Plasma THC

Hi David, this is your home work :

For the ini file, Replace the # sign with the available grotius lines to stay in line.
Do it carefully.

In your hal file, enable the spindle command's, delete the # sign at :

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

Maybe you need more to enable, kind of logic thinking, try this, if previous works, it's okey. :
net spindle-index-enable <=> pid.s.index-enable
net spindle-enable => pid.s.enable
net spindle-vel-cmd-rpm => pid.s.command
net spindle-vel-fb-rpm => pid.s.feedback
net spindle-output <= pid.s.output

Your hal file is the simplest file, your ini just needs more care, but i see, it's quite easy to do.

To my happyness, the grotius postgui has no difficulties. Here are no hal and ini relationships coupled to Mesa by me so far.
Only pos_in is pos_out keeps on tracking your z axis position in the motion section, but this is done by the THC2.component.

So i think you are on the run very quicly. But important :

1. Tune your machine as good as you can.
2. Take your time. Even if it cost's your 2-4 weeks.
3. In the end, when you have tested the software for about 4 weeks, you can say what you want.

Sweet, looks like she took hold, will this work with the Proma THC or will I have to get the Mesa THCAD?

I'm definitely going to take some time dialing it in; I will have some questions regarding that as soon as I start test cutting.

Mesa thc is cheaper and it is build for linuxcnc. If you have Proma already i would use it.

I already bought the proma unfortunately... Mesa needs to do some more advertising! Their THC is 1/4 the price :/

snugglylovemuffin wrote:

I already bought the proma unfortunately... Mesa needs to do some more advertising! Their THC is 1/4 the price :/

The Mesa THCAD is not a THC. All it does is measure the torch voltage. You have to build the THC in LinuxCNC.

Attached a sample how to connect proma on mesa in the grotius postgui file.

Am I correct in assuming that the "probe" is the same as a float switch?

snugglylovemuffin wrote:

Am I correct in assuming that the "probe" is the same as a float switch?

Yes the switch is triggered when the Z axis floats up and it is connected to the probe signal inside your linuxCNC HAL file. That lets LinuxCNC act on it from G code.

Hi Tommylight
I am building a system with cut50, linuxcnc and PromaTHC compact.
Trying to get my system ready to use your help is badly needed - possibly take a few queries before I understand what is needed. I am trying to get thc-toma-stepper to launch but no luck so far. I paste some code from dmesg below. Any help welcome
Thank you
John

[ 9593.646457] RTAI[hal]: compiled with gcc version 4.7.2 (Debian 4.7.2-5) .
[ 9593.646510] RTAI[hal]: mounted (IPIPE-NOTHREADS, IMMEDIATE (INTERNAL IRQs DISPATCHED), ISOL_CPUS_MASK: 0).
[ 9593.646515] SYSINFO: CPUs 2, LINUX APIC IRQ 2312, TIM_FREQ 12556835, CLK_FREQ 2009171000, CPU_FREQ 2009171000
[ 9593.646519] RTAI_APIC_TIMER_IPI: RTAI DEFINED 2314, VECTOR 2314; LINUX_APIC_TIMER_IPI: RTAI DEFINED 2312, VECTOR 2312
[ 9593.646524] TIMER NAME: lapic; VARIOUSLY FOUND APIC FREQs: 12556835, 12556835, 12471500
[ 9593.655791] RTAI[malloc]: global heap size = 2097152 bytes, <BSD>.
[ 9593.655850] , <uses LINUX SYSCALLs>, kstacks pool size = 524288 bytes.
[ 9593.655856] RTAI[sched]: hard timer type/freq = APIC/12556835(Hz); default timing: oneshot; linear timed lists.
[ 9593.655860] RTAI[sched]: Linux timer freq = 250 (Hz), TimeBase freq = 2009171000 hz.
[ 9593.655863] RTAI[sched]: timer setup = 999 ns, resched latency = 2944 ns.
[ 9593.661497] RTAI[math]: loaded.
[ 9593.814920] trivkins: Unknown parameter `coordinates'
[ 9594.126922] RTAI[math]: unloaded.
[ 9594.129366] SCHED releases registered named ALIEN PEDV$D
[ 9594.135640] RTAI[malloc]: unloaded.
[ 9594.232029] RTAI[sched]: unloaded (forced hard/soft/hard transitions: traps 0, syscalls 0).
[ 9594.234314] I-pipe: head domain RTAI unregistered.
[ 9594.234376] RTAI[hal]: unmounted.

What kind of controller are you using? I'm using some similar equipment but had problems implementing the Toma because I'm using a mesa board. Grotius and Rodw (I think Tommylight as well) have been working on a new system for Plasma/laser/waterjet machines that are adaptable to Parport and Mesa options.
=> github.com/michelwijnja/external_offsets...lob/master/README.md