15m Industrial Plasma Cutter

Its so long since I've done this but I have a clean install of 2.7 on a PC here from the stretch OSO. I might try and do it through synaptic and report back. I've been meaning to do it anyway.

Actually,

I'm still booting from a USB, having not properly installed Linux yet (I'm inexperienced and didn't want to break anything), but now I am thinking that I can't install 2.9 until I properly install the OS.

I did a full install and tried again, ran into the same problem with "Package "linuxcnc" has no installation candidate"

I'll see if I can find anything on it.

Update:

I had better luck using synaptic.

I believe that the master version has successfully installed. The window calls itself "AXIS 2.9.0-pre0-373-gb..."


There do seem to be less options in the configuration selector when the program starts up, also every time I close the program and restart I get a message saying "LinuxCNC terminated with an error".

Well Tommy you were right, the tool does go up and down. Specifically, it goes right down to the bottom then shoots back up to the top. The program then stops and prints the error "bottom limit reached while probing down. program is paused".

I checked the manual and the error corresponds to: "The Z axis reached the bottom limit before the workpiece was detected."

I've been trying to run a cutting simulation (like the LINUXCNC logo one which I got working), using the examples in the plasma folder (for example "metric_circles.ngc"). It seems like it's not seeing the workpiece. The probe moves to the x and y coordinates of the line to be cut then descends through and past the line to the bottom of the box.

I have messed with the z offset and the probe height.

Interestingly, after doing this the manual "Probe Test" button stops before the bottom (based on probe height), however when I run the program, the tool probes and hits the bottom.

Anyone have any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks.

Are you just playing with a simulator or is this wired up to your machine?

Can you move the Z axis to the top of travel and do a touchoff at that height? eg if your Z axis has 95mm of travel, touch off the Z axis at 95mm. That will place Z0 at the bottom of travel where Plasmac expects it. Do not touch off the Z again. The value should be saved between sessions. I had troubles sorting this out too.

Now make sure your probe height is set above the material height.