Sounds good Ray, I hope it all fits.
Anxious to see it.
Thanks,
RC

RC,

Surprisingly, I'm having to make things bigger than I though I woudl be able to!  I have TOO MUCH room!  :-)

Regards,
Ray L.

Ray L.,

 Is this for mouse use or a touch screen? I'm finding the mouse to be a pain too if you get in a bit of a rush, but the expense or trouble building a dedicated panel for Mach is probably too far to go. Looks like the customized screen as you are going about is the way to go - but then there's still that mouse. I thought about, and found in my junk, a track ball but it wouldn't take much to botch that mechanism up in a shop.

Bill C.

Ray L.,

 Is this for mouse use or a touch screen? I'm finding the mouse to be a pain too if you get in a bit of a rush, but the expense or trouble building a dedicated panel for Mach is probably too far to go. Looks like the customized screen as you are going about is the way to go - but then there's still that mouse. I thought about, and found in my junk, a track ball but it wouldn't take much to botch that mechanism up in a shop.

Bill C.

Bill,

    Heopfully, it will work with either.  I don't currently have a touch screen, but I'm trying to make all the controls big enough to work well with a touch screen when I eventually get one.

Regards,
Ray L.

You might want to try Gimp. I haven't tried it, but it looks very Photoshop like, and it's free.

http://www.gimp.org/

You might want to try Gimp. I haven't tried it, but it looks very Photoshop like, and it's free.

http://www.gimp.org/

Gerry,

Actually, I had installed Gimp about 6 months ago (can't even remember why....), and forgot I had it!  I just re-discovered it about an hour ago, and it does indeed seem to do exactly what I need.

Regards,
Ray L.

Gimp works very nicely for this.  It handles all the different formats, and can transform from one to another.  I'm able to take existing graphic bits and modify them, by re-sizing, changing colors, adding text, etc.  That's really good, because I SUCK at drawing this kind of stuff.  This is going to be pretty easy, I think.

Regards,
Ray L.

OK, very crude first "Mach-Up" of my screen attached.  Keep in mind, this is a quick mock-up, to get a feel for the functionality, and see how things fit, using existing graphics.  The real graphics will be completely different (and hopefully more pleasing...).  Where you see a colored ring around a button, that ring is an LED that lights up behind the button when the corresponding function is active, much like the yellow blinking ring around the Spindle CW button on the standard screen set.  The over-ride controls are sliders only right now.  That seems good enough to me.  The graphic in the lower left works like the one on the offsets screen, and invokes macros that, for me, will perform all the edge-finding and tool-touch-off functions through macros.

The functions included are:

Axis Information:
X/Y/Z DROs w/Red/Green Ref'd LEDs
X/Y/Z Zero
RefAll Home
X/Y/Z GoTo Zero
X/Y GoTo Zero
User/Machine Coordinate Select w/LED

Program Control:
Open G-Code
Close G-Code
Edit G-Code
Set Next Line
Stop
FeedHold
CycleStart
Rewind
Single Block
4 TBDs
Elapsed Time

Touch-Off Controls: (all handled through macros, via graphic buttons)
Edge-Find X+
Edge-Find X-
Edge-Find Y+
Edge-Find Y-
Tool Touch-Off

Spindle/Coolant Controls:
Spindle command (S-Word) DRO
Spindle Speed Over-ride DRO
Actual Spindle Speed DRO
Spindle OVR slider w/OVR LED
Spindle CW On/Off
Spindle CCW On/Off
Flood On/Off
Mist On/Off

Feedrate Controls:
Feedrate command (F-word) DRO
Feedrate OVR DRO
Actual Feedrate DRO
Feedrate OVR slider w/OVR LED
Feedrate OVR Reset

Toolchange Controls:
Tool Number DRO
Big-A$$ Blinking Toolchange LED
Set Toolchange Position
GoTo Toolchange Position

Other:
Reset
MDI (lower left of screen)
Status (lower right of screen)
Modes (not in there yet)
Config? (not in there yet)

So, what have I missed?  Any comments on the functionality, layout, sizing, etc?

Regards,
Ray L.

Looking good Ray. 

Might want to move this to the screens section, works in progress.

Brett

Looking good Ray. 

Might want to move this to the screens section, works in progress.

Brett

Brett,

Good idea.  I will do that.

Regards,
Ray L.

Aw shucks! Now I'll get lost...

Bill C.