Snuggly's Plasma Build

Hahaha, thanks man, I appreciate the kind words.
My neighbor has a 30A hypertherm. If I asked REALLY nice, he might let me borrow it; first we gotta get this thing to work, even if we don't make it fire the plasma torch while it's on.

Do I need a relay at all? I should technically be able to switch high with just the Mesa inputs, right?

I need your mail adres. Only for check if you are no mach3 troll.

Ok, you must use a relay to start your plasma! Even a HT requires a dry contact closure to correctly work 100% of the time. You will almost assuredly toast your mesa card trying with out isolation on an offshore manufactured plasma power supply.

What we don't have but need to help is:

1. Error messages or screen dump when you start lcnc from a terminal.
2. Halshow screen dump when looking at the pins of your 7i96, HM2... May take several screens. We need to see every signal connected to TB3.
3. A drawing of the connections between your 7i96 and proma 150. This will help you verify that things are connected the way you think they are.

What is really need is a step by step methodical approach to this, no shotgunning if you hope to succeed.

What I can tell from posts is now you can jog under control all three axis X,Y,Z. You can home at least X and Y. Can you jog Z and see your float switch react correctly? Do the signals from the proma measured with a multimeter at TB3 make sense?

John

snugglylovemuffin wrote:

Current wiring
TB3:
8 = z float
9 = Arc-OK
10 = Down
11 = Up
12 = Common --> -24v
13 = Torch Relay -
14 = Torch Relay +
Proma common --> PSU ground

Please take the time to read what has been said about your wiring. You are set up to use active high inputs (Pin 12 connected to -24V)

So you need to connect the Proma common to +24v.

@Grotius: I'll message you, I'm not a Mach3 troll; honest.

@Islander 261: Noted, I was just curious to know if a relay is necessary; now I know it is. I haven't experienced any error messages on launch lately, just no movement. I will make a screenshot of all the HM2 ports and draw up a wiring diagram from the Proma. I can jog each axis and home X and Y but I cannot home Z.

@Rodw, that's was just how I had it setup, I'll wire the proma common to +24V as suggested.

@Tommylight: Noted! Got some

Ok, I just took another look at the TOMA configuration and it has no homing for any axis so no homing on Z isn't the end of the world if you are always careful. Do you have separate switches for for Z axis homing and your float switch? Actually your present .hal file has all the connections for Z homing switches commented out, so Z can't home.

I missed this before, you need to have consistent values in the Axis and Joint sections of your .ini file. The Max_Velocity is low but is fine for getting basic motion working. So make sure all your [AXIS_L] MAX_VELOCITY and MAX_ACCELERATION values match the [JOINT_N] values and set your STEPGEN_MAXVEL and STEPGEN_MAXACCEL values accordingly. They don't in the Y axis and Z axis parts of your .ini file.

John

Since the 7I96 has a single input common for all 11 inputs, you must wire the Proma common pin the same as the limit switch common.

That is, if you wire 7I96 input common (TB3 pin12) to +24V, the common of the limit switches and the Proma must be 24V common (-24V)

@Islander261: yes, I have an independent min-home-2 switch.

I am getting a "joint_3_limit" error when my float switch is activated

Pin 33 is switching on an off randomly, probably a problem with the board itself so I'm not too concerned with it.

If you mean GPIO33, its expected to toggle at 1 MHz so reading it in hal will result in random true/false data