Mach 3 control panel help
I want to add a dedicated control panel to my router mill
found this page in a search Dedicated Mach3 Control Panel
and thats just what i want to do
I bought the ipac2 board but now i'm stuck
in eds blog he says I need to download mach3screen and he supplys a link but it seems to be dead now
Has anyone done this who could talk me through what I need to do to get a switch connected to my ipacboard to operate any button on mach 3 's screen?
Anyone prepared to talk me through on the phone?
Ian
Re: Mach 3 control panel help
I think Ipac works by emulating a keyboard so in theory you should be able to open a program like notepad and type out letters and numbers using the switch terminals on the ipac.
If you are feeling flush I would recomend a pokeys board. It does a very similer thing but it is custom built for mach3 and comes with its own plugin. You can also use MPG's and pass back encoder info to mach for a realtime DRO.
Re: Mach 3 control panel help
I've bought the ipac now and it seems to work by itself I just cant understand why i need to download the screen for mach3 for
or indeed how to tell that input to operate that button
Re: Mach 3 control panel help
I don't think you need to download a screen ether. Have you tried asigning arrow keys to any of the inputs, does it jog the machine?
Re: Mach 3 control panel help
Thats what I have no idea how to do
any chance I could ring you?
Ian
Re: Mach 3 control panel help
Afraid my knowledge of Ipac is zero, try looking for a non mach 3 tutorial like one for an arcade machine and just find it how to assign keys to buttons. There might even be a YouTube tutorial.
Re: Mach 3 control panel help
I'm not sure whether its help with the ipac or mach 3 that i need
I presume that in mach 3 its hotkeys that need assigning
Re: Mach 3 control panel help
Im fairly sure that I used one of the Ipac mame boards for my joystick controller. I think this was a plug and play job as the pc recongised the pcb as a controller when plugged in to the usb port and all the key mapping is already programmed into the mame pcb. What you need to do is wire your buttons/switches to the correct inputs marked on the mame pcb and they should emulate the control of the keyboard keys.
I will have a look tonight when I get home and see if I can find any documentation for it.
Re: Mach 3 control panel help
I've never used an Ipac, so can't give you instructions on how to do this.
What you need to do is configure the Ipac to send the correct keystrokes that correspond to the Mach3 Hotkeys.
Most Mach3 buttons already have hotkeys assigned to them.
If you want to use the Ipac to activate a button with no default Hotkey, then you'll need to add the hotkey with a screen editor. Most people these days use eithe Machscreen or Screen4.
Links to those and the original Mach3 Screen Designer are here: Screensets - Newfangled Solutions
Re: Mach 3 control panel help
Like Gerry - I've not used one of these things but I'd just add that all the "keys" are already "MAME" programmed so you *could* just alter Mach's hot key assignments to match the board if that's easier than figuring out how to program it. The "arrow" keys appear to be what they are on any keyboard so they should be ready to go without doing anything.