Gmoccapy plasma help

Having a rant is not going to help you get your machine going. Neither is ignoring advice. But it is a good way to discourage further help.

The fact of the matter is plasma is an orphan process in the world of CNC.
Linuxcnc configuration is controlled by two text files. stepconfig was written to make it easier to get a basic working config. Then its up to you to finish it off by hand.

Hal file configuration is well documented and immensely powerful. Adding a component is not that hard. You loadrt it and then you addf it to a thread. Then you connect signals to it.

I apologize, I wasn't intending to rant, and I think the suggestion is a bit misplaced and counterproductive, I was just pointing out what's going through my mind with the thought of making this easier for the next guy. I still suspect there is an easier way for those of us who don't see the simplicity as you do. If you are discouraged from helping me then the best thing would be to ignore me rather than making smug remarks about how it's not that hard and so forth.

I'm glad you see the simplicity in it but in perusing the pages of this forum I see that I'm not the only one who has had difficulty seeing the simplicity. Some of them gave up and went other routes.

As far as ignoring advice, I'm not sure exactly what you're referring to that I ignored? If you could point that out to me I would be glad to see what have I overlooked? I assure you it wasn't willful.

You said to "load it and you add it to a thread". As I tried to convey in my "rant", I am not a computer savvy person and am just switching over to Linux from a lifetime of using Windows. "Load it" how and what do you mean by a thread? If you don't dumb it down for me a bit then it's falling on practically deaf ears and we are both wasting our time and efforts.

Rant:
verb (used without object)
1.
to speak or declaim extravagantly or violently; talk in a wild or vehement way; rave:
The demagogue ranted for hours.
verb (used with object)
2.
to utter or declaim in a ranting manner.
noun
3.
ranting, extravagant, or violent declamation.
4.
a ranting utterance.

Sorry, I did not mean to offend. 12 months ago I did not know any more than you.

The support for plasma in LinuxCNC is still not mature and from my experience, its not a good machine to choose as a starter project (which is what I did). There are no easy ways, you have to learn how to edit your hal and ini files. That means you need to take the time to read the docs. Read some sample files and examples and try to understand them.

There have been a few of us trying hard to build features that rival high end commercial systems but it has been hard work and its all still fragmented. Hopefully it will all come together and become simpler. And now we have a commercial manufacturer in Grotius trying to adopt LinuxCNC for is plasma tables. Hopefully, that will help plasma move forward.

Rod, I understand what you mean by things being fragmented, that's the word that jumped in my mind when you said everything is well documented. There is much documentation out there but it is a bit scattered which makes things somewhat more difficult for the new guy who is on a rather steep learning curve.

I'm super impressed with how LCNC is a grass roots effort and see why things aren't as easy as I wish them to be..yet. At the end of the day we're all interested in building work-saving machinery, I hope to be part of the solution to also save work on the implementation of things, making it easier for everyone down the road.

I'm working 16-18 hours per day in my shop welding, fabricating and powder coating just to keep up with client deadlines and trying to learn bits and pieces of LCNC as the opportunity arises which is a lot to bite off all at once. I did not even realize there was a manual for LCNC until maybe 10 days ago, I've been reading and re-reading it and things are starting to click as far as the progression of how the files work together bit it is still a lot for me to chew on, hopefully Grotius can give me the last bit of push over the hump with his extremely gracious offer to assist me in compiling a workable configuration.

Okey,

I understand Plasmaguy's frustrating's a little bit. For newbie's linuxcnc plasma is very difficult
in relation to Mach3 plasma to start with.

Now i am almost 1 year learning linuxcnc and have only one test bord with modbuss running and also a touch screen is working.

Okey in the meantime i have made a nice python based application for controlling plasma. This is made possible by Chris Morley and
by Norbert and by John Thornton and by Rodw (my friend from australië). Without sharing their information i was delivered to Stone Edge. I have much respect for the helper's at this forum. I would preferr to make time for tutorial's like building a .comp file.
But also a new forum layout can do many good things. I was year's admin of my own forum in Holland. I will make a new test forum layout and let you see the difference.

I have thought about making my config ready for integrating in the linuxcnc distribution.
I think it would help many people on earth, worldwide. So it's up to me. But i think Rodw must make the connection's for me to the
git. He is the person to realise this issue. I will make the install guide for the plasma newbie. It is better then Mach3. It never
stuck's. That is what i know about linuxcnc 32 bit.

Grotius wrote: I have thought about making my config ready for integrating in the linuxcnc distribution.
I think it would help many people on earth, worldwide. So it's up to me. But i think Rodw must make the connection's for me to the
git. He is the person to realise this issue. I will make the install guide for the plasma newbie. It is better then Mach3. It never
stuck's. That is what i know about linuxcnc 32 bit.

Grotius, this is a great idea and I'm happy to help where I can. In the docs, there is a page about how to use git.
linuxcnc.org/docs/devel/html/code/contributing-to-linuxcnc.html

It is still very much a mystery to me. I think I'd ask questions on the IRC chat line and the developers email list. I'm sure you woull receive a warm welcome. I think the process is roughly create a new git account, create a copy of the Linuxcnc master branch repository in your account, pull it down to your PC, make your changes. get permission to push a new branch to the main Linuxcnc repository and you will be able to rebase your changes with master from time to time so you don't get left behind. Once you have a stable config, you can ask for your changes to be merged into the main code base. I'm sure there are a few of us who would help but it would be important to agree on what is in scope and have a clear vision of the final objective. Stuff that comes to mind includes some of the components I've written like corner lock, torch voltage sampling and so on. Those components and others like it need to become part of the standard linuxcnc config if plasma is going to get good support in Linuxcnc.