RS485 For Hypertherms

phillc54 wrote:

@thefabricator03
I couldn't reply until I stopped lauging, not a good look for the dinosuar measurement system.


@snowgoer540
Hopefully this one will do it...

Ok, back to business.

Basically everything looks great, and works exactly like I would expect. Only thing I noticed: I had a fault (0-22-0) because I didn't have the shop air valve open, and after I opened it and the fault cleared on the PM Panel, it never went away on the powermax communicator interface. I think they cleared in the past, but this time no luck.

One other thing, I wanted to check the metric units (bars ... evidently not a place to get a beer), and I cant remember for the life of me how to do that. I cant find it in the manual, and the serial protocol manual seems to be in PSI. Am I missing something, or are you going to have to display for the metric folks via a conversion?

Otherwise, great work as always, and I owe you a pint!

-Greg

phillc54 wrote:

snowgoer540 wrote:

The conversion to imperial units is still roughly somewhere between an inch and the moon... which we landed on

In all seriousness, I agree with you all. It's just the way it is here, and there isn't much I can do but be assimilated... resistance is futile.

It does beg the question though. Why?

I was brought up with imperial units and the changover when I was 20 was relatively painless and metric is really easy.

I think someone with a bit of power over there needs to grow a pair and just do it.

For me personally, I would just have to go back and forth so much, that it seems useless other than to just use the standard 25.4. Also, consider that metric tooling is generally more expensive here, because there is less of it, and it is less sought after. If I talk to the CNC machinists at work in mm/min instead of ipm, they wont take me seriously.

I could change over in my little shop, where I do mostly work for myself, but even if I did change over, Most customers I took on would look at me cross eyed, and probably avoid me because I asked them if they want a 25.4mm hole instead of saying 1 inch. It's like a social faux pas.

I do completely agree it's easier, especially the tap example @rodw gave earlier (which I knew, but forgot because I rarely use it).

I guess overall, Americans can be stubborn. Maybe its a dumb point of pride to know the imperial system, and resist the metric system. People fear what they don't understand. The list goes on and on I guess.

snowgoer540 wrote:

Basically everything looks great, and works exactly like I would expect. Only thing I noticed: I had a fault (0-22-0) because I didn't have the shop air valve open, and after I opened it and the fault cleared on the PM Panel, it never went away on the powermax communicator interface. I think they cleared in the past, but this time no luck.

I thought so too, I'll check it out

One other thing, I wanted to check the metric units (bars ... evidently not a place to get a beer), and I cant remember for the life of me how to do that. I cant find it in the manual, and the serial protocol manual seems to be in PSI. Am I missing something, or are you going to have to display for the metric folks via a conversion?

Do they even have bar?. I have no clue but if they don't then I am not going to try to convert it.

Otherwise, great work as always, and I owe you a pint!

Or 473.176mL

I could change over in my little shop, where I do mostly work for myself, but even if I did change over, Most customers I took on would look at me cross eyed, and probably avoid me because I asked them if they want a 25.4mm hole instead of saying 1 inch

Of course, you need to use the system suits your location.

phillc54 wrote:

I thought so too, I'll check it out

Sounds good. I’m headed to bed but if there’s any updates I’ll test them in the AM.

Do they even have bar?. I have no clue but if they don't then I am not going to try to convert it.

The display shows both units when in manual mode. I’m not sure though if it reports via serial in bar at all or just PSI.

Or 473.176mL

Let’s just call it an even 16 oz. lol

Have a good evening

@Stefan and @Greg

OK, I have most of the fixes done in the main code but I have a couple of questions.

Should I set the current to be in 1Amp increments/resolution rather the 0.1

Should I set the pressure to be in 1psi increments/resolution rather the 0.1

If Bar does exist in the Powermax units (how do I find out?) then for Bar set the pressure to be in 0.1Bar increments/resolution.

I have it set so that if there is a mode change while connected to the Powermax it will set the pressure to 0 before changing the mode, thus setting the pressure to automatic.

The tooltip text is now dependent on whether or not the Powermax is connected.

phillc54 wrote:

@Stefan and @Greg

OK, I have most of the fixes done in the main code but I have a couple of questions.

Should I set the current to be in 1Amp increments/resolution rather the 0.1

Should I set the pressure to be in 1psi increments/resolution rather the 0.1

If Bar does exist in the Powermax units (how do I find out?) then for Bar set the pressure to be in 0.1Bar increments/resolution.

I have it set so that if there is a mode change while connected to the Powermax it will set the pressure to 0 before changing the mode, thus setting the pressure to automatic.

The tooltip text is now dependent on whether or not the Powermax is connected.

As it turns out I can’t sleep..

I say yes to both 1 amp and 1 psi increments as the PM can’t display any finer resolution than that, and I agree with Stefan that I doubt it makes any appreciable difference in the cut anyhow.

I agree, bar needs to be 0.1 increments. I’m really not sure if it can tell via serial if you want psi or bar to be reported. I’m willing to do a little more digging as I swear there was a place to change default units (on the PM itself). Maybe I dreamed it though. One thought would be to just copy the environment the user changes for plasmac. If the user prefers SI as the default units, calculate a conversion to bar to the nearest tenth? I imagine most of the time changing from automatic mode won’t be necessary anyhow.

I think that’s probably the best method for changing between modes. Like I say, I’d think that 99% of the time the end user won’t mess with pressure. Hypertherm spent a lot of time and charges a lot of money for having these things right to ensure the power sources “just work”.

Good deal on the tool tips. I’m looking forward to testing it all out.

snowgoer540 wrote:

The conversion to imperial units is still roughly somewhere between an inch and the moon... which we landed on

In all seriousness, I agree with you all. It's just the way it is here, and there isn't much I can do but be assimilated... resistance is futile.

You keep mentioning you got to the moon, kudos for that, but you forgot to do your homework, NASA uses metric since their start.
So thank you ! Oh and US Navy, too, clicks they keep referring too are kilometres, and mill dot on the sniper rifles is in metric, always.

snowgoer540 wrote:

I say yes to both 1 amp and 1 psi increments as the PM can’t display any finer resolution than that, and I agree with Stefan that I doubt it makes any appreciable difference in the cut anyhow.

I just did a quick read and saw that you both mentioned it before so I will set them to units and not tenths.

I agree, bar needs to be 0.1 increments. I’m really not sure if it can tell via serial if you want psi or bar to be reported. I’m willing to do a little more digging as I swear there was a place to change default units (on the PM itself). Maybe I dreamed it though. One thought would be to just copy the environment the user changes for plasmac. If the user prefers SI as the default units, calculate a conversion to bar to the nearest tenth? I imagine most of the time changing from automatic mode won’t be necessary anyhow.

Not much point in converting if the PM sends it in bar and no point in converting if they don't have bar as the user will need to use psi.
If they do send either bar or psi I should be able to detect it by the value.

I think that’s probably the best method for changing between modes.

I agree

Good deal on the tool tips. I’m looking forward to testing it all out.

I also added the automatic gas pressure bit to the gas pressure tooltip.

I am pretty sure I have addressed all the issues so I will tidy all this up and add abit to the docs and push it.

A thought.

Remove the GAS_UNITS from the ini file.

Set the Gas Pressure in the Run Panel to zero.

Don't allow any Gas Pressure changes until the PM is connected.

Determine psi/bar from the data received from the PM then add the appropriate "- Bar" or "- PSI" suffix to the "Gas Pressure" label.

This way the PM determines what is displayed.

EDIT: See the attachment from the 45XP manual, does this apply to the comms data as well? This makes me think the above is the correct way to handle this so I have gone ahead. I determine bar/psi from the maximum pressure setting, if is above 10 then it sets psi and 10 or below is bar.