Need help setting up HAL files for MESA THCAD10

Hi everyone,

I built a CNC plasma table a few years ago and it has been working well overall. I finally decided to get the THC up and running. I have been using it without. I have an Everlast 50 with the CNC port that is a few years old. I purchased a Mesa THCAD10 board and believe I have it wired correctly to the Everlast. I am getting a changing voltage to the THCAD10 while cutting. I should add I am using a Gecko G540 and have added a second parallel port. Also using the PLASMAC GUI.

I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get the HAL and INI files setup. I have read every manual and forum post I could find for a few weeks now and I am about ready to just live with the plasma table the way it is without THC.

I have attached the HAL and INI files along with a pic of an error I am getting. If I comment out the "setp encoder.0.counter−mode 1 and
setp encoder.0.position−scale -1" I can get Linuxcnc to load but the THC doesnt work. Shows 0 volts.

Thank you for any help.

1. The THCAD output frequency will be too high to read with the software encoder
unless you use the /64 or better /128 division setting on the THCAD

2. You have a strange character (wrong dash) in your setp command:

setp encoder.0.counter−mode 1 (Has a UTF-8 minus sign between counter and mode)

should be

setp encoder.0.counter-mode 1 (Has a standard ASCII dash between counter and mode)

This can happen if you use something other than a text editor
to edit the hal/ini files

EDIT: Finally home, realized you are working with a paraport.

In addition to what PCW said, it looks like you commented out the second half of your encoder assignment. Remove the # from this line:
#net plasmac:arc-voltage-in => plasmac.arc-voltage-in

Or you can do it all on one line:

Definitely did not see that. Thank you for pointing that out. I will change that and try it. I am using the program called Brackets that I use to modify my g-code .

Does that mean I dont need that line if I am using a paraport? This is where some of my confusion comes from.

Brackets seems like a web/html editor, probably not ideal for gcode or programs
(unless it has a ASCII only mode)

Its the recommended program that automatically pops up when using Fusion360 for CAM post processing.

Not sure why you would you use a utf-8 editor on program text

Idk. but never had a problem with using it for any of my g-code. But I just opened my HAL files in notepad++ with ANSI encoding on. I see what you are saying about those two lines. I have corrected them and will report back. One of the things I am not sure about....Am I correctly telling Linuxcnc to look for the arc.voltage.in at the parallel port 15?

CCharles wrote: Idk. but never had a problem with using it for any of my g-code. But I just opened my HAL files in notepad++ with ANSI encoding on. I see what you are saying about those two lines. I have corrected them and will report back. One of the things I am not sure about....Am I correctly telling Linuxcnc to look for the arc.voltage.in at the parallel port 15?

Did you see this post: forum.linuxcnc.org/plasmac/42205-need-he...-mesa-thcad10#205538