Another plasma component...

I'm not sure what i'm missing but I got everything operational on my table so thought I'd give plasmac a go on a small part as
per the attached gcode which I edited by hand to to delete calls to my gcode touchoff routine.

It took off and cut circles in the air. I scratched my head for a bit then realised there was no M3 in the code anymore as they were in the touch off routine. So I added them back in.

So it took off and cut more circles in the air. there was no attempt to move the Z axis at all.

I then pulled the latest code and recompiled and it still cut circles in the air. So I'm not sure what I'm missing. All the plasmac signals seem to be working and the pulse button fires the torch. BUt I just realised I need to copy the pythons stuff across to my working directory.

Could the version I downloaded on Friday be broken?

I've attached all my files..

Thanks Phill, yes I fixed the missing G0 and once I got home, I wondered if I should have added a S1. I'll give it a go.

Phill, thanks, I am away!

This config is just so complete and neat and tidy and works far better than anything I've written in the last 3 years. Well done! I'm sold on this already.

I'll upload a video to my build thread.

The Linuxcnc set should be very grateful for your tireless work on this. I only hope it makes its way to master branch soon. I think its getting a head of steam now so with a few installations, the bugs will get found quickly.

One observation is restarting on a pause is problematic as there is no steel left to support an arc on my machine but it tries valiantly to get going again!

Rod

I find that on my machine restarts are very dependent on the consumables I am using (at least on thin sheet). I also think this can be expanded and say it is a kerf width * material thickness^-1 related. I cannot restart in a cut with stock Duramax consumables but I can restart in the cut all day with Finecut consumables.

BTW when I used the TD torch I would slip a small scrap of really thin sheet over the cut and that would solve the arc starting problems.

John

Hi all, I've been following this topic with great interest as I am nearing completion of a plasma table build with a friend of mine. If there is interest, I'll post a build thread; in general, though, it's based on a Mesa 7I92 and THCAD with a hodgepodge of steppers and drivers.

I do have a question, though: can the plasmac component (and associated config) be used without any form of probing? Our machine uses a Hypertherm T45m machine torch, which doesn't appear to have any facility for ohmic probing, and our torch carriage doesn't have a float switch. We're investigating adding both, but I'm hoping I can try out the plasmac component without these. Height setting will be accomplished with gauge blocks and very small manual jogs instead.

Many thanks to Phill for writing the component and to all of the eager testers - I hope to join your ranks soon!