The associated image file of the Control Panel shows the first stage design, changes will be made.

The enclosure will be cast in plastic and measures approx 24" wide X 14" high

The panel front contains the following controls:

• Power switch for computer and CNC motor drives
• 14" LCD Monitor
• 9 tact swiches along the bottom of LCD used as "soft switches"
• 14 tact swiches along the right of LCD used as "Soft switches"
• The soft keys are software driven which adds a great deal of flexibility in the control panel design - changes and additions are easy to make :-)

3 Bargraph LEDs for load display of Spindle, X and Z axis motors - all driven by a PIC micro

Alpha numeric Keypad with cursor control, Home, End, Delete, and Enter keys. Not a complete keyboard, but very useful for CNC as it contains the primarly alphs keys for quick edits and MDI entry. This will be interfaced to the computer via a keyboard encoder.

Reference and jog rate controls - Tact buttons and an encoder switch. These are interfaced to the computer via a PIC based I/O device I am designing (with a ton of help from people at Electronics 101).

Program operational group - tact switches with indicator LEDs & large, gaming style push buttons for the heavy use switches. Interfaced through my custom I/O interface.

Spindle control group - shows selected gear in transmission, starts/stops spindle in FWD or REV and has an encoder switch for spindle speed override. Again, Interfaced through the custom I/O device.

Top right is a speaker.

Thanks for looking!
Chris