Electrical Musings

This is meant to be an addition to a regular industrial style alphanumeric keyboard with trackball. It contains the most widely used functions as far as I now know. Since I am using a CNC4PC C11G I only have 5 inputs. All these functions are available on the keyboard within EMC2 and will not require a separate input. This panel will require a keyboard encoder either bought, ripped from an old keyboard, or made with a custom pcb. Keyboard encoders are available from Hagstrom, Ultimarc ($40) and Vetra. Beyond Logic has all the information for rolling the code for your own keyboard controller which has some advantages. If you code your own then you can include functions for rotary switches (that include one-shots) and analog inputs. This control panel is meant to be a cheap way of controlling the machine before or in conjunction with an MPG. This panel can be made for less than $200 which is a lot cheaper than an MPG. One of the things this is missing is indicators/blinken lights