I'll preface this question by stating that I'm not a electronic guru by any stretch of the imagination.

I have a G0704 conversion in progress (http://www.cnczone.com/forums/bencht...24194-cnc.html) which will use Mach-4 and a ESS smooth stepper. I have purchased a SainSmart 4 channel relay board to interface with the ESS and control coolant and a air blast feature by way of Mach-4 and M codes. I also have a operator control panel with buttons that can control coolant and air blast in a manual mode without inputting any code via Mach-4.

The input of the relay board is a small header that will attach to the ESS with a ribbon cable. These are the inputs for the relay board to fire the relays.

My questions is...can I also connect the inputs to the relay board to the buttons on the operator control panel so the relays will operate through the ESS OR through the pushbuttons?

My original plan was to have the the SainSmart relays control a small DIN mount set of 4, 12V relays. This would allow me to interface the operator buttons and directly control the air blast solenoid which happens to be 12V. This almost seemed redundant to me, but I think the output of the ESS to the SainSmart is TTL logic which may not play well with the operator control pushbuttons.

Does this make sense, have I explained it clearly?


Thanks,

Stuart