I am having the worst time trying to get my xBox One controller to work on Carbide Motion. I have read through some of the older posts about it, but nothing has helped me understand how to get my controller connected and working. I have my controller working on my computer as just mainly a mouse, but I want to get it to work on Carbide Motion so I can remotely move everything without having to reach back to the mouse, or look across the machine over to the computer and try to make movements.
I enjoy being able to closely move machines by controllers because I can get closer to the tool and really home in on my zero locations. It stems from running a big CNC Haas mill that had a wired controller and I could climb into the machine somewhat and micro measure things and pinpoint locations and tool touch offs.
Does anyone know, or understand how to make this controller work in Carbide Motion? Do I need a controller app? or a mapping app? or what can I do to get this to work? I have updated the controllers firmware and have it set for my computer like I said, but nothing I do will get it to work in CM. I might be at a disadvantage if I have to be connected to the internet because I don’t have it at the shop, and service where I am at sucks. I can’t even use my phone inside my shop because I dont have service inside, outside is not that much better. No searching for anything online, ordering anything, or even listening to music is a hit or miss.
Someone please help if you have any insight to how I can get this done. Thanks in advance.
However, due to the vagaries of Windows it works on some computer setups and doesn’t work on others. I don’t think it has worked on the Mac (if someone knows of a specific Mac OS and device which works I’d be glad to test that). If someone knows/understands the specifics here and could speak to them, that would be very helpful.
I found it more straight-forward to remap the buttons on a game pad to match the requested shortcuts:
that said, I got tired of reinstalling the remapping program and remembering to start it, so I switched to a dedicated unit:
(note that this is a personal endorsement in terms of me as a user, not an official endorsement in my rôle as a Carbide 3D remote tech support person)
There are a couple of others, folks on support and the Facebook Group have mentioned buying them from Etsy or eBay, and for a while, the electronics folks here were making their own.
Or, you could just use a numeric keypad (possibly wireless):
Or, you could use a programmable device such as a Steamdeck:
I have 3 wireless Xbox 360 controllers and none of them will work unless I go buy a Bluetooth adapter from Microsoft for my controllers to have a way to signal to my computer through Bluetooth. Something about the internal Bluetooth not being open sourced to just connect into my computer’s Bluetooth. They need an adaptor that catches the signal and converts it to a signal my computer can recognize. I also have a newer gen Xbox One controller that was for my Xbox One S. I have tried to use the controller with CM and it will not move a thing. I am running the latest Windows 11 and still no luck, but I did only move the two joysticks on the controller when I was at the shop yesterday. I am going to the shop today and will try again to see if the controller works in CM with the other buttons. I was in a hurry to get a project done because I am leaving tomorrow to go out of town for a bit of work. So today is the test to see if I missed something or I am just out of luck.
I’m just curious as to how CM knows what controller buttons does what within it if no controller button mapping has taken place. My Xbox One controller has 8 buttons, directional pad with 4 directions, and two joysticks that have 10 functions to them. But if my Xbox controller wont work in CM then so be it. I saw a video where this guy had CM open and was mapping the buttons to his Xbox One controller to CM, but he was using a third party program that was of questionable origin and I’m not sure I want to subject my computer to such a program.
I have read through your post “Using a Game Controller with CM513 and later.” I’ll check a few of these other posts to see what I can come up with. I want to be wireless with whatever it is that I do have finally work. Dragging wires around causes too many issues for me and I know that at some point, if I had wired controllers, I would catch it on something and rip it out of my computer or out of the controller itself. Then I would have a whole knew issue of problems to deal with. I’m not that tech savvy and making my own keyboard/controller is out of the question. I would also rather have a controller instead of a keypad. Just my preference.
There is a default mapping for game controllers as noted in the previously linked thread.
I find using something with labeled buttons reduces the cognitive load and (mostly) prevents errors from pushing the wrong button, hence my purchase of the Techkeys unit.
Besides, I love the mechanical click, and have since my first IBM Model M keyboard.
I actually do like the click as well. When I am setting up the big CNC Haas mill with the controller, it has a dial on it that has three different stages, and when using the smallest incremental stage move, the dial clicks for every .001" move. I like that because I can make the move while holding a piece of paper between the part and tool and feel each increment so I know it is moving.