Hotwire heat control with mach3

[mark s]

I have a hobby cnc 4AUPCWHC rev4 driver board  with a microchip to control heat on off and heat up down. Will mach work with this?

If not or if someone has a good way to do this with mach please help.

thanks

Mark

[Hood]

Shouldnt be a problem but how its done will depend on how the Heat Up/Down is actually accomplished.
Hood

[Tweakie.CNC]

Mark,

Not many people seem to be using Mach3 for foam cutting so there is not much of an information database. This thread may be of interest to follow http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,15968.0.html

Tweakie.

[mark s]

Hood,
Im not to worryed about the heat up and down I use the same 98% of the time.
 
Tweakie,
I read that post before posting it's all about axis move.

Mark

[Hood]

Switch on and off could be done many ways but the easiest would likely just be a relay and maybe use the spindle  relay output or even the coolant output. Using either of them would just require M3/M5 or M8/M9 in the code for starting/stopping.
How does the heating operate at the moment?
Hood

[mark s]

Right now a manual switch

[Hood]

Ok so how would it work normally? Is it just an on/off with some sort of variable thermostat that is manually set?

Hood

[mark s]

Its a 0 to 35VDC power supply. The power supply has a dial to turn the volts up and down.
Right now I set the volts  turn on the power to the hotwire and then run the cut cycle.
I do not change the voltage very offten. On Off would be nice so it will shut off with code.

I got some input on this he told me  --Hotwire, use spindle out, on modbus or Pokeys for analog control, use any output pin for just straight on/off.

I do not know about modbus or pokeys?
Would this be the same as the spindle on off wireed with a relay setup?
Mark

[Hood]

If its just on/off then yes a relay would be the easiest way and just using the spindle commands (M3/M5) to switch on and off would likely be the simplest, especially if using CAM to generate the code as it will likely insert the M3 and M5 for you. Also using the spindle it will allow you to set a delay if needed for the wire heating up.

Hood

[mark s]

I think I have a relay laying around I will try it in the next day or two.
Thanks
Mark