For those running GRBL on their OX
Originally shared by Anthony Bolgar
Not sure if anyone has seen this before, but for those running grbl you can have an LCD display for a DRO using https://www.shapeoko.com/wiki/index.php/LCD_on_GRBL#Full_version_GRBL_1.1
I have no experience with the TinyG board. I think @Alex_Krause uses one on his OX, he might know. What I decided to do with my lasers and my OX CNC is to use a Windows based tablet as the controller interface. It is the most versatile solution, as you can grab gcode files from your network with wireless WiFi and send them to your machine, touchscreen to interact with your sender software features like a DRO. can do some basic editing of files from the tablet, and if you need more horsepower to do any editing or CPU intensive work you can use remote desktop software like Teamviewer 10 to control your desktop machine, view video streamed from a camera on your machine, and so on. And you get all this for basically the same price as setting up Grbl or Smoothie to use a basic LCD. The only button you need to be hardwired to your machine is a big red e-stop button that shuts down the machine completely when pressed. I actually have 3 E-stops wired in series on my OX CNC - one on the controller case that sits at the midpoint of the Y axis, and one at each end of the machines Y axis so I can always reach one without having to move more than 1 step. One thing I do like having is 120V Neon indicator lamps to show the status or power state of the OX and its accessories (dust collector, air compressor, vacuum pump for a vacuum clamp) I also have a loud buzzer (100db) to indicate an error state. But in my opinion, jogging the machine, loading and running jobs, etc, is best handled by a Windows tablet (8"-10") is the best way to accomplish things.
I use a laptop or tablet for my interface when running my OX as well
I have 4 different tablets, a Win8.1 tablet 8", a 7" Win10 tablet from HP, an acer android 10" and a Chuwi dualk boot android/windows10 10.6" with a detachable keyboard. The 7" Win10 HP tablet I got from a local discount chain called Factory direct. I paid $89.00 CDN for it, so around $60 USD. But bangood has lots of Win10 tablets that range between $75 and $300. I use the HP tablet as a digital readout/penfant and the 10.6" Chuwi dual boot running Teamviewer 10 remote desktop app to have processing power for edits.