Hi guys,

I plan to equip my MACH3 driven mill with a control panel to have my most used functions on hard buttons.

At the same time it would be great to have a software locking mechanism if I am not around and the machine is hot.
Is there a possibility to lock the screen and prevent people from making changes to settings (also) using the hardware buttons without influencing the running program or general state of the machine?

I still had a 3 position key switch at hand.

AUTO - All buttons except potentiometers for manual feed and spindle override
0 - Screen locked, buttons locked
MANUAL -  All buttons plus potentiometers allowed

Thank you very much in advance!
André

You can LOCK/UNLOCK the system menus from the operator Menu.

Somewhere in the Normal Screenset (1024.set) add a button and create the code to toggle to the Simple screenset.
DoOemButton(232)

Then create a Simple Screen page (*.sset) with 1 page  Page Zero. Leave it empty EXCEPT for 1 button to return Back to the normal page.  Make this button code as a password function.

IF Question("PassCode ?") = 123456 THEN
DoOemButton(232)

End IF


NOW When you are ready to leave the machine Press the screen button to leave. It will go to the empty screenset THEN from the OPERATOR menu LOCK out the menus with a password (Remember the password)


To return to normal  Press the button on the empty screen enter the PassCode to toggle back to the normal screen. Then GOTO operator menu and UNLOCK the Menus.

Just a thought, (;-) TP

Very clever idea, thank you for this hint!
What does this do to the hardware buttons, e.g. the cycle start?

Alternatively I could use a relay to cut the buttons from the minus pin ;-)

André

YOu can also use the Safety LOCKOUT function. When if active it will NOT generate any moves.

(;-) TP