[rwestbr]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16823166011
Laptop Keyboard Trackball!!!!

[hoss2006]

I have the majority of the Console panels milled now.
Drew up and milled the rear panel for all of the plugs and ports today.
Have more in there than I need right now but you never know.
There won't be any wires coming out like the old console,
everything will have it's own plug.
Hoss

[hoss2006]

Making progress.
Panels are mounted, just need a little paint.
Next is buttoning the rest of the console with sheet metal,using the old PC case remains.
Think I'll go with the short toggle switches.
The holes above are for LED's.
the space at the bottom is for the original control panel and maybe a cubby hole.
Hoss

[hoss2006]

Rolling along.
All buttoned up now.
Next is the fun part, throwing all the electronics in there.
Later Hoss

[maxboostbusa]

Looks good Hoss, its nice to have everything all in one place and neat, especially if you have to troubleshoot anything. Tracing wires through a squirrels nest is fun.

[hoss2006]

The old control panel is dead and sacrificed for the new console.
Cut it up and yanked it's guts.
Still using the electronics to allow a bunch of toggle switches and keygrabber
to control a lot of the Mach 3 buttons.
Started playing around with Screens 4 from Machsupport.com
Figured out how to edit the standard screen set to let me program hotkeys
for any of the buttons on the screens.
That way keygrabber can be used to remap them for the console buttons.
Found a program called screentweak from a guy on the mach yahoo forum files section.
It will show you what buttons on the Mach 3 screen have keyboard hotkeys.
Showed me a few I didn't know like Block Delete or M1 Op Stop.
Screens 4 will let me assign hotkeys to anything and add buttons too.
Crap, I might need to order more toggles.
Hoss

[hoss2006]

This video shows a little about the Hotkeys Mach 3 uses for the buttons
and how to modify them.
Hoss

[Rodm1954]

Hi Hoss,
Another great thread.

I'm putting together bits for a consol so this is helping me lots. I have 3 MPG's from CNC4PC and plan on a few buttons and lights for the consol as well.
I'm using an old Fellowes touchpad for the mouse - see photo.

The video of how to create hotkeys made it easy to understand. I might be jumping the gun but it would be great if you can take that further by showing how to assign the hotkeys to a mechanical button/switch.

[hoss2006]

Hey Rod,
I have a 3 page tutorial that shows how to use Keygrabber that comes with Mach 3.
( it's installed in the Mach folder)
It's below the old control panel pics here.
The panel switches need to be soldered to the switches on the game controllers.
Keygrabber will recognize when a button is pushed on the controllers and ask what
keyboard key/s to assign to it.
I'll make another video when I get that far again.
Still have a couple circuit boards to mount in the console and some switches on the panels
then I can start wiring it all up.
Hoss

[Rodm1954]

Thanks Hoss,
That makes sense now. I couldn't work out how to get a switch to interface with Mach3 but using them through the game controller is clever.
Luck with the wiring.

[hoss2006]

Just about have the switches wired up.
Wired them all up to plugs of one sort or another so that I can remove a panel
and unplug from a harness.
Soldering all those little pins is a pain.
Hoss

[skip20]

It's looking great.
Is it bigger then the machine!

[tikka308]

I agree with Skip20! I'm very impressed. Can't wait to see more

[fretsman]

You're a madman hoss, the deciphering of all the wiring alone would give me a heart attack lol!!

It looks great!!!

[Rodm1954]

I was wondering why you hadn't posted for a while and now I know why.
There is a lot of work in that and it is coming along great.

[hoss2006]

I was wondering why you hadn't posted for a while and now I know why.
There is a lot of work in that and it is coming along great.

Wish I could blame it on the complex wiring but i've just been lazy.
Seems hard to get motivated sometimes.

Skip, it's 24 x 24 so it's pretty close.

[tikka308]

Hoss - are you still working a day job?!? I vote for you to delve into this full-time...

[hoss2006]

Hoss - are you still working a day job?!? I vote for you to delve into this full-time...

Technically, I usually work 2 am to 10:30 am. or noon. Some Saturdays.
Makes me sleepy for some reason.
Hoss

[hoss2006]

Moving along.
The MPG panel switches are mounted along with the keyboard.
The rear panel is practically complete.
Should have a few extra ports for future expansion.
Have (2) C10 boards mounted.
Don't want to have any permanent wires coming out of the console,
want everything to have a plug.

[hoss2006]

Got power!
Made a buss board from an old cdrom case.
Put in terminal blocks for 110 VAC, 5 VDC, 12 VDC and 40 VDC also a separate
12 VDC for the C6 board.
Have the main power switch connected too, might replace it with a key switch
to make it cooler.
Can kill all power to the console with one switch at shutdown.
Hoss