Useful Plasma Thread

snugglylovemuffin wrote: Did you ever get around to making that tutorial for inkscape? I'm still playing with it but I haven't gotten it to work properly.

Unfortunately not yet, have way to much for the time being, a truck load of raw material got delayed due to some dumb driver, so now i have to deal with a full factory of half finished parts and the delay that caused for our costumer.
By the way managed to nearly finish another plasma cutter, just to make my life even harder, here is a link to a test i did today:


Will try to get it done this week, the tutorial you linked is way to complicated. It can all be done in inkscape.

That's okay. I did actaully get inkscape to generate some gcode for me, but now I can't get the machine to function at all with the grotius setup. I can jog the machine with my previous setup.

The grotius setup is in the Sim folder so is this just an environment issue that I need to address?

That is not the typical location for a configuration that will move the machine. Look at the .ini file used in the HAL section and see if the sim hal files are used. It will be helpful if you post the .ini and .hal files used by the configuration you are trying to run. Post the full path to the configuration files you are trying to run.

John

Here are the run files,

I'd like to get to running the machine as a business; looks like you're doing the same! I'm much better with CAD than Linux

I went through the run files, the only indication that anything was "simulated" was the sim.var, so I added a linuxcnc.var to the folder and changed the directory in the hal. After running the Grotius build again I was still unable to jog the machine, it kept giving me an e-stop error.

(sim.var and sim.var.bak weren't included in the last set of files due to upload error)

What's my best bet for getting this table cutting tomorrow?

Ok, so you want to cut tomorrow. Build your self an Axis GUI using Tommy's configurations and Hal. A complete discussion of your present hardware and configurations in a new thread wouldn't hurt ( it will make it easier for other new comers to follow). A complete discussion of how you want to ultimately want to use your system ( job shop with employees, art work, one man shop) will help.

I spent 2.5 years ( starting from zero knowledge of anything Linux) getting my setup to work using a custom Gmoccapy UI and running the EO development branch ( OK most of my computer hardware came from the dump but I did buy a 7I76E and THCad card from Mesa). Yes, I am very happy with the result. Is it perfect in my mind yet?,no. It still works MUCH better than my old commercial controller and THC. You need to be realistic here, from what I have seen in your posts you are trying to follow a several levels from the present stable release branch and have working commercial system that only the original author has working. Plasma is kind of an orphan child around here and there are very few that use it on an daily basis. Don't give up, if I can do it anyone can.

I am an old guy and don't type well. PM me with a phone number and good call times I can call toll free in the US and can work much faster that way.

John

I've certainly got the feeling that plasma/laser is under represented. I've been working on this table now for 2 years and I'd like to see it work. I wasn't expecting a lot of production off this table, I was more hoping that it might pay for the next table after I gained some experience.

I will start a new thread and begin a new axis build following in Tommy's footsteps.

snugglylovemuffin wrote: I've certainly got the feeling that plasma/laser is under represented.

That is changing for sure, have you seen this yet ?
forum.linuxcnc.org/plasma-laser/35349-op...ea-and-a-lot-of-info

snugglylovemuffin wrote: I will start a new thread and begin a new axis build following in Tommy's footsteps.

I have small feet, number 41 !

I hadn't seen this project yet, exciting stuff! Plasma is so useful for initiating other projects like rigid mills and lathes, I'm not sure why it isn't more popular. My exposure to this community has been pretty limited.

I need to take another crack at your plasma build Tommy, would you mind posting your plasma build files? I appreciate all the work Grotius has put in, however Islander261 is right, in that it isn't wise for me to base my entire machine off of a development branch. Much love Grotius!