhaps I should get some of those. Probably not terribly good quality, perhaps use for testing and use a better one for the installation on the Lathe.
 
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I ordered the PJRC 3.2 inch display. It looks to me like the dimensions on the website are for the 2.8 inch. If you have dimensional info for the 3.2 to share I might get a head start on the CAD for the test setup. I ordered some switches and an encoder knob so might have parts in under a week to at least start. June is busy here so I won't spend a lot of time on it, but some of it can be used as time fillers.
 
AlanB said:
I ordered the PJRC 3.2 inch display. It looks to me like the dimensions on the website are for the 2.8 inch. If you have dimensional info for the 3.2 to share I might get a head start on the CAD for the test setup. I ordered some switches and an encoder knob so might have parts in under a week to at least start. June is busy here so I won't spend a lot of time on it, but some of it can be used as time fillers.
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I'll try to measure the PJRC 3.2" display tonight or tomorrow morning. You are correct, they don't have the drawing on their website for the 3.2" display. If I recall correctly, the mounting holes were plated through for some reason. 2mm hardware barely made it through the holes.
 
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