Does anyone know if there is a relatively affordable DNC "box" or PC computer software that can take g-code and use custom m-codes *within the box* (not in CNC control) to do things like send signals to run an indexer, turn stuff on or off, etc.
Basically the DNC box would tell the CNC to do stuff, get a signal from the CNC that it's done with that thing, and then when it came to the magic m-code tell something else to do stuff, then come back to telling the CNC machine to do more stuff,etc.
This could be really handy to turn on and off indexers and other automation.
This should be something generic and affordable and programmable, not something custom that costs a lot or requires company support and cost any time you want to do some little change.