qtplasmac 2.10 arc ok, thcad thc, and Thcad Ohmic troubleshooting help needed.

So before starting Ohmic i decided to cut some files....couldnt help myself.....figured i should make sure everything works before going too deep.

THC works, needs some tuning as most of my cutting is north of 220ipm (~5000mm/min) . Does anyone have a good process for this? Most plc's i've used have some auto tuning.....curious if the lcnc variant would work in this application.
www.linuxcnc.org/docs/2.8/html/man/man9/at_pid.9.html

Secondly does anyone know of a way to disable the float switch from stopping the torch when it trips, or at least putting it on a delay? If not I can do it mechanically.....which might be the safe option anyways to prevent tons of overtravel..... I'm trying to figure out if the pid is oscillating or just diving, it's hard to tell as it trips so fast and stops the machine.

rodw wrote:

There may have been some changes. I've attached the latest.
I've tried to compartmentalise it into its own hal file. See my ini contents to see where it is added.
You will need to change some settings in the hal file

[HAL]
TWOPASS = on
HALUI = halui
HALFILE = my_LinuxCNC_machine.hal
HALFILE = ohmic.hal
HALFILE = qtplasmac_comp.hal
HALFILE = custom.hal
POSTGUI_HALFILE = custom_postgui.hal
SHUTDOWN = shutdown.hal

 

Gave this a shot. got the hal file made and the "[code]HALFILE = ohmic.hal" in the ini file. However it throws an error about not finding ohmic3. I changed it to ohmic as that is the component I have installed, but that failed cause of missing functions. Tried to put the file into the folder where the other components are......realized it was a binary..... assume that means i need to build lcnc from scratch? 
Thanks for the help

phillc54 wrote:

jimmyrig wrote:

That was it! Seems like a bug in pnfconfig as I'm pretty sure I selected mode 1. Went ahead and edited it and it still wouldnt change. So for anyone else the place to change it is in the QtPlasmaC.prefs file under gui_options


Glad you got it going. I just checked PNCconf and it seems ok. When you say you edited it did you mean that you edited the .prefs file in the config directory.

I went ahead and tested pnfconfig via a new config, seemed to work fine, not sure why it didnt work before but i cant replicate the bug. ...... prob user error. 

Thanks for checking

jimmyrig wrote:

 
Gave this a shot. got the hal file made and the "[code]HALFILE = ohmic.hal" in the ini file. However it throws an error about not finding ohmic3. I changed it to ohmic as that is the component I have installed, but that failed cause of missing functions. Tried to put the file into the folder where the other components are......realized it was a binary..... assume that means i need to build lcnc from scratch? 
Thanks for the help

[/code]

I also attached ohmic3.comp
You need to install it with halcompile --install ohmic3.comp (sudo if debs are installed)
ohmic.comp still works if you follow the example in man ohmic but ohmic 3 has enhancments and is not in the repos

Thanks for the details, I've been struggling to get the main version to work. Will give that a shot once it is working.


Here is the error I'm running into....copied the values from the manual and adjusted them accordingly. Here is my .hal changes. It crashed saying it cant find debounce. If i comment out the two debounce codes it will open lcnc but not work. I see nothing on ohmic "led" on the ui. However if i open hal show i can see that, when running the probe test, the electronics (encoder values) and "ohmicsense" are working as they change values when touching the material..... However db-probe, ohmic led and plasmac:ohmic input are all null.

So i changed the debounce.0.2 to db_ohmic.in that booted, led works, test omic button works but i have to hold it down when on the material...it doesnt probe like the float test.....hal show does show everything working (db, plasmac, ohmicsense, etc). However when i try to run a test cut i just get a ohmic activated error, even though hal show doesnt say omic is enabled......so that might not have been the way to go but was worth a shot

What am i doing wrong?
Config of the db-ohmic.in is included

 [code]
# --- 7I96 ENCODER 1 SETUP FOR OHMIC SENSING---
setp hm2_7i96.0.encoder.01.counter-mode 1
#setp hm2_7i96.0.encoder.01.filter 1
setp hm2_7i96.0.encoder.01.scale -1

# --- Configure the component ---
setp ohmicsense.thcad-0-volt-freq 141000
setp ohmicsense.thcad-max-volt-freq 967400
setp ohmicsense.thcad-divide 32
setp ohmicsense.thcad-fullscale 5
setp ohmicsense.volt-divider 4.9
setp ohmicsense.ohmic-threshold 22
setp ohmicsense.ohmic-low 2
net ohmic-vel ohmicsense.velocity-in <= hm2_7i96.0.encoder.01.velocity

# --- Replace Plasmac’s Ohmic sensing signal ---

#unlinkp debounce.0.2.in
net ohmic-true ohmicsense.ohmic-on #=> debounce.0.2.in
net plasmac:ohmic-enable => ohmicsense.is-probing
[code]

QTplasmac now uses different pins to what plasmac did which was the config in use when ohmic.comp was written. Consult the documentation.
Ohmic3.comp I shared uses the  current pins But it will need an additional 24k pull down resistor. This hardware and software solution was devised for greater reliability on water tables.
 

Thanks for the pull down doc, will give that a shot, i'm hopeful that will work with my current code.

I did follow the 2.9 plasma primer docs which is where that error came from. Since 2.9 wasnt using the plasmac gui i figured it would be up to date. Doesnt look that way. Also searched the qtplasma docs for additional data but didnt see any. Anywhere else I should look? Still learning where to go in the docs so it wouldnt be surprising if i am missing something. 


linuxcnc.org/docs/2.9/html/plasma/plasma-cnc-primer.html

Whan you run pncconf  to make a QTplasmac config, There should be a field for you ohmic pin. You would use  ohmicsense.ohmic-on

here or edit your hal to use that pin afterwards as it might not let you entere an arbitrary pin name.

rodw wrote:

Whan you run pncconf  to make a QTplasmac config, There should be a field for you ohmic pin. You would use  ohmicsense.ohmic-on

here or edit your hal to use that pin afterwards as it might not let you entere an arbitrary pin name.

Ran through pncconf again and didnt see a field to enter the ohmic pin. I am able to set an input pin to  "ohmic contact"  but didnt see anything else. It would be awesome of pncconf config had the ability to add ohmic to the encoders like it does with arc voltage! 

Alrighty got it working from a software standpoint! Here is the solution for anyone else! The documentation in 2.9 needs updated to unlink the correct pin (db_ohmic)! The table successfully ohmic probes just fine without the touch running. With the torch running is a different story, details in the next post

# --- Configure the component ---
setp ohmicsense.thcad-0-volt-freq 141000
setp ohmicsense.thcad-max-volt-freq 967400
setp ohmicsense.thcad-divide 32
setp ohmicsense.thcad-fullscale 5
setp ohmicsense.volt-divider 4.9
setp ohmicsense.ohmic-threshold 22
setp ohmicsense.ohmic-low 20
net ohmic-vel ohmicsense.velocity-in <= hm2_7i96.0.encoder.01.velocity

# --- Replace Plasmac’s Ohmic sensing signal ---

unlinkp db_ohmic.in
net ohmic-true ohmicsense.ohmic-on => db_ohmic.in
net plasmac:ohmic-enable => ohmicsense.is-probing