EMC Control Panel

["William Scalione" <wscalione-at-nc.rr.com>]

Photo at 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO/files/emcpanel.jpg

Started work on a control panel for EMC. Got the display working
and am waiting for the keyboard emulator from Hagstrom Electronics.
So far that is the only thing I had to buy, about $50.00 or so. I will
need to come up with some more switches like the ones I have
stuck in the holes right now. They're made by EAO Switch, anyone
got any for sale? I used a piece of that 2 layer engravers plastic
for the front with a piece of 1/4" aluminum plate for a backing. The
display is an old LCD panel that had no backlight on it, used on an
overhead projector. I grafted a backlight on it from an old broken
lcd panel I had here, and stuck an inverter on it. I will have a piece 
of 1/4" glass cut to fit over the LCD panel and seal it up to keep
the junk off it. It will be used on a router/engraver so there won't 
be any chemicals melting the plastic. I am going to use a digital
joystick connected to the keyboard emulator for the X and Y axis'
and a ON/OFF/ON momentary toggle switch for the Z axis. the 
rest of the switches will be all momentary contact pushbuttons.
Should be able to select a feedrate overide in 10% increments
from 10% to 100%, adjust the jog speed, switch between 
incremental jog and continious jog, Home and all of the auto
functions. The feedrate override keys will double as the 0 - 9
digits and with the G, F, M, and period I should be able to do
MDI commands also. A few other functions in there and a few
I am sure I will kick myself for forgetting, but maybe this will be
only a prototype, I'll see how I like using it, It may end up in the
corner of the shop, who knows. Also need to put a large E-Stop
switch and a computer on/off switch on it. I also need to modify
the TkEmc file to better fit into a 640X480 display. I don't need 
the Spindle control, or coolant. I think I can arrange it a little
differently and make it fit better, once I learn Tk and Tcl. Lots
more work to do before it's really functional.

Bill