Gmoccapy - A new screen for linuxcnc

Thanks Marius ,
thanks for the comments , i was also looking at going the USB route and adding a analog out to the plasma torch , so i'll heed your advice and forget the usb
yes i'll look forward to the component , if you need any testing just shout .

yes regarding flameout , as you say once the flames gone you have lost it either way and machine needs to reset and operator intervention of course
i had thought of the flame out triggering a position save and disable the amps , so that after the problem is rectified the position could be used to restart .

and sorry for hijacking the thread , yes 5 axis is on my list to

Dave
The flame out is detected by the absence of an ARC_GOOD signal from the THC hardware. The component will use that signal. At the moment I will only use it to retry the pierce arc for several times and then just stop the gcode as there is probably something wrong with the earth connection or consumables.

It does not mean that one cannot do some clever deductions and do a restart on flame out while cutting. The reason I am not looking at it for now is because it is thin ice area. Lets say the torch travels over a hole, you will get flame out unless the plasma cutter is capable of continuous arc without having material below. Now how do you decide when to restart and when not. What if the flame out occurred while cutting an arc? how do you handle a partial arc if you only have Gcode to work with. That is why I insist that the operator has to intervene. I would rather spend the effort in getting a decent restart procedure going.

gmoccapy 0.9.9.6.2 - the new plasma operation panel

The design has been adapted to Marius needs.
The new plasma.py and plasma.glade files will offer the following hal pin:

The Out pin may control the machine, i.e. plasma.Target-Voltage will give the programmed voltage, while plasma.hal_lbl_cur_volt will display the real measured voltage.

Marius, if you only want to display the out values, we can make the GUI easier, because we can delete some hal pin labels. So I need to get your comments.

Please note, that Dewey Carret moved the gmoccapy_plasma files as a subfolder to the normal gmoccapy config folder. I do not like that, because it makes it more complicated to see what files are needed, but it has been done without my knowledge.

Please see the new INI file values for plasma, you can control each out pin by this values, if max or min are reached, the corresponding buttons will be disabled, one push will advance the value by the increment given in the INI file.

I have not implemented the state save and restore feature, as I want to know first your comments, As the hal pin are only connected without an auto update function, you will have to push a button ones to update the labels, This should not be necessary on a real machine.

Norbert

Hi Norbert

Looking good so far. I will test. Pity about the files moved. That means that the test environment that we are using will have to be redone. Files should remain in the locations as they are created unless there is a very good logical reason to move them elsewhere.

Marius, if you only want to display the out values, we can make the GUI easier, because we can delete some hal pin labels. So I need to get your comments.

The only value that we need to display from the component is the Actual Tip Voltage. The rest can remain internal.

There is one thing that we have not addressed yet and that is the actual THC correction figure. I will put the min and max correction values in the INI file but one should have an indicator if the limit has been reached. I dont know if this is required but it would be nice to see if the limit is reached.
How it works is this. One sets the maximum correction travel in both positive and negative directions. If the THC correction has reached this limit, THC will stop until the next pierce. On machines with limited travel this becomes an issue. Putting a limit on the correction also help to save a runaway process. Things like torch in hole etc.

Maybe a led for limit positive and limit negative.

Hi Norbert,
Hopefully this is the last change.
I added a toggle button to turn the THC function on / off as well as the limit indicators.




This should do for most application I think.

Hallo Marius,

please pull! The new design is available, but....

- The screen must be real large so your plasma.glade file can fit in. We should think about rearranging some stuff, because I would like that it could run on a screen with 1024 x 768.

- At start time you will get some errors on the terminal, that some labels are not available, I do not know why, as they are there and after the start the do work.

- Please see the new and changed hal pin, as I renamed them to fit better to hal standard

- I need you to write some small documentation, please add a plasma part to the wiki, as you need to explain, what are all the widgets for, as I do not understand any more, how a plasma work! I thought at the beginning it is just needed a flame on and off and a kind of height control, but it seems a lot more complicated. So without further understanding, meaning your documentation, I will not go on with this development. IMHO the codder must understand what he is doing, and I certainly do not. Please make me wise!

Norbert

Hi Norbert

Thanks a lot fore all your hard work man, it is really appreciated.
I had a look at the screen and we do have a problem with the 1024 x 768 size. I agree it must fit into that size. Let me have look and see how we can re-arrange some stuff.

I have to learn about wiki usage but I will put something up soon.

As I said before, there are two approaches for plasma THC.

1: Using Gcode to do the work and hardware and component to signal and control up and down (simple controller interface)
2: Using a more complex component but full control is with the machine and not with Gcode.

I have worked on many plasma machines and I think the best way is to control everything with the machine controller. It is a lot more work but worth it in the end.

P.S. You will have to PM me a delivery address so that I can send you a controller early in the new year.

Norbert
It I test with the screen open in window mode and the size set to 1024x768, will I see the correct result?

If so, I think we can make the Feed and Velocity windows a bit smaller as they do not feature that much with plasma. It is preferable to not adjust the feed rate of the job but to rather set it correctly in the gcode. It also messes with the corner lock as the setting is derived from the requested feed rate and not the override feed rate.

Yes, you see the right size.

Let me take a look, at feed override.
Is there a problem if we do hide the complete velocity frame?

Wiki is realy simple, as it is only writing text in an editor. I can help with formating, but you will be able to do that tol, just looking what i have done till now. Just beginn a section like the one lathe specific.

You will get an PM soon.

Norbert

Norbert
I changed some of the labels in the signals frame and it all fits.
The strange thing is that I also changed the label of the velocity frame by removing the [%] from the feed rate but when I load the screen the change does not show. Is it loaded or inherited from somewhere else?