Re: Virtual Control Panels?

>    From: "scyvt" <scy@...>
> Subject: Virtual Control Panels?
>
> Comments on these observation from the more-experienced would be
> appreciated.
>
> The (few) industrial cnc machines I've seen sport control panels where
> most of the surface is covered with  buttons, switches, and knobs,
> while the display - lcd in more recent machines- is relatively small.
> This is true even when the actual controller is an ordinary tower pc
> tucked in the back.

Most of the machines that I encounter while doing service use proprietary
motherboards, I/O, and modified OS even if the chips are PC related. I've
often thought that the massive control panels were more a sales tool than
they were an operator convenience although there is something to be said
for a tool index buttons and such on lathes and mills.
<s>

>In this list's files can be found info on hacking old keyboard
> controller chips to allow dedicated buttom/switch input to masquerade
> as keyboard input, and perhaps this would allow a hybrid dedicated/
> virtual control panel. Has anybody felt the need to do this?

Several have tried this and more have purchased a dedicated keystroke
emulator of one sort or another. One pick-n-place machine I watched in
Belgium ran with the EMC and had wires running from a PLC to the keyboard.
Hey it worked fine.

IMO the keyboard input is not the best way into a PC for machine tool
control. If you study the keyboard code you understand that each stroke
is a combination of press and release and while they work okay for text,
pressing a second while a first is pressed can lead to unexpected results.
If you want dedicated switches a parport, dio board, or pic, stamp, or
tiger on a serial port is a far better choice because a button press with
any one of these is unambiguous and much less likely to get lost. They
also avoid the repeat "feature" of a keyboard.

HTH

RayH