Thanks @Aiph5u . Yes, I do remember well. I understood a good part of it, but not 100% I see. I had hoped to keep pin 11 for the possibility of EDM function in a safety relay (which I haven’t set up yet). I also remember that the AL relay output was a solid state relay, but not that it couldn’t trigger a larger relay or contactor of some sort to handle the dust collector amps. Thanks for the reminder. Maybe the alarm relay output could handle the water pump which is very low wattage? And the dust collector on pin 12 open collector?
Well, my thought was to make roughly 3 post processor versions in Vectric: 1) for wood products in which the dust collector switches on (basically the normal post processor); 2) for alum/plastic which includes M7 command for air blast and somehow switches off dust collector; 3) for laser which includes M8 to turn on fume extraction and air assist (I don’t need flood coolant. Just want to trigger Load 2). I don’t think the VFD dust collector would come in to play with the laser because you have to switch from VFD to PWM spindle under tool configuration first. By the way, I planned on having the Load 1 and Load 2 pins trigger external relays.
Is this right?
Yes
Yes, very satisfactory. Thanks much. I somewhat wondered if that were possible, but I’ll have to look at the manual again to see how that would work. VFDs are pretty cool devices 
I believe the VFD input method would be better than using outputs, which I’m pretty much out of.
Ok, well I’m using the laser as a PWM spindle, so maybe I could trigger a relay for laser fume extraction and air assist through tool enable instead? And keep Load 2 free? (assuming there isn’t communication to VFD to turn on dust collection, of course)
Thanks as always for your responses to those of us who are just learning the ropes