galil thc

[battwell]

isteve p. here as well!
i was thinking about this yesterday, wondering if i could add plasma to my "duzzit"
i think it could be done quite easily using the plasma screen set with a few modifications, as just about everything is already there.
the only thing that puts me off doing it to mine is the machine has too high inertia so wouldnt accel/decelerate fast enough for plasma without overshooting position
im going to find some space to put the plasma table back together and do this with an old pc fitted with 1750. il use the voltage divider from toms thc as i have it here.
im sure kenny will help like he has so many times with the galil plugin lately.
im pretty sure the thc could be run easily in a seperate galil thread using the  notify plugin passthrough to send the settings from the screen to the thc thread variables
 

[steve_p]

I don't know why I bother posting on these forums, I might as well just pick up the phone and call you!

Somehow I knew you'd be the one to sort it out.. I've got a nice advantech industrial pc with a 1750 inside, which is the perfect size to fit in my burny cabinet, so get that plasma table out and get cracking! You'll have it finished in a week at your usual rate.

The amount of **** that the plasma produces would make a right mess of your biesse, my table is extracted out through the roof, but if I forget to turn the fan on for a few seconds the smoke is everywhere.. Maybe you should set up your machine outside to alleviate your space problem as well as the fume problem?...

[s_hasbury]

I have recently installed Mach3 + Galil DMC-1830 on a large plasma cutting machine. I was planning to use the CandCNC torch height controller (LCTHC). I purchased the unit without consulting Tom at CandCNC and learned during the installation that it wouldn't work with the Galil board.The Mach3 + Galil combination is excellent. Would it be possible to run a thread(subroutine) on the Galil dedicated to  reading two inputs - the torch up and torch down inputs - to modify the torch position?

Steve Hasbury

[kcrouch]

I'd like to try that, but, if you have a contact at C&CNC, and he would e-mail me at the address in the PDF manual for the Galilplugin, I am willing to try and make it work properly. I don't know anything about their torch height control, but am willing to learn, if they are willing to help me.

Thanks,
Kenny

[steve_p]

I've emailed Tom Caudle about using his THC products with the Galil plugin, but he feels it's too much of a niche to make it worth putting time into. I thought there could be quite a lot of owners of analogue-drive servo machines out there like myself, who would be interested in a Mach solution.

The candcnc THC (MP3000) is embedded into Mach, and Tom doubts whether the communication between the Galil and Mach would be fast enough, or would have too much latency, for real-time control via Mach.

Ive noticed recently that Tom now markets a low cost THC, which seems to me to perform the main tasks required of a THC (filtering and dividing the arc voltage, comparing it to a reference and outputting torch up/down signals). It doesn't appear to me to be embedded into Mach in the same way as the MP3000. Ive been thinking that surely we can use the LCTHC, but send the torch up/down signals to the galil, which then drives the axis. This would be done without mach's knowledge, so effectively would be a standalone THC, with Mach running the X and Y axes only.

Obviously, if one of the galil analog inputs could be used to monitor the arc volts, compare this to the reference voltage on a second analogue input, and get the data record back to Mach fast enough for Mach to drive the Z axis, it would be great, but if it's not feasible then perhaps the above idea might still allow for a low-cost retrofit solution?