Messages

1

SmoothStepper USB / Re: Smooth Stepper and Plasma

« on: October 21, 2010, 01:14:58 PM »

Jeff: I have a delta - delta transformer for running 480 volt equipment, wonder if it would help to power the plasma from it? My shop has 240 - 3 phase. Another thing, the gantry rides on cam followers,  and the Z axis unit rides on Thomson linear bearings with a ball screw ,wonder if grounding it would help?
Jeff Simpkins

2

SmoothStepper USB / Re: Smooth Stepper and Plasma

« on: October 21, 2010, 09:51:15 AM »

Tripleblack: My next step is to set up a touch off probe, right now I'm doing it manually (jog z down until it touches then zero it) Hooked everything back up on PP last night and it works fine. I put a piece of 16 ga expanded in it and cut a 4" square When it finished cutting I found the mouse had quit. Mach still running, everything else ok. Unplugged the mouse, plugged it back in and it came back, tried it again did the same thing. The interupted cut knocks the mouse out every time. Doesn't effect the key board though. I think whatever is doing this is what knocked out the SS. It cuts solid material without any problem. I do have to cut a lot of expanded material and I just want to make shure this isn't hurting anything else. I can cure the mouse problem by going back to a non-usb mouse. That would be a pain to write the g-code to turn the torch off at every opening!! Yes, cutting expanded eats up the torch tips as the electrode is arcing to the tip instead of material. Oh, I was not trying to cut expanded when I was trying the SS, I was cutting 16ga sheet.
Thanks, Jeff Simpkins

3

SmoothStepper USB / Re: Smooth Stepper and Plasma

« on: October 20, 2010, 01:57:49 PM »

Tripleblack & Jeff Birt : My plasma unit is a Thermal Dynamics Cutmaster XL80 and I do belive it uses HF to strike. The thing I don't understand is why it might run 2 small parts and then on the 3rd one it quits. Jeff- I checked the ground rod I drove to tie the plasma to and it had less than 1 1/2 ohms to my existing building ground. I bonded them together and to the table in a star manor. I'm in South Carolina, lucky I didn't get wet driving the ground rod. The water table here is about 3'. I 've got stuff coming today to hook it back up on the paralell ports. I will advise of what happens.
Thanks to all ,Jeff Simpkins

4

SmoothStepper USB / Smooth Stepper and Plasma

« on: October 17, 2010, 09:44:36 AM »

Since my last post got everthing working until I turn on the plasma unit. As soon as the plasma lites the SS looses comunication with the pc and I have to restart mach to establish coms again.  I have been able to cut 1 or 2 small parts and at the end of the cut it will loose coms. I have tried all different grounding and even tried powering the pc and control system from my generator to get a separate power source. Same results. Do I need to go back to parallel port coms or will the SS work with a plasma? How do you eliminate noise from a plasma?
Thanks, Jeff Simpkins

5

SmoothStepper USB / SS-C23 problems

« on: October 12, 2010, 05:43:41 PM »

I"m new to this but here goes. I installed a smooth stepper and a C-23 board in my plasma that I have been building. Loaded everything(driver,plug in etc) when I went to retune the motors there is no change no mater what I set the speed or accel. When I try to jog any axis they might move on direction but stop moving in the other direction. When an axis stops moving I noticed that the output led's go out on the c23 including the charge pump (pin17).  I let go of the jog key and the led's come back on. I have tried all the frequencies on the ss set up with no change. The werd thing is the machine will run a simple G-Code program ( cutting a 6" circle and the roadrunner sample). Where do the jumpers on the SS need to be?  Thanks for any help

jsimpk