Another plasma component...

Well here it is again in real time. Slope is about 13 degrees. I've been saving some corrugated iron to trial THC on but who cares?

AUTO:
To specify an automatic tool change use M190 Pn (n being the plasmac tool number).
Then on the next line use M66 P3 L3 Q1 this is a handshake to let gcode know that the plasmac tool parameters are valid for the next cut.
Any number of tool changes can be made in a file but only ONE for each cut.

So thinking post processors here, does plasmac return any error codes if a tool is not found or doe it just timeout?

Also I've never used M0/M1. Is a pause for M1 only executed if a M0 is given earlier?

Thinking about how to implement error checking in a post processor if a tool is not found. If the M66 times out, -1 will be placed in #5399 so wanted to check it and pause if not found.

Phil

Thanks, I have something like this working OK
I found the one second timeout errored on tool #50 so I got a chance to test this.The message pops up and pauses the program. Increased the timeout to 2 seconds and it worked. Had me stumped while it worked on one and not the other.
Yes there is a bit of spurious code there. I've taken about 300 lines out of the post and I just have one spurious G1 on its own to find.
I have to move the error into a subroutine as having it hardcoded was resulting in duplicate numbering of the if statements which creates an error.

With this post a tool called "CentrePunch" is used for drilling operations to spot hole centres. Its just a matter of moving holes to a new layer and running a drill operation on that layer that uses that tool.

Phill, the other thing you could do is return a -2 or 99999 if the tool does not exist. That would turn up in #5399 so it could be handled by the post processor in gcode. (not sure if negative values are supported).

There will be multiple tools in use per sheetcam layers.

Phill

Thanks again for all your hard work. I cut 8 sheets out on Saturday and except for one apparent strange thing it all worked great! I am still using a version from the first week of May. Now here is what happened. I have a part the has a large number of simple pierces for holes close together (lots of dots) that are made with the THC disabled as they are typically cut (pierced, punched) with the same tool I use for open lines. For the most part this works really well with the IHS skip function really preventing nozzle damage and speeding things up. The only problem is if you have an error and you are within the IHS skip distance the machine doesn't reset to the "need to probe" state when come out of the machine paused condition. Of course this is one of those corner conditions that I am probably the only one to ever come across in routine use. I just wanted to report this before I forgot about it. This sheet has 18 parts on it with 1017 pierces on the sheet.

The Plasmac branch produces the best cut quality of any control I have used on my machine!

Rod

Thanks for helping everyone out with their configuration problems. I have been unemployed for nearly 4 years now and the arrival of new outside work (when I had just legally retired the day before) I don't have time to help out right now.

John

phillc54 wrote:

I think I prefer this way.
The gcode file is completely parsed before loading then it reports all tools that are not found and stops the program from loading.
It also makes for a cleaner gcode file as no code is required.
Cheers, Phill.

Phill, go with that then, I'm struggling with calls to the o code subroutine

Im Getting an error "Unknown Control Command in O word in the call