IHS sensing with laser sensor

Laser head senses IHS without touching the workplate which saves a lot of time. Laserhead continues to use capacitive sensing for height sensing.

What if we could add a Capcitive sensor only for IHS and then disable it and switch to voltage sensing. This will save Frequencies messing with capacitive sensor, and it can remove touch off completely.

TalooTHC by taloot would be a great option to work with. What do @phillc54 thinks about it?

Update: Current idea has been updated to laser sensor(TOF10120) at an offset with automatic cover.

If it can be proven to be reliable then it is a good idea.

I think you could use a similar approach to ohmic.comp linuxcnc.org/docs/2.8/html/man/man9/ohmic.9.html
It turns on a signal pin at a certain voltage threshold, You could do the same. You could set the threshold via an analog input with M67/M68 to set the cut height. It might be fun to experiment with.. Check the source in github. Its pretty simple.

pinder wrote: Laser head senses IHS without touching the workplate which saves a lot of time. Laserhead continues to use capacitive sensing for height sensing.

How accurate to you think this would be? How much would a laser sensor that is capable of being accurate cost? I would be very interested in trying something like this out - well when I get some free time.

I was able to find some info about the sensors which are cheap which are usd with oxyfuel cutters.

Here is an excellent solution for DIYers.
youtube video

Capcitive sensing is no good for plasma due to the debri messing it up.
This is going backwards, they were in use and they got dumped as they are unreliable. Must have thrown 6 or 7 of them.
Laser is ok as it does not make a mess while cutting.
Oxy is ok as there is no other way.

tommylight wrote: Capcitive sensing is no good for plasma due to the debri messing it up.
This is going backwards, they were in use and they got dumped as they are unreliable. Must have thrown 6 or 7 of them.
Laser is ok as it does not make a mess while cutting.
Oxy is ok as there is no other way.

I'm glad you cleared that up Tommy. I thought similar but have not had experience to make a call.

tommylight wrote: Capcitive sensing is no good for plasma due to the debri messing it up.
This is going backwards, they were in use and they got dumped as they are unreliable. Must have thrown 6 or 7 of them.
Laser is ok as it does not make a mess while cutting.
Oxy is ok as there is no other way.

What if we could hook a cheap tof10120 sesor?

Messer Griesheim is the biggest plasma and oxy cnc machine manufacturer and if you take the time to check them out you can clearly see when they changed from heavy gantry and capacitive sensing to very light alu gantry and floating switch sensing and using that as their main selling point.
Now if you do spend some more time and watch some of my first videos and compare the time stamps, it becomes apparent that they got those ideas from my videos, took them about two years. Same goes for other manufacturers like Esab.
BTW, Esab make the Crossbow and the same machine is made by Steel Tailor, but i never bothered to check who copied who.

pinder wrote: What if we could hook a cheap tof10120 sesor?

That would work perfectly, right until you fire the torch !
Plasma emits so much IR and UV and everything in-between that it would mess up the readings, badly.
That would be much better to use for probing, well eliminate the probing all together, and that would be a good idea, but it would have to be cleaned very often as it would get covered by fine dust from cutting.