Making my control cabinet - what switching controls should I have?

[JAZZCNC]

Mains on/off (NVR switch)

Don't need NVR just straight forward ON/OFF mains contactor switch.

Limit over-ride (so you can jog back off the end stop)

Just use Mach's Auto limit override feature for limits, don't even have them trip the E-stop circuit as limit isn't really an emergency it's positional error and it soon becomes tiresome having to Reset mach and reset drives etc when first learning. After few months you'll hardly touch the limits. Just let the controller handle the limits. Let the E-stop handle the emergency and shut down hardware.

Things that look like they might be useful are:
Spindle On/Off??
Water pump On/Off?? (interlocked with spindle)
Coolant On/Off??

If not controlling Spindle thru Mach then yes but if you are then wouldn't bother with ON/OFF unless you want to add little extra safety for when changing tools.
If using a Spindle with VFD then just let the VFD control the water pump so it only comes on when spinning.
Coolant then yes possibly but Mach got button on screen so if controlling pump thur mach then just use that and keep it simple.

The important things are you use a latching E-stop circuit so then you'll need Reset button ideally with light to show machines ready to go and drives powered up.
Power ON/OFF with light, E-stop button and Reset with light are all you really need. The rest is purely personal choice/convenience.

[Voicecoil]

Thanks for the input guys and nice to see you back and active Jazz, I've learnt a lot from your past posts. I'm intending to use UCCNC rather than Mach 3, does that change anything?

[ericks]

Glad you making good progress. I use uccnc with the uc300eth, no problems so far

[JAZZCNC]

I'm intending to use UCCNC rather than Mach 3, does that change anything?

No both do same job so still applies.

Sent from my SM-T580 using Tapatalk

[dazp1976]

I've hopefully future proofed my control box connections.
3x GX20 4 PIN for nema 34 for X,Y,Z.
3x GX16 4 PIN for A,B,C nema 23.
Ethernet connection for limits.
2x GX16 4 PIN for spindle control / tool changer / ancillary.
4x GX16 2 PIN for Estop, 5v,12v,24v ancillary power output.
10A 3pin kettle type connector for coolant relay.
2x 10A 3 pin mains input on the back.

Likely need another ethernet if I ever get to tool changer stage.

[m_c]

For my next control panel, I'll probably only go for the following-
Power switch
E-Stop
Cycle Start*
Feedhold*
SSO
FRO
MPG

Everything else I'll do on a touch screen.
The last panel I built for my mill, I added axis and step size rotary selection switches to go with the MPG, but doing it with some buttons on a touchscreen is far simpler and be just as effective.
However, all my machines I can reach the control panel from the working area. If I had a big machine, I'd have the MPG on a pendant for convenience.

*Cycle Start and Feedhold you could also do with on screen buttons, but I prefer having a couple nice big buttons to hit.

[Voicecoil]

Don't need NVR just straight forward ON/OFF mains contactor switch.

Using a NVR switch wasn't so much a safety concern (I assume a power fail will reset the controller to a safe state), it was just that from CPC it's cheaper than a separate decent switch + contactor

[ericks]

Is your spindle vfd driven?

[Voicecoil]

Yes, a Sunfar E300 - apparently according to the manual I can configure one of the external inputs to be a stop control, so I'll use that for E-stop. Whether I need to be able to isolate its power when changing tools is another question of course.

[ericks]

Yes, a Sunfar E300 - apparently according to the manual I can configure one of the external inputs to be a stop control, so I'll use that for E-stop. Whether I need to be able to isolate its power when changing tools is another question of course.

Nice....are you going to have the drive inside the same enclosure?