Program linuxcnc?

Hi all,
I have a couple of lasers I’m using for part alignment. They’re simply running off a power supply at the moment but I’d like to be able to toggle them on and off via my keyboard. Is this possible? Are there any tutorials for this sort of thing?
I’m also using the CNC as a hot wire foam cutter. Again the hot wire attachment is currently running off a separate power supply and I’d like to be able to turn it off and on from the keyboard. All help gratefully received, many thanks in advance.

hi welcome
YES it is possible and Working behaviour to control the TOOL as almost every CNC-Control does

what is the laser Part Positioner of its a Galvo system i guess
so it has Blending internal
so just hook up a Switch within between as most positioners do
foam cutter control is also in System With a real good corner behavior available and XYUV cuts

Hi, thanks all for assistance.
Running LinuxCNC 2.7.14 with Mesa cards: 5i25 & 7i77. - and a shed load of free ports.
Operating a HURCO KM3 3 axis milling machine (1989).
Laser Alignment is no more complicated than a couple of 12v lasers mounted 90 degrees opposed to give a cross-hair at the tool point. The power for the lasers is coming from a power supply within the CNC mill - NOT connected to Mesa boards at all.
Hot wire foam cutter is simply a hot wire suspended from a bracket and attached to its own separate power supply, again NOT connected to Mesa boards.
Have had a look at HAL in LinuxCNC documentation but struggled to know where to start. Again, all help gratefully received.

Brilliant!
Ok, I was with you right up to the point where you started talking about the HAL file! From what I've tried to understand about HAL, I need to assign pins and so on but couldn't really work out how that was done from the tutorial.

I'd like to control each laser independently and toggle the Hot wire cutter off and on so am I right in thinking I need 3 ports?

Assuming I have all the wiring and relays you mentioned connected up and wired into the 7i77, what do I do next?

hal_input will give you access to keys on keyboard in HAL, then you can fire an output with it.
I have never used it but this should work.

hal_input

Ok, that sounds cool.
Unfortunately I still don't know enough about HAL programming to even start that. Is there some example code anywhere I could try to follow?

just open the HAL file and look for Spindle-on
or Spindle-cw
thats all
then put your pinname behind it

net spindle-enable <= motion.spindle-on
net spindle-cw <= motion.spindle-forward
net spindle-ccw <= motion.spindle-reverse

Sorry, I don't follow that at all.
As said, I don't understand enough about HAL to know the syntax of what you've written there.
For example - at the risk of sounding like an idiot... If I'm looking to control a hot wire and or lasers from a key on the keyboard - how does that relate to the spindle?
In the code you've written, what is the pinname?
Is there a list of pinnames I can/can't use?
Does a pinname relate to a specific pin/port on the 7i77 mesa board?