Plasma-Specific Docs

We have a lathe specific documentation section here: linuxcnc.org/docs/2.8/html/ under "General User Information"

I suspect that it would make sense to have a similar section for Plasma users. Explaining what needs to be set up for a plasma, what a THC is and what the options are, use of Plasmac etc.

Does anyone feel like writing it? I have never even touched a plasma torch, so feel underqualified.

Also, I think that, as a standalone HAL component plasmac satisfies the criterion "can not break existing configs" and should be acceptable for merge in to 2.8. But that decision would have to be made by the release manager.

Hi Andy,

Also, I think that, as a standalone HAL component plasmac satisfies the criterion "can not break existing configs"
That's for sure.

I think the coder of Plasmac can write documentation for it the best.
Me personally need the time hardly to release a dxf2gcode C - C++ program.

But i can provide library documentation, like plasma handbook's, cut chart's, etc. But we need to expand the forum attachment file size for this.

andypugh wrote: We have a lathe specific documentation section here: linuxcnc.org/docs/2.8/html/ under "General User Information"

I suspect that it would make sense to have a similar section for Plasma users. Explaining what needs to be set up for a plasma, what a THC is and what the options are, use of Plasmac etc.

Does anyone feel like writing it? I have never even touched a plasma torch, so feel underqualified.

Also, I think that, as a standalone HAL component plasmac satisfies the criterion "can not break existing configs" and should be acceptable for merge in to 2.8. But that decision would have to be made by the release manager.

I'm not sure its useful to add plasmac to 2.8 when it depends on reverse run which is in v2.9. If the V 2.8 release is only a few weeks away, it won't be too hard for a user to deploy a plasma machine from master branch. But I guess the component could be included.

i might be prepared to produce the content but would like to see someone else to format it into the HTML docs. I was thinking along the lines of a Google Drive document that could be shared with other authors becasue some areas might be out of my expertise. I'm sure Phill has a role in this.

I also think these docs should be restricted to reference material in the official linuxcnc ecosystem. Previously plasma content has been spread through various private web sites and forum posts. Its time to get it in the mainstream.

rodw wrote: i might be prepared to produce the content but would like to see someone else to format it into the HTML docs.

Allow me to undermine your excuses
There is no need to format into HTML, the LinuxCNC docs are written in the asciidoc format and look like this:
raw.githubusercontent.com/LinuxCNC/linux...lathe/lathe-user.txt
This is a format designed to be human-readable that is then parsed automatically in to HTML and PDF by the LinuxCNC build system.

If you create the file on github with a .adoc extension then it will be automatically rendered in pretty form by github. Or there are online renderers, or you can pass the file to asciidoctor locally.

But just plain-text content and explanatory images would be a good start.

I saw you getting your house in order on the developers mailing list before the undermining commenced.

At this point any docs need to be .txt, I've not got .adoc to build. And like Andy said asciidoc is just plain text files with a few rules for links, code, etc., a guide is in the docs directory for those rules.

JT

Well here is a PDF of the proposed docs Andy requested. All 13 pages of it!

Several people on the forum have reviewed (and contributed) to the content.

At this point, to ensure we have original content, I need help to redraw 3 diagrams:
1. The first one.
2. The Second one
3. The hand drawn one (I'm no artist!)

So if there are any volunteers to take on this task, please step forward on this thread.

The document has been created in Google drive and it will be easy to download it as text and I have kept copies of all of the images.

Its not too late to make suggestions or request revisions.

UPDATED DOCUMENT 7 July 2019 - Final pending publishing in the 2.9 docs.

Rod . I am a bit dyslexic but I think I found a couple of errors.

Page 6 "Ohmic sensing relays on contact" should this be relies
Page 10 re mesa card 7i92 did you mean 7i96
Page 11 "firing 2 or 3 of them in series" did you mean "fitting"

I really do appreciate what you and the others have done with this project.

Clive s wrote: Rod . I am a bit dyslexic but I think I found a couple of errors.

Page 6 "Ohmic sensing relays on contact" should this be relies
Page 10 re mesa card 7i92 did you mean 7i96
Page 11 "firing 2 or 3 of them in series" did you mean "fitting"

I really do appreciate what you and the others have done with this project.

Clive, thanks I've made those changes in the master document. The 7i96 seems to be the one others are using so thanks for that.

Its been a long journey for me as I knew nothing about plasma when I started my project . I think there is so much mis-information so I think this covers off on all of the stuff I know If anyone else spots any more typos or thinks I'm telling any lies, please give me your feedback so we can get this into the official docs for everybody.

Rodw, thats fantastic. Nice writeup.

Is there going to be a section on hal pins and how this plasmac beast works? Configs and such?