Hello All, I have been trying to get a couple of external inputs to work with my Mach 3 .. with little or no luck. The first is a feedhold button, I have it connected on a second paralell port using one of the CNC4PC new multifunction boards (Nice board BTW) I can see the input working on my diagnostics screen but I cannot get it to do anything. I have tried setting it to hotkey 32 (SPACEBAR) which is the PAUSE button on my screen but it does nothing..... I also have a STOP Button which I want to implement.. again same results... However there seems to be something not quite right with the stop button because I want it to activate the "STOP" button on the screen which is set as hotkey 2131 (ALT S) but when I try and set the Hotkey in my MACH3 inputs screen ALT-S comes up with 2163 not 2131... I have read through the manuals and the Wiki... and am more confused than ever...Any one have a simple step by step on making an external input Trigger an action...either an internal mach 3 function or an external macro?  It all sounded so easy... *grin*

Thanks in advance
Mike

under Config / system Hot keys enter 1001 into the 1 OEM code edit box. now you need to go to the ports and pins page and set the input to OEM triger #1  There is info in the Wiki that should tell you what number to enter into the OEMcode edt box.

Hope that helps
Brian

Brian,
Thanks for the reply, but I thinbk I must be one of the few who just cant seem to understand because I still dont "get it". I read through the WIKI and thought that it said to make an external input act like a keyboard button had been pressed to Select the Hotkey you wish the input to trigger and check the emulate field under prots and pins. Is that right? Or do I have to setup an OEM trigger? Is there a simple step by step example of setting up an oem trigger to do something like "feedhold" somewhere which I could examine. I find the Wiki a bit confusing, I am never sure if I am in the right section.

Thanks
Mike

Mike set up and OEM trigger... you don't need the Hothey stuff

If you do that you should have it working

Ok Brian,
Is there a Step by Step for doing that??
MIke

Nope.. you need to dothe step that I gave you in the first message that I posted. Where are you getting stuck? we can get your push buttons running no problem

Ok Brian, I Did as You Suggested.. and Poof it works.... Now... I Allways need to know how something works.... Is there a short explanation?

Brian, Thanks for your call and all the help you gave... its all working just like i want it to now

Hi Brian, I noticed that you are expert by your replies. I need your help. I want to  use 2 external button to load 2 different Gcode program. I did the macro which load the gcode, but only using screen button, I couldn't do it with my external button. Is that possible? I see some explanation about to create a triggermacro, but my poor understand tell me that it will be working with only one button. well no more talking.... I just want to know how to make 2 external signal(input), button, modbus or else load my gcode and alternate it with a button press.
thanks
darli

Brian should be an expert, he is the guy that does Mach
On to your question, I messed around with trigger macro a while back and it just didnt work for me, what I did was use Scott Schaefers Mach Mad plugin and that made it easy to set a macro to an external button.
Hood