THC (Torch Hight Controllers)

snowgoer540 wrote: It's interesting to read the history of PlasmaC.

Well it does not include the early history I mentioned but the original development thread of Phill's (180 pages) is here
forum.linuxcnc.org/plasma-laser/35449-another-plasma-component .

The big enabler was external offsets written by Dewey Garrett, one of the core developers. He taught me a lot!

rodw wrote: So in summary, there have been a lot of contributors to Phill's baby Plasmac.

That baby has grown up to be much better than the heavyweights of the industry.
Dady Phill did a nice job of raising that baby.
Thank you all for the kind words and some very nice explanations.

Wow. I must not have put notifications on this topic. I wasn't aware of all the replies. I haven't read everything but from what I read I gather this: the THCs mentioned in the initial post are about the only THCs that are accepted in the realm of "cheaper" builds. And out of all of them the THCAD is the best. My next build will be a THCAD (and I'm currently using and will continue to use the mesa 7I96 board). Its very strange to me that the cheapest option is the best though.

Its more that the THCAD is the enabler for Linuxcnc to be the best!

I see. Makes sense

Its strange because thats how marketing normally works. Convince people that your product is the best and charge a shit load for it.

Like Rod mentioned, the THCAD is not a torch height controller, its just a way to accurately measure arc voltage and the hard work is done within LinuxCNC. It will be interesting to see if these other THC's disapear over the next couple of years as people realize that the way THCAD works is superior.

Yeah I feel victim to that idea. Naturally we thing that cheaper means worse. Which was my thinking. But when I first started I had no idea what I was doing. Now I do. And so will others

Its not the THCAD that's the enabler. Its LinuxCNCs HAL
and all the THC work that people have done in the open and
collaborative real time structure that LinuxCNC and HAL provide.

A functional THC A-D could be made for $2.00 with a
555 Timer VCO and an optoisolater.

Thats what I love about the open source movement. In a industrial environment most thing are very expensive. Using your THCAD or something similar and some very clever coding we can make a plasma cutting system for very minimal cost.

It really is pretty awesome. I was skeptical of the reliability at first but with over 1500 hours of cutting on my machine it still has not failed and continues to work everyday.

Yes, I’m definitely switch for my next build. Now just to make this one as perfect as possible and sell it.