Just keep the respect up for the machine and you’ll be ok.
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To me, the hardest thing about any new design is the housing and user interface. PCBs and controller programming are straightforward, but getting it right for the human needs thought.
Given that this is a maker forum, it would make sense to think about what >should< be announced by our laser tools to make them more user friendly. Actually making a light come on for some condition is easy. Knowing what to make the light mean is harder.
Just spitballing, here. 
I think this settles into three categories - events/conditions where the machine can/has protected the user from harm, where it has protected itself from further damage, and events to make operations less mysterious.
In the first category I see interlocks as being the prime example. In the second, water flow loss, water over-temperature, exit air temperature (which indicates an internal fire), presence of air flow, things like that.
In the second, interlocks are the immediate example that springs to mind. Are there others?
In the third category, things get harder. It would be great, albeit maybe not practical, to sense the actual beam power somehow, hours of tube operation, dirtiness of mirrors, things like that. This category is more speculative and maybe completely impractical. I can imagine measuring beam power with a very thin wire stretched across the tube output which changes resistance with beam heating while not intercepting much of the beam. Tube hours is easy. Mirror dirt might be sensed by bouncing a baby IR laser off the mirror and measuring it in a phototransistor, neither being in the beam path.
Are there others?
Well, you do have a CO2 laser. You can make super neat panels with it.
E.g. white acrylic + black paint and then blasting the paint off:
You can reproduce very fine details on this kind of material. 500+ DPI text etc looks extremely crisp.
Another option is clear acrylic, paint on the back, engraving the back (mirrored) with a defocused beam (and little to no air assist), and then color-filling it. Since your mistakes will be hidden, the color-filling doesn’t need to be super precise.
Since it’s engraved with a fairly defocused beam to get a clear rather than frosted result, fine details aren’t really an option, but it’s still perfectly fine for somewhat larger lettering which can be read at an arm’s length.
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Yeah, I know that. I long ago used the K40 to make front panels and other dials-switches-and-blinky-lights stuff.
What I meant (and was not very clear about, obviously ) was deciding what events need to be connected to lights and how to make the blinky lights meaningful to the user. For instance:
- a red, flashing light signifying that the lights are not turned on in the basement is not all that useful
- a red, flashing light signifying that the reactor core is about to melt down is very useful.
You’re right - it is very easy to make front panels. Making fancy panels be really useful and appropriate, that needs thought,
Seems like the simple answer is something like and Arduino (or it’s smaller version Nano) and a display of your choice. Like a 16x4 or … Easy to program, flexible, so when you add other sensors, a change in programming… Easy implementation of water flow rate and other sensors… Low voltage and current, small in size.
You could make it say whatever is best for you.