Sinumerik controlpanel with Linux CNC

From the first time thinking of doing a retrofit on my mill, I was wondering how to design/create a nice sturdy controlpanel with all the button you need. The best design I can think of, is one of the Siemens Sinumerik control panels.




I´ve read some manual of one of those and there was a almost easy pinout of the two 40pin connectors on the backside. Could be possible to use them ?

Is it a keyboard matrix?

I think the small panel had even a Pinout written in it´s user manual, but i wonder if it´s so easy why no one did mention it yet. I have the feeling i´m missing something obvious.
The big panel with screen would be even cooler since you have all you need together in one package. But regarding the amount of buttons i think siemens did some magic so you just can´t salvage it that easy.
Does anyone have sinumerik panel lying around and could check ?

Here are some pictures of the bigger panel with screen.

Onkelmat wrote: I think the small panel had even a Pinout written in it´s user manual

What is the pinout?

One obstacle to using this sort of thing is getting the pins on the panel to issue keystrokes to the system, but I have a solution to that working.

They're not cheap! New at least...

I have the first one to hand if you have an easy question. It's destined for an 840D, so no plans to work out the interface.

Could you try one button and see if there is any reaction on one of the connectors ?

The MCP is sat in a box with no power to it - if you have a pin out I can check for continuity across a shortlist of pins of interest (for example), but I don't have enough play time to reverse engineer it by guessing.

See attached for details of MCP 398C.

PS - would assume X20/X21 are PROFINET.

wow that panel looks brand new !