Another plasma component...

I have been doing a bit of work on the User Guide and it is getting close to being finished (I hope).

The online asciidoc version is here

There is a pdf version available here which needs a bit of work on the layout but I will leave that until it is finished.

The user guide is a work in progress so if I have left something out, got something wrong or you have something you would like to contribute please let me know.

Cheers, Phill.

Phill, Awesome work! I had a bit of a look and it looks very comprehensive (All 31 pages).

I really think think Plasmac must be ready to be pushed to master branch. Its not going to break anything so maybe you can maintain it from there just like Norbert does with Gmoccapy. It would be so cool to avoid compiling from source.

I'd also like to see a link on the main master documents page linuxcnc.org/docs/devel/html/
under User interfaces with a heading something like:
Plasmac, A complete CNC plasma controller for LinuxCNC

Its actually a lot more than a user interface. In fact, there is no precedent in the history of Linuxcnc that attempts to do what you have done.

Also note that if you've authored the content in Google Drive it is easy to translate to other languages if that becomes a requirement for mainstream docs. I know the English to French translation is perfect as I asked somebody to edit a translated 20 page technical document for me and he said there was nothing to be done. German must also be pretty good becasue Chrome automatically translates the forum for me and I can understand what is being said.

Plasmac, A complete CNC plasma controller for LinuxCNC

nice there needs to be a page that tels what hardware it can handle from install
as so many has gone in that is not available all over the world or realy expensiv at the start of a mashine build to hobbyists
even me as cutting 200+ sheets per day it is only a step by step update to the mashines

Rod,
I wrote it in asciidoc format so it should be able to go straight into the docs. I think I need to check with the devs to find out where exactly it should go and also to make sure the configs are sitting in the relevant place. I'm not sure when to try to get it into master as there is still some bits and pieces I would like to add.

pl7i92,
plasmac should work with any hardware that works with LinuxCNC and has enough I/O for the connections.

Cheers, Phill.

phillc54 wrote: Rod,
I wrote it in asciidoc format so it should be able to go straight into the docs. I think I need to check with the devs to find out where exactly it should go and also to make sure the configs are sitting in the relevant place. I'm not sure when to try to get it into master as there is still some bits and pieces I would like to add.

Cheers, Phill.

You should push for push access

There have been worse documents and much buggier software pushed to master branch in the past. Don't sell yourself short.
Start now and see where you get.

I'm curious, per a reply from @andypugh on this thread do you have plans to simplify the installation instructions to just compiling the plasmac component instead of needing to compile the whole branch? Or no need since the ultimate goal is to get it merged to the official linuxcnc code base?