Hi Dude 1 and Craig aka joaverage,
Firstly Dude. Thanks for chiming in, yes I have watched quite a few of Hoss’ videos. And once again silly me for not remembering his set up.
I don’t really have any problems with the whole ESS/PoKeys getting along thing. I have both working together with Mach and can run a G Code file and have the ESS, via the MB2 BOB sending out motor commands which was all initiated by using my Cycle Start button which is hooked up to the PoKeys 57E. Also I have configured pins on the PoKeys to receive signals back from Mach which I set up with the default choices in the Mach configuration dialog box. And that all works just fine.
If I was starting again, maybe I would have gone with the PoKeys CNC, but when I started, all I knew about was the Smooth Stepper. I will be making another after this, so I will probably go with it for that one.
Thanks again to Craig for the info. I couldn’t agree more about getting the mill up and running first. I can get a bit wordy with my explanations, so on my wife’s direction I have learnt not to include every bit of boring info straight up. Let people warm to me first…. And then bore them to death.
So I left out the whole explanation of where I am at with the building of the control and the fact that it is chugging along very nicely in the back ground. The whole put-together of the electrics, the electronics and associated parts is fun and is now quite easy for me. Didn't state out that way though.
I decided to dedicate myself to learning about Lua, as I knew it was coming up and I wanted to be ready. Yes I will run the machine and get it all working first and then spend the time getting the buttons working. The touch screen is a real option. But the darn things seem to be quite expensive, so I shyed away.
Back to Dude1, I did actually use the PoKeys script example which you steered me towards. It also appears in several other places in the Mach forum and by following that example, it was quite easy to get my Cycle Start button working with the PoKeys. But I get lost with the next step where he talks of the Signal Library, handlers and tables. My wife is Croatian and I have been trying to learn that language for about thirteen years, Lua seems about as complex at that.
Craig, I have read your last email a few times and now off to study more on how to do what you have suggested with option 2. Once again those strange terms like Signal scripts etc.. I read about it all, but still not making sense. Wise words though my friend about majoring on the major things. Couldn't agree more.
Guys thanks, I will stop bugging you now. I will go suffer in silence. Have a great weekend and hopefully the next time I post on the forum, I will be free-wheeling down the other side of that proverbial Hump.
Craig.