Z axis

rodw wrote: I thought you were having the weekend off ! :huh:

I am, I just asked those questions last night Before I promised my wife I would not touch my table for 72 hrs. She witnessed my little temper tantrum LOL.

stupid question, but what plasma generator are you using ?

jay1st wrote: stupid question, but what plasma generator are you using ?

Primeweld Cut 60
primeweld.com/products/cut-60-220v-110v-60-amp-plasma-cutter

It’s a nice machine When I use the hand torch,

I had a look and in some places they say it's a blow back and on others they say it's pilot arc.

So, if it's either one there is ground wire feeding the cup and the THC

The THC is reading the voltage between ground and the active tip, normally grond is the work piece, but with a pilot arc / blowback the cup of the nozzle is grounded too, that means what ever distance the torch is from the work piece the voltage never changes.

Have a look at this thread

forum.linuxcnc.org/plasma-laser/39071-ho...ith-pilot-arc-plasma

To make sure i was on track, i disonnected the ground wire going to the torch once the plasma fires correctly. And then the THCAD started working.

Before going down your suggested route,
my understanding from the linuxcnc doc, both HF and Blowback start plasma machine have a pilot arc.
I was told by the rep, before purchasing, that the cut60 is not a HF type of machine. now i get my current machine is no hypertherm. but
this machine works, when I used the hand torch I squeeze the trigger and it cuts .25" thick steel like a hot knife cuts butter. when I hit the pulse button in the plasmac gui, after a 3 second delay the torch fires up, for about 2 seconds.
so getting ready to tackle this again.
My last attempt I wired my cnc port to the 16:1 divider, plug in the my calculated #'s and the resting number that pops up when i turn on my plasma machine screen reads 42 V. and when torch fires up it jumps up to 165 V or so. and then i get errors on the screen will post those tonight.

it does not need ot be HF de be a pilot arc.

it's not the same thing

jay1st I am aware that a plasma machine does not have to be HF to be a pilot arc. I will be the first to admit I should have not pinched pennies when I bought my plasma machine. Reading the link you provided it appears l have a very similar problem to what you had, but correct me if I am wrong your machine is a HF type right ? As I do not have a HF type plasma machine, your approach does not apply. I could be wrong wrong though.

motal2004 wrote: when I used the hand torch I squeeze the trigger and it cuts .25" thick steel like a hot knife cuts butter. when I hit the pulse button in the plasmac gui, after a 3 second delay the torch fires up, for about 2 seconds.

The Torch On should behave exactly the same as the trigger on the hand torch.

phillc54 wrote: The Torch On should behave exactly the same as the trigger on the hand torch.

Twice i had plasma cutters that would wait longer when fired from the CPC port than from the torch trigger. One of them, an older Hypertherm wait about 3 to 4 seconds when triggered from the PC. Strange, but must be they use different timers as the PC part must be isolated from everything.
All other ones i used do the same wait regardless from where they are triggered.

tommylight wrote:

phillc54 wrote: The Torch On should behave exactly the same as the trigger on the hand torch.

Twice i had plasma cutters that would wait longer when fired from the CPC port than from the torch trigger. One of them, an older Hypertherm wait about 3 to 4 seconds when triggered from the PC. Strange, but must be they use different timers as the PC part must be isolated from everything.
All other ones i used do the same wait regardless from where they are triggered.

That certainly doesn't make things easy.