I’m tired of moving my MacBookPro into the garage to operate my SP5. Is there any way I can use my iPadPro instead? The touch screen will be a huge bonus here too.
Alternatively, how about a Raspberry Pi-driven touch screen? Any options here?
Here’s a link for the Pi version, Carbide Motion for the Raspberry Pi
However, do a search of the forums for the latest glitch. I believe the problem is the latest version of the Pi OS?
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I looked into using an ipad as a wifi touchscreen for a raspi. It works ok if you have adequate wifi coverage. You can also use a newer ipad with a usb c interface and a hub as a touch screen for a raspi, but it was a supreme headache to make everything work, and the communication delay was annoying. If you’re going to spend the outrageous price on a raspberry device, you could rather invest in a good used Windows computer that will run it just fine. I have a refurbished dell optiplex running debian for my laser, and the computer was cheaper than a raspberry pi 4. I find the raspi on my cnc to be laggy when remoting into it to move files, and it’s not as configurable as a computer.
I use a 10” raspberry pi touch screen case with the pi built in. It works great. I think the 7” screens would be too small.
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I have an Rpi with a 7" touchscreen - it’s alright though sometimes it is difficult to touch buttons that are too small. However, it is nice for a tight setup.
The Rpi OS also has RealVNC server so remoting in via RealVNC client viewer is simple. Watch out though on the latest BookWorm OS(for Rpi4 & 5’s) - the GUI manager backend was changed over to Wayland by default & doesn’t play nicely with everything yet. You have to go into Advanced Configuration to re-enable the old X11 for reliable functioning of Carbide Motion & to enable RealVNC server to run.
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Oh fantastic! Any idea if this:
- Works with a Raspberry Pi 5? (I recently received my preorder)
- Would benefit from the RPi 5’s additional performance, or is the 4 plenty?
This sounds great! You wouldn’t happen to have a link would you?
This is the one that I got:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B09921BJ8D?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title
I have had it over a year and it’s been great. Getting the PI in was a little fiddley but ok since then.
However it has been showing as unavailable on Amazon for a really long time.
I think this is the same one from the manufacturer’s page
It says PI 3 but I put a 4+ in it no idea if the 5 would fit.
Also, I paid $95 on Amazon. The manufacturer page shows $239. I wouldn’t pay that as there are other solutions for less.
If you don’t mind your PI case and the touch screen being separate then there are a ton of options. I did see some on Amazon where the pi integrates and mounts on the back but they didn’t have an enclosure which seemed like a bad idea.
Mine is 1280x800 and that’s ok for me. Keep in mind that this only runs CM not CC so any edits are done on my main machine and pushed back to the pi via samba.
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I’ve been using an RPi 4B for CM and it has worked very well. I have it in an enclosure that houses the official Raspberry Pi 7" touchscreen. I seriously doubt you would see any difference in performance with a faster processor; the RPi 4B isn’t being pushed at all.
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I agree with that. I also meant to mention above that I updated my OS version when I updated to the latest CM, but I did not switch to the latest PI OS level which had the issues with the GUI. I read through the notes for that version and didn’t see a good reason to go that far.
I did have to apply the fix discussed in one of the other PI threads though. It was a simple change to a text file as I recall.
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My understanding is the Pi 5 requires a new case.
I’ve been using my Pi 4 with:
and it works fine (though turning it on/off is a bit fiddly).
Need to look into getting a Pi 5.
I was running a Pi3 and upgraded to a Pi4 just because I had it 
It runs great.
Those all in ones are cool however I thought they would pose a cable management problem, so many cables having to be routed to the screen. I went with a separated solution. I ended up deciding on the Logitech F310 game controller as a pendant. When zeroing I can take the controller with me and get my eyes right in there. The controller soon becomes muscle memory in my hand. With a touch screen I would have to look where I am touching and I have fat finger syndrome
I set up the joysticks to emulate a mouse, which is kinda cool but I still use a wireless mouse some times. ( better acceleration then the joystick ) I have a wireless micro keyboard but it just sits off in the drawer. The Pi and cables are all hidden away in the torsion box table top.
Just some food for thought.
Cable management and having to look where you are touching.
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Thanks for this insightful perspective
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Looks like this tablet won’t meet the minimum requirements:
System Requirements:
- Raspberry Pi 4
- 2GB RAM minimum
- Raspbian 32-bit OS
- Screen Display: 1280 x 1024 minimum
- GRBL (Firmware) Version: 1.1
Is this going to be an issue?
My understanding is that there were some adjustments made to the placement of UI elements — the 720P screen (1280 x 720) on the Raspad v3 has worked for me (but I don’t think I did the setup wizard).
I have CMv6.22 loaded on an RPi4 with a 10" 1280x800 touchscreen - don’t think I’ve run into any UI issues so far with it. But I haven’t used it extensively yet… Still waiting to change over to it.
I also have a 7" touchscreen which worked fine for the previous v5.xx version of CM - the programming team made a great effort to get CM’s UI to fit on the 800x480 resolution of that screen.
Don’t know if CMv6.xx UI all fits on that though as I never got around to trying that.
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Touch screen and track pads are a pain when it comes to design and viewing your simulation in 3D IMO. I have a MacBook pro and got a wifi keyboard and mouse which I can use with the CNC.
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