ibewgypsie
01-14-2005, 05:41 PM
Installed on my mill today, wired it in, didn't like the "normal" keycodes Ipac has for games. I ran the simple program giving it "Mach2" hotkeys to the buttons I had prewired.
Kinda strange at the moment, I put a large magnet under the 7x10" sloping backward box, hooked up the digital arcade joystick, 7 buttons and turned it loose.
Sure is nice, works like they said it would. A rarity in todays world of salesman wrote literature. The IPAC4 is totally transparent to the computer, system, bootup, and all. It just throws keycodes in when you push the buttons or move joystick.
I can start, rewind, n-stop, jog in all directions, pause and reset all from the new station now and if I can get all the black off'n the keyboard I can read the key letters on it now.. and it should stay clean. It is not a handheld pendant, but a isolated station.
I would not wire estops into this, keyboard updates are not substitutes for hardwiring estop and relays.
Do not rely on software for your saftey. I am going to now interlock one more thing, the software-estop into the drive enable relay. One more pair of wires..
The Larkens are not as economical on the transformer during power cut-back as the geckos were. A pair of wires cutting off the power to the drives will extend the life of drives and transformer. I leave the machine idling sometimes while I am doing a second job in the shop. It could shut itself back to zero-wear. Just a added feature.
David
Kinda strange at the moment, I put a large magnet under the 7x10" sloping backward box, hooked up the digital arcade joystick, 7 buttons and turned it loose.
Sure is nice, works like they said it would. A rarity in todays world of salesman wrote literature. The IPAC4 is totally transparent to the computer, system, bootup, and all. It just throws keycodes in when you push the buttons or move joystick.
I can start, rewind, n-stop, jog in all directions, pause and reset all from the new station now and if I can get all the black off'n the keyboard I can read the key letters on it now.. and it should stay clean. It is not a handheld pendant, but a isolated station.
I would not wire estops into this, keyboard updates are not substitutes for hardwiring estop and relays.
Do not rely on software for your saftey. I am going to now interlock one more thing, the software-estop into the drive enable relay. One more pair of wires..
The Larkens are not as economical on the transformer during power cut-back as the geckos were. A pair of wires cutting off the power to the drives will extend the life of drives and transformer. I leave the machine idling sometimes while I am doing a second job in the shop. It could shut itself back to zero-wear. Just a added feature.
David