(Update: How is this different than the websocket implementation mentioned below? ESP-NOW is radio-to-radio protocol of its own. So the flaky-ass wifi network you’re running can die, and the FluidDial still works. I didn’t know if it was possible to have both a wifi connection AND ESP-NOW but, magically, it does work. The whole point of having a pendant for me was this direct connection reliability, as my machines love to disconnect for WiFi especially in AP mode, in search of the previous Internet)
With FluidNC 4.0.3 the async web server got me thinking… with ESP-NOW ( ESP-NOW Wireless Communication Protocol | Espressif Systems ) I could maybe do wireless serial comms to the FluidDial and the Jackpot (as mentioned in their docs as a possibility if a “skilled programmer” did it. I don’t know if I’d go THAT far… ;)) And do it simultaneously with the web UI. Would it work? Was it crazy? Yes?
(That is the new FigUI GitHub - figamore/FigUI: Next-generation Web UI for FluidNC · GitHub running on my fork of the newest v4.0.3 FluidNC) Basically to make the FluidDial work you’ll just need a USB power supply and the green/red buttons, and add this to your config.yaml.
To think of how many poor FluidDials met their maker due to accidental wiring mishaps… I dedicate this to their memory! It checks the UART first so it uses your RJ12 connection/hard wiring by default, so you can have both.
Hardware required is just the FluidDial and the buttons. I only have a Jackpot v1, but I assume it’ll work on the newer ones? If they mysteriously arrived at my doorstep I’d eagerly test!
I’ll probably release this soon if the FluidNC gang is interested. Otherwise will be available on a Github fork for the v1e early adopters. Going to run some more rigorous testing first.
Oh and the ka-chunk in the video was something falling, not me breaking my Lowrider…
Oh hah! Well I guess I’ll just enjoy the experience.
Looks like he did a different approach with websockets, while I’m basically using a serial connection over the ESP-NOW protocol. It is broadcast based (latches to the MAC) so dealing with wifi networks is unnecessary.
They have to use the same channel (I handle that) but I haven’t had any issues in my initial testing. The nice thing is that this is a direct connection. In my video the webUI is going over my wifi router, but the pendant is talking over broadcast to the Jackpot directly 2 feet away.
E.g. if my Wi-Fi router goes down the pendant is connected via esp-now and stays connected.
Theoretically - I will test this. But that does make it potentially better than the websocket implementation.
Ooh! I bought a sack of ESP32-C3’s because I thought I was going to make a virtual serial cable connection, until I realized I didn’t even need them. But esp-now is a party out of the box, so could be fun for lots of things…
I’m glad I didn’t see that Wifi fork of FluidDial because I probably wouldn’t have had any of the fun!
