Configuring Plasmac - a complete THC/plasma config for any hardware

Because all the inputs are consecutively numbered.

You connected wires to your 7i76ED, start with the connector and pin number and then look up logical number, usually X-1.

LinuxCNC will not start until you either get pin numbers right or comment out the lines. You can run Halshow from the command line to find the pins. The instructions are in the documents. Read all of the hal configuration documentation.

Looks like I didn't get some joint max speeds and accelerations, just add the same values as the axis except for Z which will be 1/2.

John

If you connect a pin to field power, the input will change state. So why don't you connect a wire to +ve Field power, open up halshow, watch a bunch of input pins and experiment by prodding them with the wire? If you do this, prod the wire connector not the screw on top which may not have a connection if there is no wire present.

You will also see in Halshow that for each pin, there is another ending in -NOT. These are for convenience as they will show the opposite of the actual pin state. Sometimes you will use them (eg. When you have a normally closed circuit).

7I76, 7I76E and 7I76ED (and 7I77,7I84,7I70) inputs are all the same (sinking inputs)
You must apply field power to the inputs for them to change state.

The D option cards have sinking outputs instead of sourcing outputs, but the
inputs are the same as the non-D versions

PCW wrote:

7I76, 7I76E and 7I76ED (and 7I77,7I84,7I70) inputs are all the same (sinking inputs)
You must apply field power to the inputs for them to change state.

The D option cards have sinking outputs instead of sourcing outputs, but the
inputs are the same as the non-D versions

Thanks, Peter I edited the previous post. It was much easier before you gave us more choices

I see now, I was thinking the numbering started over when it moved to the next TB#. Thanks guys

Well I'm not sure how I did it but I managed to get this to load without errors and jogging my motors. I'm starting to feel like I might actually cut something some day!

Thanks for your write up rodw and phillc54 and everyone else!

The OP showed an axis gui environment for the plasmac but I couldn't find that on my install today, I could only locate the gmmoccapy version. Is it just the one interface now? I'm not complaining at all I'm just curios, I imagine focusing efforts on one could be better anyway.

Its great to know people can install this now just by following these instructions!

I've made a note of the missing axis config in the earlier posts containing instructions. I also added an important bit I totally forgot about so as there are new users following along, I will add it again here:

Also its worth discussing these settings for the Z axis in the ini file which are specific to the external offsets Plasmac uses. I forgot to mention them earlier because I've been using them for so long.So MAX_VELOCITY and MAX_ACCELERATION should be double what your machine is capable of.
External offsets was designed that a percentage of velocity and acceleration was devoted to external offsets on the assumption that offsets would be applied while motion was occurring. In the case of plasma standard Z axis motion and external offset motion are mutually exclusive. You are either jogging around or you are cutting. So we want to devote 100% of velocity and acceleration to the Z axis while its under THC control. So by doubling your machine settings and applying a ratio of 0.5 (50%) we actually trick external offsets into using 100% of the axis machine settings for THC control. Cool hey! It did my head in working that out the first time.

OK i don't know what i have done and where my mix up is but i cant get awaw from joint errors. I had working files at one time but that was before i got the plasmac working. I also noticed that my option buttons are missing and i no longer see the halshow button or any of the other buttons. i think something has gotten messed up trying to keep up with the updates. here are my files.