[gunmaker]

How do I use a full size keyboard on a Cent7 membrane control? I plugged an old serial keyboard into the side of the control and changed the parameter under power to yes, restarted the machine and it doesn't work.

Any help would be appreciated.
James

[ZZZZ]

The Power parameter doesn't have anything to do with the external keyboard, it is an internal to the control thing.

Open the front panel and check the keyboard cable to make sure it is plugged into the motherboard card. Try plugging your keyboard directly into the motherboard.

I did have one machine that seemed to 'eat' keyboards, it ran great from the front panel, but it 'zapped' any keyboard I plugged in to it. The client didn't want to spend the money to pursue it; he just used the front panel keypads.

[gunmaker]

Thanks
when I get a chance I'll pull off the front panel.

[sportybob]

Hi Gunmaker, If you have a "eternal keyboard jack" it is a cable that runs to the CN2 connector on the keyboard encoder card ( top board on the "board stack" on the mother board. as ZZZZ said open the front panel and Check and see if it is connected.

sportybob

[gunmaker]

The Power parameter doesn't have anything to do with the external keyboard, it is an internal to the control thing.

Open the front panel and check the keyboard cable to make sure it is plugged into the motherboard card. Try plugging your keyboard directly into the motherboard.

I did have one machine that seemed to 'eat' keyboards, it ran great from the front panel, but it 'zapped' any keyboard I plugged in to it. The client didn't want to spend the money to pursue it; he just used the front panel keypads.

I pulled off the MINI MEMBRANE panel this morning. The internal cable is plugged into the top board on the "board stack" closest port to the power supply , then a cable is plugged into the next port that runs to the top of the mother board. I can try unplugging this cord, plugging my board into it and turn it on with the front panel open. Does the front panel have to be well grounded to the machine when doing this?

There is info on this on pages 38, 39 of the machine manual. Here's a C&P I don't quite understand completely. How can I be sure the connector on the I/O card IS set up to be COM2

"On machines set up to use the serial keyboard there will be a revised cable in the mag box. Previously, the cable coming in was split in two and ran to the video card and to the controller card. Now the cable will split in three and have a 9-pin D-Sub connector to attach to the I/O card. The connector on the I/O card should be set up to be COM2 (as shipped to us, it is

SECTION TWO - FRONT PANEL OPERATION
usually COM1).
Enabling the Serial Keyboard
The CNC program will use the serial keyboard interface if the power-up parameter Serial Keyboard is set to Yes and if the program is executed without any command line options.
Alternatively, the CNC program will use the serial keyboard interface if the serial keyboard parameter is set to Yes and the letter "s" appears as an option on the command line.
The serial keyboard is enabled in the following examples if the serial keyboard parameter is also set to yes.
CNC
CNC s (serial keyboard only)
CNC fs (front panel lights, serial keyboard)
CNC as (acroloops, serial keyboard)
CNC afs (same as no options)

[gunmaker]

I tried another keyboard and it worked. The NumLock, CapsLock and ScrollLock all flashed on and off several times during startup, but don't light up when you activate NumLock. The # pad does work and you can turn it off with the NumLock, it just doesn't light the indicator.

Keyboard works!