Re: control panel

[Brian Pitt <bfp-at-earthlink.net>]

sounds like a good place for a small microcontroler to read the 
switches and stuff commands in thru the serial port 
testing could be done with a seperate PC running a terminal
emulator program
that would offload most of the work and free the keyboard for
typing only 
there are plenty of little PIC projects on the net that just read
switches or pots and send the values to the serial port

I would keep the direct machine controls (E-Stop ,home ,limits) on 
the parallel port but most of the HMI stuff could be moved around

Brian
-- 
"Nemo me impune lacesset"

On Wednesday 06 November 2002 09:10 am, you wrote:
> has anyone had any success modifying the io routines
> to enable a pushbutton start, abort, pause, resume, and
> perhaps feed+ and feed-, as well as jog buttons and
> manual/auto/mdi, home switches. My first thought
> was a programmable keyboard, or a hacked k/b
> controller, but it would be easier to add an additional
> parallel port and do it regardless of window focus.
>
> Erie Patsellis
> Shelbyville Design & Signworks
> 1309 W. S. 7th Street
> Shelbyville, IL 62565
> (217)774-4444
> visit our website at www.shelbyvilledesign.com