Hi Nick,
Regarding:
EStop – Mach3 has an Estop input that you can assign. With KMotionCNC it is usually sufficient that the amplifiers are disabled. Otherwise you could use a C Program to monitor a signal and do something else such as disable the Axis Channels.
FRO/SRO – for Mach3 I suppose you could assign external trigger (Digital inputs) to screen buttons. For KMotionCNC there is a KFLOPtoPC C command to adjust the FRO on the KMotionCNC Screen. There isn’t a SRO on the display but the speed could be adjusted within KFLOP.
Cycle Start – for Mach3 an external trigger could be used. For KMotionCNC there is a KFLOPtoPC C Command for Cycle start.
Cycle hold/feedhold – for both Mach3 and KMotionCNC it is usually best to do a hardware feedhold in KFLOP. This guarantees instant response without any potential Windows delays.
MPG – for both Mach3 and KMotionCNC it is handled in KFLOP in a C program. See the MPGSmooth.c program. This allows instant guaranteed response and any type of selector switches you wish. KFLOP C programs are usually fast enough to handle MPG encoder inputs in software. This allows any input to be used and doesn’t consume a hardware encoder input. But one of the 8 hardware encoder inputs can also be used.
Spindle Speed Control – A C program is used to do whatever is necessary (set DAC, relays, delay, change gears, etc).
Air/lub checks – For Mach3 you might need to change the Cycle Start behavior using Cypress Basic to do the checks. For KMotionCNC not sure if it would be easy to intercept cycle start. A watchdog C program might be used to disable axes or display a message if the wrong conditions exist.
Tool Change sequence – For Mach3 it could be in a Cypress Basic Macro or KFLOP C Program. For KMotionCNC it would be in a C Program. Safety checks should be similar to the Air/lub issue.
Analog outputs – Kanalog allows Mach3/KMotionCNC + KFLOP to work with analog servos.
External hardware safety protection is always more reliable than software protection.
Hope this answers most of your questions.
Regards