Another plasma component...

Phill

Does this code mean that both THC enable and using auto volts need to be true for IHS Skip to work?
I am just trying to plot a work around for my IHS Skip problem.

John

islander261 wrote:

Rod

Here is my typical work flow as it may help clear things up. Using Gmoccapy in the Plasmac branch.

John, thanks. Thats exactly what I worked out to do yesterday. Also yesterday Todd posted a G54 touch off routine that he uses to probe for the surface on his routers which was kind of perfect timing.
forum.linuxcnc.org/10-advanced-configura...-off-material-origin

The reason why I wanted to understand the gcode was it would be good to add some macro buttons to Gmocappy. One to touch off X & Y with one button press and maybe another other to touch off the Z axis as Todd has done. I know the Z axis one is not really necessary but we have a probe so we should use it. This would also be efficient from changing from say 16mm to 1.6mm material to keep the plasmac probe height pretty constant (if plasmac supports using offsets in that way.)

Call me lazy, but the default touch off requires a few button presses and it would be nice to do it in one! I don't know if you guys have used them but gmoccapy macros work quite well. In fact, I have one that parks the gantry that could make the load material button redundant.

Also I think BigJohn posted some example code to use the offsets optional R parameter to avoid the need to square the sheet. Just by jogging to the position of the sheet edge at each end. Maybe I can dig it up.

John, re your IHS skip, I take it you want to calculate it from the pierce position? I think somewhere, I have a seperate component that sets a pin true if a probe is required based on a distance from probe. You might just be able to and that with a plasmac pin somehow.

Rod

Yes, I have a number of macros I use with Gmoccapy, mostly for testing. I really find it very easy to use. The real world is most sheets are parallelogram shaped. I haven't tried JT's approach. When all is said and done I usually spend less than 2 minutes getting the work piece material square to the machine and origin offsets entered for 45 to 90 minutes of cutting.

John

Phill

Have well deserved weekend away! I'm glad that I'm not the only one that has trouble coping with all the small stuff on phones. I actually only turn mine on if I go to the mainland in case one of my old vehicles dies on the freeway( dual or more carriage way)!

I am aware of the need for changing the offset calculation if the reference point is changed. I just hadn't heard mention of the needing to be in auto volts mode before.

Machine work in imperial units traditionally uses inches as the measurement unit here. Feet and inches is usually reserved for the construction trades here and if you are racing horses furlongs get the nod.

John

Phill,
IDEA TIME: When you are next touching your Python code, could you add a ToolID field to your materials file? No need to display it but maybe auto add it starting at 1 in the python structure if its not in the materials file to support existing configs?

I was having a look at the Toolchange docs . I think if you did this, it would be very easy to select the material from Gcode with a Tnn M6.

Plasmac would need to receive a pin from iocontrol and set another pin once the correct material is selected.
In a sheetcam environment, the only variable that needs to be sent to the post processor would be the ToolID for the Tnn M6

Would be very cool....

phillc54 wrote:

Rod,
That would not be too hard, I will post a more detailed response when I get back to a real keyboard.

Cheers, Phill.

Thats what I thought so I'll wait patiently.

Phill

I have often wondered why the plasma world doesn't handle cutting parameters this way. I think this is going back to the Mach legacy and a fixed tool table structure.

John