Feature Request

phillc54 wrote:

I'll attempt a better description tomorrow when the brain is a it fresher.

Sounds good, back to work today, so I should probably get back to designing some fixturing anyhow.

snowgoer540 wrote:

My head is officially a pretzel.

LOL
Same here, was just trying to add PlasmaC feed rate to gcodetools, it did not go well.

snowgoer540 wrote:

I thought you were saying that it moves the Z axis to whatever the MAX_LIMIT is minus 5mm, as in a position. So what it really does is move the MAX_LIMIT down by 5mm, and then goes to the soft limit, and then clears the offset?

The items in play are:
[JOINT_3]MAX_LIMIT - this IS the Z axis maximum soft limit.
[JOINT_3]HOME - where the Z axis parks after homing.
PLASMAC_MAX_HEIGHT - 5mm below [JOINT_3]MAX_LIMIT.
SAFE_HEIGHT - Safe_Height above the material.
START_HEIGHT - the Z axis height of the machine when the machine received the M5.
OFFSET - the distance Z axis is from START_HEIGHT (this starts and finishes at zero).

On receiving a M5 Z moves to the SAFE_HEIGHT.
If there is a X/Y move before the program end then that will be done at SAFE_HEIGHT.
On receiving the program end signal Z moves to PLASMAC_MAX_HEIGHT.
After reaching PLASMAC_MAX_HEIGHT any remaining OFFSET is cleared.
Clearing the OFFSET makes Z move to START_HEIGHT.
This may move the Z up or down depending on the relationship between START_HEIGHT and PLASMAC_MAX_HEIGHT.

phillc54 wrote:

snowgoer540 wrote:

I thought you were saying that it moves the Z axis to whatever the MAX_LIMIT is minus 5mm, as in a position. So what it really does is move the MAX_LIMIT down by 5mm, and then goes to the soft limit, and then clears the offset?

The items in play are:
[JOINT_3]MAX_LIMIT - this IS the Z axis maximum soft limit.
[JOINT_3]HOME - where the Z axis parks after homing.
PLASMAC_MAX_HEIGHT - 5mm below [JOINT_3]MAX_LIMIT.
SAFE_HEIGHT - Safe_Height above the material.
START_HEIGHT - the Z axis height of the machine when the machine received the M5.
OFFSET - the distance Z axis is from START_HEIGHT (this starts and finishes at zero).

On receiving a M5 Z moves to the SAFE_HEIGHT.
If there is a X/Y move before the program end then that will be done at SAFE_HEIGHT.
On receiving the program end signal Z moves to PLASMAC_MAX_HEIGHT.
After reaching PLASMAC_MAX_HEIGHT any remaining OFFSET is cleared.
Clearing the OFFSET makes Z move to START_HEIGHT.
This may move the Z up or down depending on the relationship between START_HEIGHT and PLASMAC_MAX_HEIGHT.

First, I'm not sure how I missed this. There's been a lot going on on this end, sorry about that. Thanks for taking the time to lay it out.

I understand everything so far. Where I begin to lose my understanding is with what the difference between starting the torch at MAX_LIMIT and starting near PLASMAC_MAX_HEIGHT is. If the offset is cleared at PLASMAC_MAX_HEIGHT, why does it cause the bouncy effect associated with being near a soft limit with an offset applied?

Maybe it would help to understand the start side of things. What I think happens is you record the present height and set that as START_HEIGHT. Then the torch jogs down to the PROBE_HEIGHT, changes speeds, and finds the material. When it does, it records this distance in the OFFSET. Does all of the cutting movements, and then starts with what you have above when an M5 is received. Am I close?

snowgoer540 wrote:

I understand everything so far. Where I begin to lose my understanding is with what the difference between starting the torch at MAX_LIMIT and starting near PLASMAC_MAX_HEIGHT is.

5mm

If the offset is cleared at PLASMAC_MAX_HEIGHT, why does it cause the bouncy effect associated with being near a soft limit with an offset applied?

It doesn't, it only "bounces" if PLASMAC_MAX_HEIGHT is not equal to START_HEIGHT. This means a Z move so it may appear as a bounce becuase it may need to travel in the down direction to move back to START_HEIGHT

Maybe it would help to understand the start side of things. What I think happens is you record the present height and set that as START_HEIGHT. Then the torch jogs down to the PROBE_HEIGHT, changes speeds, and finds the material. When it does, it records this distance in the OFFSET. Does all of the cutting movements, and then starts with what you have above when an M5 is received. Am I close?

That's about it. START_HEIGHT is always offset = zero, all other Z moves have an offset of some value.

phillc54 wrote:

snowgoer540 wrote:

I understand everything so far. Where I begin to lose my understanding is with what the difference between starting the torch at MAX_LIMIT and starting near PLASMAC_MAX_HEIGHT is.

5mm

If the offset is cleared at PLASMAC_MAX_HEIGHT, why does it cause the bouncy effect associated with being near a soft limit with an offset applied?

It doesn't, it only "bounces" if PLASMAC_MAX_HEIGHT is not equal to START_HEIGHT. This means a Z move so it may appear as a bounce becuase it may need to travel in the down direction to move back to START_HEIGHT

Maybe it would help to understand the start side of things. What I think happens is you record the present height and set that as START_HEIGHT. Then the torch jogs down to the PROBE_HEIGHT, changes speeds, and finds the material. When it does, it records this distance in the OFFSET. Does all of the cutting movements, and then starts with what you have above when an M5 is received. Am I close?

That's about it. START_HEIGHT is always offset = zero, all other Z moves have an offset of some value.

Haha well played.

I should have been clearer, I meant the bounce spring that it does until you turn the machine on and off (via software) when you run into the soft limit, and somewhat the following error stuffs. Not the bounce of “hunting” for a place to park

snowgoer540 wrote:

I should have been clearer, I meant the bounce spring that it does until you turn the machine on and off (via software) when you run into the soft limit, and somewhat the following error stuffs. Not the bounce of “hunting” for a place to park

Maybe I missed that. So you are saying that if you start the torch from somewhere around the PLASMAC_MAX_HEIGHT then at the end of the cut the torch goes to PLASMAC_MAX_HEIGHT then bouces around until you hit the Machine Power button on theGUI.

phillc54 wrote:

snowgoer540 wrote:

I should have been clearer, I meant the bounce spring that it does until you turn the machine on and off (via software) when you run into the soft limit, and somewhat the following error stuffs. Not the bounce of “hunting” for a place to park

Maybe I missed that. So you are saying that if you start the torch from somewhere around the PLASMAC_MAX_HEIGHT then at the end of the cut the torch goes to PLASMAC_MAX_HEIGHT then bouces around until you hit the Machine Power button on theGUI.

No, what started the whole thing was when I would park at the top of travel (Max_height), and then it would cause me following errors on retract and the springy machine reset bounce.

You had told me to try starting about .2” down near Plasmac max height, and that seemingly took care of my problem (And Mud’s).

What I’m trying to understand is why that is the case..

snowgoer540 wrote:

What I’m trying to understand is why that is the case..

I am not 100% sure but my understanding is that it is caused by the Z axis reaching the soft limit while the offset is enabled.
When you start at the MAX_LIMIT then it needs to return there to clear the offset. The offsets are not disabled until the offsets are cleared.
So I guess its kinda the chicken and egg effect.

phillc54 wrote:

snowgoer540 wrote:

What I’m trying to understand is why that is the case..

I am not 100% sure but my understanding is that it is caused by the Z axis reaching the soft limit while the offset is enabled.
When you start at the MAX_LIMIT then it needs to return there to clear the offset. The offsets are not disabled until the offsets are cleared.
So I guess its kinda the chicken and egg effect.

Oh, so in that particular case, the offset does not get cleared at Plasmac Max Height?