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Gents,

I'm slowly preparing items and knowledge to make my plasma cutter based on Hypertherm Powermax 45 XP (just received CPC port upgrade kit). I have a specific conditions - at work for 4 weeks and away from home/garrage and i could only take limited set of toys with me:
- Lenovo T470 with Linuxcnc installed
- Mesa 7i95T
- 2 x THCAD (for THC and ohmic)
- some limit switches
- 3 x H-bridge and 3 x small PM DC servo motors
- bunch of wires
- old laptop power supply to power those servos.

That's all i have to play with LinuxCNC and learn configuration, etc. Ideally i'd like to make those servos live on my bench.
I couldn't take "real" servos and drivers due to weight limitation - my only option was to take those small servos and h-bridge modules. 
If i understand things correctly, out-of-the-box mesa cards are preloaded with firmware containing Step/dir generators and can't be used to control -bridge based servos it this state. So i need to build a specific firmware to replace step gens with pwm generators, right?
I'm stepping here into very dark area for me - creating custom bit file.
I heard that custom bit file are now easier to create with the new FPGA chips on Mesa cards - is it true?
I case of my failure - would it be possible to get some help from you to create custom bitfile? The only source i found is talla83 videos on yt.

Thank you for inputs and have a great weekend.

Thanks guys. I ended up taking T470 with touch screen. Added Linuxcnc along with already existing Win and 7i96 works with no issues (on the table for now). Just received 7i95T today to have some fun but this requires some deeper tweaking - for separate topic. Thanks again - computer topic solved for me.

HI Tommy,

Yes it did. The week before I had a loose screw rattling around in  in my pendant cause a short, which tripped that fuse. I removed the screw and reset the fuse.

Hi Peter,
With only CR8 lighting up (steady) with this 7i84 plugged into its SS cable, and field power disconnect, is this board worth soldering new output IC's onto, or is it pining for the fiords dead?
Cheers,
Mark

Can Phill or Snowgoer have a look at this issue? Sorry I thought it was wider than QTPlasmac but further testing shows it only affects QTP.
forum.linuxcnc.org/9-installing-linuxcnc...-on-buildbot2#324519
This is on a SIM only and I need to upgrade a live config
Thanks

Ooops, this is QTplasmac specific and that is jut opening a Sim already on my PC. But I do need to edit a live sim
 

I adjusted the apt settings so Debian gets  the buildbot2 deb file for LinuxCNC V 2.10. 
The upgrade of linuxcnc was sucessful.
When I open a config from the consiole, a window appears that says 
Updated to V2.10-001.017, Due to Configuration a Restart is required
I open the config and I get the same error
I reboot and I get the same error
I though tthen to check the ini fil to make sure it is not read only. It was so I updated the permisssions to write to it.
But I still can't open any config,  

How do I resolve this?
 

You could get rid of the short and try adding an isolated 24v power supply (Meanwell hdr-15-24) that is connected to the plasma inputs on the thcad. When cutting, nothing will get damaged. The hypersensing component can see full torch voltage when you are cutting  and it does not care... so this should give you the confidence to do it

You might need to and2 the probe signal so it will only turn on when actually probing.

mclien wrote:

rodw wrote:

My recommendation would be to buy a Mesa 7i96s and do it yourself. You will get a better performing machine, probably for the same money without limitations from the parallel port
 

 
Well. do you mean to only use that controller and the mentioned machine or use the Mesa 7i96s an build the cnc hardware by myself?

Build it yourself. For starters, it appears your box uses 24v power. Running them with a 48v power supply from 7i96s will near quadruple motor  torque.
I doubt Linuxcnc is supported via Ethernet.

Here is a quick test where I jumped the shield to the nozzle and then feed voltage from my ohmic into it and then ground the nozzle and the voltage drops like a stone. My thcad-10 is using opto22 and relays to isolate everything so that’s why I have to trigger the ohmic button to send voltage to the nozzle.



youtube.com/shorts/fuJnQ76LXl8?si=pr583jeB8bvqNj0g

tommylight wrote:

QtPlasmaC had a wizard that could convert any working config into a QTP config, no idea if it is still included so might want to wait for the developers to chime in.

Its now built into pnccconf so JT needs to get with the program

Yes, that was one of the original reasons the ohmic test was included. It was intended to check if there was a short like yours before starting a job. It does not happen very often. I only ever experienced it once and I found a bit of rubbish inside the tip,  much like you did. I have thought of setting it up to use one thcad. I'm sure it could be done fairly easily.