Hello,

I am working on converitng an older mill to Mach3. The current interface has buttons to select an axis for use with the MPG. The problem is the buttons are momentary and they have an indicator light. What I would like to do is when a button is pressed it will select the axis and light the light in the button and when another axis button is pressed it will cancel the first selection and select the second lighting the button. I have been trying to do this with a brain but I have 2 problems I cannot have 2 outputs (1 for the axis selection and the second for the light) the second is getting the first axis to cancel when the next axis button is pressed. Currently my panel is setup for 4 axis but I am only using 3 at this time.

Any suggestions or examples are appericated.

Thanks,
Paul

Hello Professor:

Sounds to me like this is a job for a PLC, but then I am just a beginner myself with the Brains. I would like to suggest you have a look at the Cubloc PLC, www.cubloc.com.  Pretty nice hardware for a very reasonable cost, as compared to Automation Direct. 

I am using one to actuate panel buttons, Led's, and Mach screen buttons on my own mill retrofit. You still need to write Brains for the final input to Mach. The Cubloc PLC can run any kind of Basic, and/or ladder logic program you can dream up to tweak a Mach brain, plus turn a lot of stuff on and off; feedrate override Potentiometer (something I consider a necessity on a CNC mill), outputting to a LCD, or Mini touch screen, and more. 

Regards,

John