TouchDRO is a wireless DIY Digital Readout for machine shop enthusiasts, makers and small machine shops alike. It is a modular system that uses an Android tablet for the DRO display and works with a large selection of DRO scales. Thanks to its modern multi-touch graphical user interface, TouchDRO can offer ease of use and functionality that rivals the high-end digital readouts.
Most traditional DRO consoles use hardware designs and clunky user interfaces that have not changed for decades. They might be adequate for very simple machining tasks. When it comes to convenience and usability, these DROs fall disappointingly short.
As a hobby machine shop enthusiast, I set out to design an affordable high-quality DRO for small machine shops, makers and hobby machinists alike. With feedback from the machinist community and focus on reliability, convenience, and ease of use, TouchDRO has become a full featured and flexible digital readout system. It is much more than just a DRO emulator application.TouchDRO is a powerful system that leverages software to simplify complex operations, speed up mundane tasks and push the limits of what's possible on a manual machine.
TouchDRO offers a superior touch-based user interface that is sharp, easy to read, easy to use, and easy to customize to fit your specific needs. The graphical user interface is not constrained by physical buttons, so it can adapt to the task at hand. By automating repetitive operations, TouchDRO can make common tasks faster, less error prone, and more enjoyable.
TouchDRO is very cost effective. It offers features, functionality and ergonomics that you will find only in the most expensive high-end DROs. By being true to its DIY roots, TouchDRO can do this for a fraction of the cost. With TouchDRO, you are in control and can tailor the type of scales, adapter, and Android tablet to suit your needs and your budget without sacrificing the functionality.
Running on a standard Android tablet, TouchDRO has access to factors of magnitude more processing power and storage than a traditional digital readout. As a result, it can offer connectivity, performance and capabilities that are unparalleled even by the most expensive DRO units.
TouchDRO can be used with most modern DRO scales and linear encoders to fit your installation constraints. This includes inexpensive Chinese capacitive scales, high-precision 1-micron glass and magnetic scales from many different manufacturers, and even generic quadrature rotary encoders.
TouchDRO is under constant development in close collaboration with the machinist community. As new features are added, getting them is as simple as clicking the "Update" button. With TouchDRO you will never be stuck with an obsolete "last years" model. Instead, over time your system will only get better.