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.